Antarctic meteorites threatened by climate warming

International audience More than 60% of meteorite finds on Earth originate from Antarctica. Using a data-driven analysis that identifies meteorite-rich sites in Antarctica, we show climate warming causes many extraterrestrial rocks to be lost from the surface by melting into the ice sheet. At presen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Climate Change
Main Authors: Tollenaar, Veronica, Zekollari, Harry, Kittel, Christoph, Farinotti, Daniel, Lhermitte, Stef, Debaille, Vinciane, Goderis, Steven, Claeys, Philippe, Joy, Katherine, Helen, Pattyn, Frank
Other Authors: Laboratoire de Glaciologie Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich), Institut Fédéral de Recherches sur la Forêt, la Neige et le Paysage (WSL), Institut Fédéral de Recherches, Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing Delft, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Université de Liège, Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Catholic University of Leuven = Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Vrije Universiteit Brussel Bruxelles (VUB), University of Manchester Manchester, European Project: 869304,PROTECT
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2024
Subjects:
[SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology
[SDU.STU.PL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Planetology
Antarc*
Antarctic
Antarctica
Ice Sheet
Online Access:https://hal.science/hal-04670430
https://hal.science/hal-04670430/document
https://hal.science/hal-04670430/file/s41558-024-01954-y.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01954-y
Description
Summary:International audience More than 60% of meteorite finds on Earth originate from Antarctica. Using a data-driven analysis that identifies meteorite-rich sites in Antarctica, we show climate warming causes many extraterrestrial rocks to be lost from the surface by melting into the ice sheet. At present, approximately 5,000 meteorites become inaccessible per year (versus ~1,000 finds per year) and, independent of the emissions scenario, ~24% will be lost by 2050, potentially rising to ∼76% by 2100 under a high-emissions scenario.

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