Antarctica’s vast landscape is home to a wealth of meteorite fragments that hold invaluable information about the solar system and various scientific topics. However, global warming has accelerated the process of these fragments sinking into the ice, resulting in the loss of precious research materials.
A team of scientists from various institutions has conducted recent research on this topic and have estimated that by 2050, a significant portion of these fragments will be lost due to global warming’s effects. Furthermore, depending on greenhouse gas emissions, even more losses could occur by the end of the century.
The scientists explain that even when temperatures are well below freezing, meteorites can still warm up in the sun and melt the ice beneath them, causing them to sink into the ice over time. As atmospheric temperatures rise, so does the temperature of the ice surface, which speeds up this process and leads to a faster disappearance rate for meteorite fragments.
To protect these valuable extraterrestrial materials from climate change’s destructive effects, researchers emphasize the need for increased efforts to collect meteorite fragments before they disappear forever. They compare this effort to collecting ice cores before they disappear from glaciers or sampling coral reefs before they bleach – urgent actions that must be taken now to prevent further damage.
