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C of thousands of pristine meteorites are presently litter across , or just below , Antarctica ’s icy surface . But most of these space rocks could be fall back forever over the next few decade as they sink further into the ice due to rise temperatures , a new bailiwick propose .
That mean we need to pace up our endeavour to find them before they go away for good , the study authors argue .
A new study suggests there are up to 850,000 meteorites on, or just below, Antarctica’s icy surface.
Antarcticahas been bombarded by meteorite for millions of years . Most of these blank rocks have already sunk late into the ice , never to be seen again . However , in sealed parts of the continent , known as " blue ice areas , " immobilize meteorites are free from their arctic prison house as wind and sun strip aside the top layers of frozen body of water . Some of these meteorites may have been trapped there for tens of K of years .
Antarctica ’s blue internal-combustion engine surface area are , therefore , some of the best lieu in the world to trace for meteorites . There are about 600 of these areas in Antarctica , which cover around 1 % of the continent ’s surface arena .
Around 50,000 meteorites have already been found in Antarctica , which is around 60 % of known meteorite ever collected worldwide . Most of these place careen are less than an in in diam but some are much more monumental . For example , in January 2023 , research worker discovered anAntarctic meteorite librate a whopping 17 pounds ( 7.7 kilograms ) — one of the heaviest space rock ever found on the continent .
Most meteorites found in Antarctica are small but are still extremely valuable to scientists.
Regardless of their size , analyzing these quad rocks canhelp investigator uncover secret about the extraction and evolution of the solar organization . Antarctic meteorites are particularly useful to scientists because they are well preserved in the ice . Most meteorites that land in other regionsquickly become contaminated by mineral , microbe or citizenry after they hit the ground .
Related : How many meteorites hit Earth every yr ?
However , just because these meteorites lie at the surface does n’t think of they stay there forever . Due to their drear color , the space rocks pluck up sunlight , which heats them up . ordinarily , this would n’t be a problem . But at high surface air temperatures , this warming may melt the border ice and do meteorite to sink below the surface .
Researchers warn that time may be running out to collect meteorites before they disappear.
In the past tense , this thawing would have been very rare . But with rising global temperature due to human - causedclimate variety , meteorite are sinking much more often than before .
In the fresh discipline , published April 8 in the journalNature Climate Change , research worker used simple machine encyclopaedism — a form of artificial intelligence — to predict how many meteorites could be lost as a issue of global heating .
The squad ’s manakin estimates that there are likely up to 850,000 meteorites on or near the surface of dark ice areas in Antarctica .
At current temperatures , the researcher distrust that as many as 5,000 south-polar meteorite are already sink out of reach every class . Meanwhile , researcher find fewer than 1,000 meteorites across the continent every year , the squad noted .
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As temperatures increase further in the get along decades more meteorites will start to sink . Without any further thaw , close to a quarter of meteorites could be lost by the end of the century , researchers write . But in the most uttermost warming scenarios , three - quarters could be lost , they tot .
As further warming is guaranteed unless we straightaway stop produce greenhouse gases , fourth dimension is therefore run out to trump up these space rocks and " preserve the information that each additional sample contains , " the investigator wrote .
