IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms10679.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A potential hidden layer of meteorites below the ice surface of Antarctica

Author

Listed:
  • G. W. Evatt

    (School of Mathematics, University of Manchester)

  • M. J. Coughlan

    (School of Mathematics, University of Manchester)

  • K. H. Joy

    (The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester)

  • A. R. D. Smedley

    (Centre for Atmospheric Science, The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester)

  • P. J. Connolly

    (Centre for Atmospheric Science, The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester)

  • I. D. Abrahams

    (School of Mathematics, University of Manchester)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • G. W. Evatt & M. J. Coughlan & K. H. Joy & A. R. D. Smedley & P. J. Connolly & I. D. Abrahams, 2016. "A potential hidden layer of meteorites below the ice surface of Antarctica," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10679
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10679
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10679
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms10679?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10679. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.