sensors<\/a> collected nearly 200 profiles of the ocean on a 300km journey spanning the Denman and Shackleton ice shelves.<\/p>\nDuring that time, it disappeared under the ice and survived to send back the first-ever ocean transect beneath an East Antarctic ice shelf.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got lucky,\u201d said oceanographer Dr Steve Rintoul from CSIRO, Australia\u2019s national science agency, partner with the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership at the University of Tasmania.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur intrepid float drifted beneath the ice and spent eight months under the Denman and Shackleton ice shelves, collecting profiles from the seafloor to the base of the ice every five days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese unprecedented observations provide new insights into the vulnerability of the ice shelves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The measurements reveal the Shackleton ice shelf (the most northerly in East Antarctica) is, for now, not exposed to warm water capable of melting it from below, and therefore less vulnerable.<\/p>\n
However, the Denman Glacier, with its potential 1.5m contribution to global sea level rise, is delicately poised: warm water is reaching underneath, and small changes in the thickness of the warm water layer could drive much higher melt rates that lead to unstable retreat.<\/p>\n
The transfer of heat from the ocean to the ice depends on the ocean conditions in the 10m-thick \u2018boundary layer\u2019 immediately below the ice shelf.<\/p>\n
\u201cA great advantage of floats is that they can measure the properties of the boundary layer that control the melt rate,\u201d said Dr Rintoul.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe float measurements will be used to improve how these processes are represented in computer models, reducing the uncertainty in projections of future sea level rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeploying more floats along the Antarctic continental shelf would transform our understanding of the vulnerability of ice shelves to changes in the ocean.<\/p>\n
“This, in turn, would help reduce the largest uncertainty in estimates of future sea level rise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Leader of the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, Professor Delphine Lannuzel, sampled the ocean near the ice shelves during the Denman Marine Voyage earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst the enormity of such a wild region, this is an amazing story of the little float that could,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder incredibly testing conditions, a relatively tiny instrument has delivered us a wealth of invaluable information.\u201d<\/p>\n
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![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/235746.bmp\" "\\"Image:")
Image: Pete Harmsen\/Australian Antarctic Division<\/p>\n