UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Antarctica’s next deep ice core, drilling down to ice from 130,000 years ago, will be carried out by a multi-institutional U.S. team at Hercules Dome, a location hundreds of miles from today’s coastline and a promising site to provide key evidence about the possible last collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The National Science Foundation has funded the roughly five-year, $3 million project involving the University of Washington, the University of New Hampshire, the University of California, Irvine and the University of Minnesota. Work has been delayed by the novel coronavirus, but drilling the 1.5-mile ice core likely will begin in 2024.
“The ice at this site goes back to a time when sea level was about 6 meters (20 feet) higher than it is now,” said project leader Eric Steig, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. “One of the most likely reasons that sea level was higher is that a large area of Antarctic, known as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, was gone.”
Scientists hope to understand the most recent collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in order to better gauge its potential risk in today’s warming climate. Deeper ice layers at this site reach back to Eemian times — the most recent period that, like now, was between ice ages. The Eemian was even warmer than today’s climate and oceans were higher.
“This location, which is now hundreds of miles from the ocean, may have been waterfront property 125,000 years ago,” Steig said. “We should be able to determine this from the chemistry of the ice — for example, the salt concentration may be higher if there was open water nearby, instead of more than a thousand miles away. Understanding that event will help guide our understanding of how quickly sea level may rise in the future due to ongoing anthropogenic climate change.”
The Hercules Dome site, remote even by Antarctic standards, lies near a mountain range that divides East and West Antarctica. UW researchers visited the site in early 2020 to survey potential locations for drilling. They used ice-penetrating radar to find places where the layers of ice are uninterrupted back more than 125,000 years, when oceans rose dramatically.
Ice and air bubbles trapped in the ice layers can provide researchers with various information about past conditions The most recent deep ice core in Antarctica was completed in 2016 at the South Pole by many of the same team members.
“The Hercules Dome ice core will be the first U.S. ice core with the potential to yield a detailed climate record during the last interglacial period,” said principal investigator Murat Aydin at the University of California, Irvine.
The project will begin with online workshops over the next year to seek new collaborators and work to broaden participation in polar science. The initial investment by the National Science Foundation covers the costs of the drilling project, but over the next few years, many more scientists can seek additional funding to analyze the core. The delays caused by the pandemic offer more time to try to bring new people into the discipline.
“Earth sciences is known for being particularly white and male, and polar Earth sciences is even more that way,” Steig said. “It’s well established that having a more diverse community leads to better outcomes — that is, we’ll do better science with more kinds of people involved. But also it’s the right thing to do. Anyone who is interested in being involved in this science should have the opportunity to do it.”
The University of New Hampshire will provide logistics and science support planning for the field project. Researchers will live in tents on the ice sheet hundreds of miles from any inhabited areas for the months-long field seasons.
“Our planning will detail, for example, how we will get ourselves and all of the required science cargo and camp materials to Hercules Dome, likely through a combination of overland traverse and aircraft support; specifics on the field camp, such as camp population, camp structures and layout, power and fuel requirements, camp equipment; and the fieldwork schedule,” said Joe Souney, research project manager at the University of New Hampshire.
The project has plans to coordinate with artists, computer scientists, media outlets, educational organizations and museums to share the effort and the science of climate change.
Heidi Roop, a climate scientist at the University of Minnesota, will lead the engagement programming and will work to connect the science through this project to different audiences including those who are actively planning and preparing for the impacts sea level rise — from coastal planners and water utility engineers to homeowners and elected officials.
“This is the first U.S. deep ice core drilling project with a lead researcher dedicated to the integration of community engagement and communication across the full lifespan of the project,” Roop said. “With this investment by NSF, we are confident we can more effectively connect this science to action.”
###
That spokesperson sounds like Eric Steig, who around year 2010 was on the receiving end of several posts by Steve McIntyre ar Climate Audit blog and a rebuttal paper by Ryan O’Donnell, Nicholas Lewis, Steve McIntyre and Jeff Condon (“the Air Vent” Jeff Id).
https://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/doing-it-ourselves/
https://climateaudit.org/2010/12/02/odonnell-et-al-2010-refutes-steig-et-al-2009/
Interesting that the NSF will fund an attempt to establish that “sea level 6 meters higher than today” is a normal variance in global climate and the cm changes being argued about now is normal and trivial. I see the team will work during “months-long field season.” This is smart of them as the general Antarctica temperature varies from -30 C during summer (December to February in the southern hemisphere, to -60 C during winter (June-July-August in the southern hemisphere). It will be a while before we see these results, but will be interesting.
