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A potential hidden layer of meteorites below the ice surface of Antarctica
| Content Provider | Paperity |
|---|---|
| Author | Coughlan, M. J. Abrahams, I. D. Evatt, G. W. Connolly, P. J. Joy, K. H. Smedley, A. R. D. |
| Abstract | Antarctica contains some of the most productive regions on Earth for collecting meteorites. These small areas of glacial ice are known as meteorite stranding zones, where upward-flowing ice combines with high ablation rates to concentrate large numbers of englacially transported meteorites onto their surface. However, meteorite collection data shows that iron and stony-iron meteorites are significantly under-represented from these regions as compared with all other sites on Earth. Here we explain how this discrepancy may be due to englacial solar warming, whereby meteorites a few tens of centimetres below the ice surface can be warmed up enough to cause melting of their surrounding ice and sink downwards. We show that meteorites with a high-enough thermal conductivity (for example, iron meteorites) can sink at a rate sufficient to offset the total annual upward ice transport, which may therefore permanently trap them below the ice surface and explain their absence from collection data. |
| File Format | HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1038/ncomms10679 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume Number | 7 |
| e-ISSN | 20411723 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| Publisher Date | 2016-02-16 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
