Scientists have discovered vibrant communities of ancient sponges and corals on the newly exposed seafloor following the calving of the giant A-84 iceberg.
Scientists have discovered vibrant communities of ancient sponges and corals on the newly exposed seafloor following the calving of the giant A-84 iceberg. This offers new insights into how ecosystems function beneath ice shelves
An international team on board Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too) working in the Bellingshausen Sea rapidly changed their research plans to study an area that was, until recently, covered by ice. On 13 January, an iceberg named A-84, which is the size of Chicago, broke away from the George VI Ice Shelf, one of the massive floating ice shelves attached to the Antarctic Peninsula.
The team reached the newly exposed seafloor on 25 January and became the first to investigate an area that had never before been accessible to humans. The expedition was the first detailed, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary study of the geology, physical oceanography, and biology beneath such a large area once covered by a floating ice shelf. The ice that calved was 510 square kilometres (209 square miles), revealing an equivalent area of seafloor.
Read More: British Antarctic Survey
Long gravity core collected during the expedition. From left to right: Dr Aleksandr Montelli, Dr Cristian Rodrigo, Dr Eugenio Veloso, Dr Svetlana Radionovskaya, Rachel Timbs. (Photo Credit: RV Falkor)