“Researchers will live in tents on the ice sheet hundreds of miles from any inhabited areas for the months-long field seasons.”
Thanking my lucky stars I’m a white male and need not apply.
I could write the conclusions for them though from the warmth of my home office. In fact, I could save them the bother of even going there and write them next week if I have some time. I’ll use griff as a consultant.
philincalifornia, “white male” now is “white silence is violence”. I’m presuming you will not be violent with griff when you use him?
Quite the contrary, I’ll respect his right to misery as I will need to inject quite a bit of that into our conclusions – modeled future misery that is because, as a Michael Palin character once said (paraphrasing Dumas, I believe) – “Only through misery can we find true contentment”.
Nothing like a barren snow covered ice sheet to remind to remind them of their white privilege.
Yep, the way it is written, it certainly seems they have pre-concluded their findings.
“Earth sciences is known for being particularly white and male, and polar Earth sciences is even more that way,” Steig said.
Racist and sexist statement – but that’s OK!!
No it’s not OK, it’s a complete load of woke CARP infecting what should be a serious scientific voyage of discovery.
Apart from all the nonsense about bringing in “artists” and fostering “community engagement”, the follow-up comment to the one you mention KAT simply made me gasp – “It’s well established that having a more diverse community leads to better outcomes — that is, we’ll do better science with more kinds of people involved.” When did race, class etc in themselves make a scientist more analytical or productive in some way or other? That’s not what science is about, never was! We are not living in Georgian and early-mid Victorian times when only the wealthy had ready access to scientific education and discovery and people like Mary Anning were rare exceptions. We have moved on somewhat in the intervening 150++ years. This whole project is may be doomed scientifically before it has begun and you can be sure the results will be heavily biased to follow the AGW narrative. What utter nonsense!
Connecting “science to action” is most concerning. Methinks the “action” has already been devised.
Given all the gobbledygook, and given Steig’s scientifically-checkered past, I don’t think the results can be trusted.
“It’s well established that having a more diverse community leads to better outcomes” —Once had a good student allergic to wool, our field station blankets gave him a fit. Difficult for him. Proved that we needed more researchers allergic to wool. Diversity now has nothing to do with science, once meant among and within the four basic sciences.
that is, we’ll do better science with more kinds of people involved.
I would suppose that skeptics, err I mean climate deniers aren’t going to be included in that diverse group of scientists.
Their kind of “diversity” is only skin deep.
“…how we will get ourselves and all of the required science cargo and camp materials to Hercules Dome, likely through a combination of overland traverse and aircraft support…”
No kidding! “…aircraft and overland…” Who knew? What else were they planning on using?
More taxpayer money down the drain.
Hopefully this whole mission is not using any fossil fuel, only wind (solar would be useless).
…”Hopefully this whole mission is not using any fossil fuel, only wind (solar would be useless).”
Got that right Lance! That Katabatic wind should produce plenty of power, if it does’t blow the windmills over. ‘Corse they’d need plenty of ethylene glycol for de-icing the blades and maybe de-icing boots on the blades to boot!
Cheers
Mike
In summer there is quite a lot of sun inland. Snowblindness can be quite a problem. In winter – nada.
Wind – it depends a lot on the locality. Some areas have mostly calm or moderate winds. Other areas have almost constant catabatic winds, like Adelie land “the Home of the Blizzard” where the average wind is about 35-40 knots. One of the extremely few places in the world where wind is a reliable power source.
They could have gotten that data 10 years ago from the WAIS Divide core. However they deliberately did not:
“The drilling of the ice core ceased 50 meters (164 feet) above the contact between the ice and the underlying rock, to avoid contaminating a possible water layer at the ice-rock contact. The basal water system may consist of water-saturated, ground-up rock, and has not been exposed to the earth’s surface for millions of years. It may harbor a unique and pristine biological environment that the U.S. scientific community does not wish to contaminate.”
