A huge Antarctic lake has vanished mysteriously

Recently, an interesting and mysterious event was observed by international researchers. A huge icy Antarctic lake called Amery Ice Shelf located in East Antarctica has suddenly disappeared into the ocean. Researchers observed before and after events through satellite images. As per these images, scientists said that during the 2019 Antarctic winter, about 600-750 cubic meters of water disappeared into the ocean. And now the whole lake vanished in such a short period is very mysterious.

On Friday, the researchers published the whole study in Geophysical Research letters.

What are the explanations for the sudden disappearance of the Antarctic lake?

So, how did this huge Antarctic lake disappear? Here is the explanation that is given by scientists. According to scientists, a hydrofracture phenomenon is responsible for this uncertain draining of water to the ocean.

“We believe that the weight of water accumulated in this deep lake opened up a narrow crack in the ice shelf under the lake and a process called hydrofracture occurs,” said lead author Roland Warner, a glaciologist with the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership at the University of Tasmania.

So, scientists believe that the weight of the increasing mass of water squeezed down onto the ice, causing a fracture and permitting.

Reasons that contradict this explanation

Amery Ice Shelf is the third largest lake in Antarctica, with areas up to 1,800 meters thick. The lake is at the top of the Amery Ice Shelf, a place where the ice is more than 1400 meters thick.

According to scientists, it is uncertain that the huge ice lake vanishes because of the hydrofracture phenomenon. Scientists can’t believe that this happens in such a high ice depth. Till now the curtain has not been lifted from this mysterious vanishing of the Antarctic lake.

That’s why now the researchers have decided to use the information obtained from advanced satellites (ICESat-2) to further understand the degradation of an ice shelf in Antarctica.

“Since the surface meltwater on ice shelves can cause them to collapse and that eventually leads to sea-level rise when stranded ice is no longer retained, it is important to the processes that weaken the ice shelves,” said co-author Helen Amanda Fricker, a glaciologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Impact of climate changes

However, scientists can’t conclude that climate change is responsible for this sudden disappearance. The Antarctic ice cap is not an ordinary place.

Although it is observed in the past few decades, as the global temperature rises the ice shelves and glaciers have experienced more melting and lead to an increase in the phenomenon of hydrofracturing. 

So, we will see more Antarctic lakes disappear in the future. Such strange and mysterious incidents indicate that in the future it may cause our destruction as the result of climate change.