The giant Antarctic underwater landslides were caused by climate change. Reported by the University of Plymouth.
The landslides were first discovered in the eastern Ross Sea in 2017 by an international team of scientists during the Italian ODYSSEA expedition. The scientists visited the same site a year later to collect sediment cores for analysis.
“The main goal of our IODP drilling project in 2018 was to understand how the warming climate and oceans have affected the melting of the Antarctic ice sheets in the past, in order to understand how it will respond in the future. However, as scientists mapped the massive cliffs and landslides, it was a real eye-opener for us to see how the past climate changes we studied by drilling were directly related to underwater landslides of this size. We did not expect to see this and the danger associated with them, which certainly requires further study,” said Professor Rob McKay. Underwater landslides are very dangerous as they can create tsunamis or damage underwater cables.
Analysis of the cores made it possible to reconstruct the ancient climate of this region of Antarctica. Judging by the activity of ancient microorganisms, these landslides were caused by glacioisostatic restructuring (land change with a change in large ice cover), which led to the destruction of previously weakened rock layers. Changes in ice cover have also resulted from climate change. Continued climate warming and ice retreat may increase regional glacial isostatic seismicity, resulting in new underwater landslides in Antarctica.
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