(https://www.waisdivide.unh.edu/)
Note that this is in the area where the WAIS is supposed to have collapsed and been replaced by ocean just 100,000 years ago.
I think the drilling was really stopped by the risk of finding ice from the last interglacial, which in the WAIS divide area would have killed the collapse theory deader than Methuselah.
The Hercules dome is safer, it is in an area which would not have been flooded by a WAIS collapse, there will only be indirect evidence of a collapse, so any undesirable results can easily be adjusted to fit the Party Line.
This has already been done for last interglacial ice found in a blue-ice area at Moulton Icefield in West Antarctica. It showed temperatures and climate virtually identical to present-day conditions. This was gotten around by a modelling exercise (by Eric Steig, no less) that found that West Antarctica changing from a huge icecap to an archipelago in the Southern Ocean would not change the climate there, while East Antarctica, on the other hand, would become appreciably warmer (https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2015GL063861).
So I have no doubt that whatever is found in the new core, it will be worse than we thought.
Incidentally those 6-7-8-9 meters of sea level rise during the Eemian is a factoid. The best data from the most stable far-field areas like the Gawler Craton and the Coorong are more like 3-4 meters.
How deep is “deep” if I may ask?
Which part of “1.5-mile ice core” did you miss when reading? … That is 2400m for metric peeps.
Might not be deep to some but it’s around the depth of the top 20 mine depths so calling it deep is probably appropriate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deepest_mines
Reading this article with so much “woke”, trigger and weasel language leaves me with the impressions that this is another episode, albeit exotic, of Occupy Wall Street or CHAZ.
There are so many unsubstantiated presuppositions offered that this seems more like a Instagram Safari for embellishing one’s vanity.
I’m so glad that there is so much room in the federal budget to afford these frivolous things.
I thought it was amusing. I personally think they missed the grants and opportunities for lgbtqia, disabled and first nations people to get involved and have significant rolls as those are also sadly under represented in the field.
First nations people from Antarctica? Some people will have to identify as such I guess!
Yep, soon we will have FN there too, and I won’t be surprised.
Party on, dudes!
So living in a tent on an ice field hundreds of miles from anywhere is the conditions expected.
They aren’t exactly selling the case for being there very well are they?
As for the need to magnify the diversity priority of the activity, does anyone know what science was improved by diversity rather than intelligent study by whoever is doing the work?
Just curious.
Sounds like people will be signing up in droves for that paradise.
Haven’t they heard of igloos? Much more protection from the wind.
So, there is such a thing as woke pollution.
Steig is the leader of this, an all-in Climate Wroughter who was taken down for his pink, hot anomaly that covered all of Antarctica, based on a sparse and terminally useless distribution of weather stations – weighted by coastal and West Antarctic stations smeared across millions of square miles of data-free terrane. Imagine doing one of these for the US using stations mainly along the coasts with one in Missouri.
The diversity perversity is obviously a cynical crutch for Steig’s second chance after his ridiculous first stillborn effort at science in Antarctica left him quiet for a decade. Making it an affirmative action project and throwing in butchers, bakers and candlestick makers in as well he thinks that no one would dare reject or criticize his scientific ‘inclusuve’ paper this time.
Turney of the Australian “Ship of Fools” debacle, thinking global warming would make the trip fun, put friends, family, journalists, ship’s crew and tourists in extreme peril in Antarctic ice bound waters that required icebreakers and helicopters to rescue them. He’s been quiet for a decade. Maybe this resurrection can be his too, although he is white.
He wasn’t totally quiet. I’m sure I saw his name on some publications, including one with the Scientific Fraud-in-Chief.
After therapy and a consolation award from the Arc Centre for Climate Wroughting Down Under, I recall he talked in an interview that he broke into tears when he saw hundreds of frozen Adelie penguin chicks on his trip. It turned out that this ghastly scene had been reported on previously and that a study found they were over 300years old and in the nesting grounds its normal for such losses ! No predators to clean up. There must be layers of these in ice going back thousands of years.
Didn’t Glieck who committed interstate mail fruad in his Heartland Institute identity theft and forgery get a prestigious award and a position as Ethics Chief for the Climate Wroughters Union.
Is it any wonder that these guys belong to the same party as the Election Wroughters.
They don’t have to worry about polar bears thank goodness.. just the giant carnivorous penguins. They will sneak into your tent at night and eat one of your arms or legs off. Also with the ozone gone, they need to take plenty of sunscreen.
Also good dark goggles. Snowblindness is most unpleasant.
And the penguins are quite cute really. Not that there are any inland. I don’t think there is any chance for even snow petrels or skuas at Hercules Dome, though those two species can occur quite far from the coast.
Here is a chance to have “indigenous peoples” help, and soak the rich at the same time. what a worthy goal!
Having actually visited Antarctica, even if only the Antarctic Peninsula, I have a suspicion they will not easily find any members of the woke community eager to spend a few months in Central Antarctica.
I have some Arctic experience and had visualized Antarctica as rather like Greenland or Spitzbergen, though a bit more extreme. It is a lot more extreme.
tty, over the years, here, you have shown that you excel in the use of facts and logic.
Those in the “woke” cult, not so much.
Just as the bulk of the EV and hybrid vehicle and solar and wind suckers, I mean buyers (no I didn’t — Ha!), do, the climate cult member “scientists” ask themselves only:
Q: Will it make me look holy? Will OPM fund me?
(a rough sketch of code in their circuits, no variable initializing, etc., shown)
IF
holy = TRUE
AND money >= whatiwant
THEN
REPEAT:
PRINT “Findings prove human CO2 causes global warming. Fund our solar, wind, electric vehicle, carbon storage, temperature datasets, and scuba diving in gorgeous seas.
Inclusive.
Diversity.
Justice.
Organic.
Sustainable.
Investment.”
clock1 = machineclock + 86,400 seconds;
PAUSE WHILE machineclock < clock1;
clock1 = machineclock;
UNTIL money < whatiwant.
ELSE
IGNORE.
Yeah. The code/syntax their brains use is a bit "off." Heh.
I’m not so sure about that. That’s a group that tends to have very little, if any, connection with reality. They’ll probably see it as a “free camping trip”. I feel for the responsible adults who will have to rescue them.
Two observations.
First.The Eemian highstand was indeed about 6 meters higher than sea level today. But it took about 3000 years to reach and about 4000 years to recede. That is a rate of sea level rise of about 2mm/year, much like now. Nothing abrupt, no WAIS collapse. Just melting. See Kopp et.al. in Nature 463: 863-867 (2009).
Second, the only evidence for ‘sudden’ is O’Leary in Nature Geoscience, online 7/28/2013. Unfortunately, as explained in essay ‘One if by sea, two if by land’, the paper comprises clear and deliberate scientific misconduct because of his Quobba Ridge deception.
So the outcome for Steig will be no collapse. Just a waste of time and money.
That paper by Kopp is quite worthless, though much quoted.
About half of the sites in their “database” are useless for one reason or another. At least one isn’t even from MIS 5e. And despite a lot of waffling about how they obtain it they never explicitly show the Posterior Probability they are using, which is of course inexcusable when using Bayesian statistics. And the relative ice volumes they use for the Eurasian and Laurentide ice sheets are way off for MIS 6 which invalidates their isostatic corrections.
And so on
So, tty, prove your assertions based on the cited paper SI. You disagree, prove it rather than just assert it. Bring it on, please, because that paper’s citation index included much previous stuff following the same analysis.
OK Lets take the ”database” first
The following sites have been covered by the Eurasian or Laurentide icecaps since the Eemian, they have been depressed by many tens to several hundred meters and have since (partially) rebounded. Their current level can only be related to their Eemian levels if the glaciation history and rebound rates are accurately known for each specific site. Which they are not:
Cape George . Nova Scotia
Broggerhalvoya . Western Spitsbergen
Prins Karls Forland . Western Spitsbergen . Unit A
Unit A – 0 . Scoresby Sund
Unit A – 2 . Scoresby Sund
Unit A – 3 . Scoresby Sund
Cape Ross . Southern Victoria Land
The following sites lie in the “forebulge” zones of the Eurasian or Laurentide icecaps. The same as above applies, though the vertical movement is less, tens rather than hundreds of meters and opposite in direction.
Mark Clark . SC
Grape Bay
Portland East
Pagham
Bristol Channel
Belle Hogue Cave . Jersey
Port-Racine Beach
Boring 2 . Southern North Sea
Amsterdam . Netherlands
Amersfoort . Netherlands
Scharnegoutum . Netherlands
Petten . Netherlands
The following sites lie in known tectonically unstable areas, where vertical movement is not known with any accuracy.
T-5b . west of South Point . Barbados
T-5a . west of South Point . Barbados
T-4 . west of South Point . Barbados
T-3 . west of South Point . Barbados
T-2 . west of South Point . Barbados
T-1b . west of South Point . Barbados
T-1a2 . west of South Point . Barbados
T-1a1 . west of South Point . Barbados
Camarones . Patagonia
The following site is claimed to be tectonically stable, but isn’t, since Eemian beach deposits on neighboring islands (also claimed to be “stable”) is at other levels
La Digue Island . Seychelles
The following site is not of Eemian age according to recent Russian research. It is probably from MIS 5a
Krasny Flag and Nashok river valleys . Wrangel Island
That is 30 of 105 sites, and I have only listed the most glaringly problematic. Of course not all sites are bad. Most of the South African and Australian sites are good, one (Eyre peninsula) is one of the best in the World since it shows a constant Eemian sea-level over a 500 km length of shoreline, and such large areas, as far as known, never move as a single block. N. B. The Eemian sea-level there is slightly more than 2 meters.
As for the Prior used for the analysis I have been unable to find it explicitly stated/figured either in the paper or the Supplementary data, and of course any Bayesian analysis with an undeclared prior is essentially worthless.
As You say: “that paper’s citation index included much previous stuff following the same analysis”. And that is why I want to see the prior. Without it, it is impossible to know whether their analysis really contributed anything new, or is just a rehash of the “Party Line”, hockeystick style.
When it comes to the relative sizes of the Eurasian/Laurentide ice-sheet during MIS 6 their Supplementary Figure S2 shows that they have calculated with a Laurentide Sheet of 80 meters sea-level equivalent and a Eurasian Sheet of less than 20 meters sea-level equivalent. This is essentially the same as for MIS 2, but completely wrong for MIS 6 when the Eurasian Ice-sheet was vastly larger, both in Europe and – even more so – in Northern Asia. Furthermore an enormous ice-dammed lake covered most of Western Siberia, which had no counterpart in MIS 2/4. However both D18O data and sea-level data from the Red Sea shows that the total ice volume in MIS 6 was slightly smaller than in MIS 2, which means that the Laurentide ice-sheet must have been much smaller during MIS 6 (Illinoian) than during MIS 2 (Wisconsinan), probably more like the Wisconsinan sheet 10,000-12,000 years ago. This also agrees with the virtual absence of Illinoian end-moraines (except in Illinois!). They have mostly been destroyed by the Wisconsinan ice.
Rud Istvan: “3000 years to reach and about 4000 years to recede. That is a rate of sea level rise of about 2mm/year”
WR: The last ice to melt is found at the highest latitudes and at the coldest places. The highest latitudes are the latitudes with the smallest surface areas. For every next degree of temperature rise there is less ice to melt.
At this moment every year there is still about 2.8 million square kilometre of summer sea ice left on the seas around Antarctica . Being at the lowest latitudes and at the lowest elevations this would be the first ice to melt at the warmest moments of the year. But the minimum quantity of summer Antarctic sea ice is not only very stable but also shows a tendency to rise over recent decades:
1980’s: 2.83 million km2
1990’s: 2.80 million km2
2000’s: 3.04 million km2
2010’s: 2.91 million km2
Still a long way to go for a collapse …..
https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/vishop/#/extent
“This location, which is now hundreds of miles from the ocean, may have been waterfront property 125,000 years ago,”
What’s the elevation of the rock layer beneath this ice.
I find it hard to believe that a 6 foot increase in sea level would move the coastline that far inland.
The ice in West Antactica lies largely below sea level. If it melts (or rather calves) the coast would indeed come close to Hercules dome.
Including isostatic rebound of hundreds of meters?
6 meters, not 6 foot
““It’s well established that having a more diverse community leads to better outcomes”
Well established by who?
I’ve always found that you get the best results by having the best people”
Concentrating on race and gender first, has never resulted in good results.
Well established by FEELZ
Steig said. “It’s well established that having a more diverse community leads to better outcomes — that is, we’ll do better science with more kinds of people involved.”
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Dr King then went on to add “except if you’re possibly thinking of working in the future with Eric Steig, in which case the colour of your skin will be of primary importance”.
“The project has plans to coordinate with artists, computer scientists, media outlets, educational organizations and museums to share the effort and the science of climate change.”
Reminds of another religious-carnival like pilgrimage. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Each pilgrim had to tell tales. Climate change is the ultimate fairy tale, so they’ll have a grandtime with a woke crowd of artists and LGBTQXYZ pilgrims from their Gender Studies departments on the expedition taking up tent space and logistics.
Oh yeah!!
https://en.mercopress.com/2020/11/19/south-georgia-the-south-sandwich-islands-celebrates-inaugural-polar-pride-day
Quote – “We started Pride in Polar Research two years ago when an early career researcher reached out seeking solutions to the isolation and discrimination they faced.”
Scientists, jeez so homophobic, lighten up you guys.
I can see the problem. Research vessels and Arctic Research Camps tend to be rather small, so it is probably difficult to find space for all genders nowadays.
Joel, reminds me more of Dr. Strangelove:
GENERAL TURGIDSON Doctor, you mentioned the ration of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn’t that necessitate the abandonment of the so called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
DR. STRANGELOVE Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious… service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
COMRADE DESADESKI I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
Frank,
Dr Strangelove still ranbks as my favourite mvie ever, with plenty to find and enjoy in viewing after viewing.
“The Mountains of Madness” sequel?
If only. It would give them some much-needed perspective.
Anyone who is interested in being involved in this science should have the opportunity to do it.
As long as you agree with the predetermined outcomes.
I can see the problem. Most polar research vessels and stations are fairly small. Not easy to find space for all sexes these days.
“The project has plans to coordinate with artists, computer scientists, media outlets, educational organizations and museums to share the effort and the science of climate change.”
Word is, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice have signed up, so we can look forward to “It’s Worse Than We Thought”, The Musical
I get the feeling they have decided what the outcome will be
I predict their conclusion will be something along the line of….
IT’S MUCH WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT!!!!!!!!!
“Heidi Roop … will work to connect the science through this project to different audiences including those who are actively planning and preparing for the impacts sea level rise — from coastal planners and water utility engineers to homeowners and elected officials.”
Heidi needs to be sure to connect with Barack Obama and Bill Gates too. They both recently spent over $10 million buying seafront homes.
Press release: Heidi Roop, Chief Propagandist, …
QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: ““This location, which is now hundreds of miles from the ocean, may have been waterfront property 125,000 years ago,” Steig said.”
Steig thinks that the bedrock at about 85 degrees South and about 100 degrees West would have been “waterfront” from a sea 6 meters higher than today? This spot is over 1000 km (according to the map) from the nearest coastline, which would imply a slope of about 6 x 10^(-6), or 6 ppm, of the intervening land. The Eemian Great Plains of West Antarctica!
It’s possible. Most of the land in West Antarctica is below sea level, the ice makes it look higher. Here’s what Antarctica looks like without ice:
https://www.coolantarctica.com/gallery/scenic/views_of_antarctica.php
Short and to the point. Nice post PCman.
“The project has plans to coordinate with artists, …to share the effort and the science of climate change.”
I wonder, what does it take to be a qualified artist for this project? It seems to me that truly talented artists would keep away from this nonsense. Those artists requiring a constant stream of taxpayer funding probably have very little artistic talent, but do have a solid skill for filling out funding applications.
I think the opposite. I’m pretty sure most artists of all levels of competence buy into the phony premise and will be happy to scare a lot of kids for the cause.
isostatic rebound might play a hand in the results.
Let’s hope they don’t hit a space vehicle buried in the ice with a creature trapped nearby and that they don’t thaw it out!