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A Giant, Mysterious Hole Has Opened Up In Antarctica (vice.com)

Scientists are perplexed over a giant hole that has opened up in Antarctica. According to Motherboard, the "gigantic, mysterious hole" is as large as Lake Superior or the state of Maine. From the report: The gigantic, mysterious hole "is quite remarkable," atmospheric physicist Kent Moore, a professor at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus, told me over the phone. "It looks like you just punched a hole in the ice." Areas of open water surrounded by sea ice, such as this one, are known as polynyas. They form in coastal regions of Antarctica, Moore told me. What's strange here, though, is that this polynya is "deep in the ice pack," he said, and must have formed through other processes that aren't understood. "This is hundreds of kilometers from the ice edge. If we didn't have a satellite, we wouldn't know it was there." (It measured 80,000 km^2 at its peak.) "This is now the second year in a row it's opened after 40 years of not being there," Moore said. (It opened around September 9.) "We're still trying to figure out what's going on."

41 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Water currents. by Z00L00K · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's most likely water currents causing this phenomenon. Unless there's a volcano that's erupting, but that would be detected seismologically.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    1. Re:Water currents. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Underwater volcanism is my first guess. There is probably a convective current starting from the heated area at sea floor beneath the hole. The heat source was probably always there, but now the temperature of sea water has risen enough that with additional heating it is enough to melt the ice.

    2. Re: Water currents. by rmdingler · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't be silly. It's not completely unreasonable that one of the research scientists posted this story to tap the unparalleled hive mind at /..

      "...gigantic, mysterious hole" is as large as Lake Superior or the state of Maine.

      Clearly, the real story here is that Lake Superior and the State of Maine are interchangeable units of measuring area. Who Knew?

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    3. Re:Water currents. by sheramil · · Score: 2

      My guess is it's a promotional stunt for the film "Iron Sky 2: The Coming Age", that got out of hand.

    4. Re:Water currents. by lucm · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's most likely water currents causing this phenomenon.

      You should email the atmospheric physicist quoted in the article and let him know.

      https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/cp...

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    5. Re: Water currents. by Maritz · · Score: 2

      Scientists don't know what's going on BUT THIS GUY DOES! If only the researchers only read TFS before pontificating we would solve all the mysteries of the universe.

      If you knew what the word 'guess' meant, you wouldn't have had to embarrass yourself like that. You should look up 'probably' as well.

      Dumbass.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    6. Re:Water currents. by houghi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, that was easy. I wonder if the scientists already contacted you to solve other problems.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    7. Re: Water currents. by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      It depends if you are an east coast or a mid west type of person.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    8. Re:Water currents. by hey! · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's like saying the bug in this software is probably due to a subroutine.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    9. Re:Water currents. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Informative

      Underwater volcanism is my first guess. There is probably a convective current starting from the heated area at sea floor beneath the hole. The heat source was probably always there, but now the temperature of sea water has risen enough that with additional heating it is enough to melt the ice.

      Perhaps. I'm a firm believer in the laws of thermodynamics, but I certainly wouldn't declare this as related to AGW. This despite the denialists rushing to declare that people are saying it is, so they can have a strawman to beat up.

      And yes folks, we are allowed to speculate. Scientists do this all the time in order to eliminate unlikely candidates for the phenomenon, like the open water being caused by the pancake syrup at iHop.

      You are correct that volcanic activity is a good first guess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Antarctica is a pretty busy place in that way. A group has claimed to have found 91 previously unknown volcanoes, https://www.engadget.com/2017/... but these have not been confirmed as of yet.

      This one is active and confirmed https://www.livescience.com/41... .

      Global warming? I seriously doubt it. A problem for humans? Not unless this is the initial bowshots of a nascent super-volcano. Interesting as all hell, and it surely wouldn't hurt to find out the cause.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    10. Re: Water currents. by mysticgoat · · Score: 2

      From here in the Upper Left Coast, these are all the same size: Lake Superior, Maine, and Rhode Island.

      If you are far enough away, everything else is small.

    11. Re: Water currents. by mysticgoat · · Score: 2

      Are those English football fields or USian football fields?

    12. Re: Water currents. by sexconker · · Score: 2

      Up North
      Down South
      Back East
      Out West

    13. Re: Water currents. by dissy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Clearly, the real story here is that Lake Superior and the State of Maine are interchangeable units of measuring area. Who Knew?

      A little known fact is that Lake Superior and the state of Maine are also physically interchangeable!
      This is the reason neither of those things are labeled by name on Google Maps.

    14. Re: Water currents. by Mab_Mass · · Score: 3, Funny

      Also, please note that nobody has ever seen the State of Maine and Lake Superior in the same place! Obviously, something is up!

    15. Re:Water currents. by Quirkz · · Score: 2

      Once, ironically. I had ten-thousand spoons and no knife.

    16. Re:Water currents. by phantomfive · · Score: 2
      The article clarifies somewhat. This is ongoing:

      A polynia was observed in the same location, in Antarctica's Weddell Sea, in the 1970s, according to Moore, who's been working with the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modelling (SOCCOM) group, based at Princeton University, to analyze what's going on. Back then, scientists' observation tools weren't nearly as good, so that hole remained largely unstudied. Then it went away for four decades, until last year, when it reopened for a few weeks. Now it's back again.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  2. Re: Queue up the jokes by dj245 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's fairly obvious. The Goa'uld are coming.

    --
    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  3. Not news. by Qbertino · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's always been there!
    It's the hole that leads to Nazi occupied Hollow-Earth, where they have there domesticated dinosaurs to ride on and keep their UFOs. Every educated person knows this.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  4. Re: Queue up the jokes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I second that:
    http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Antarctica

  5. The Hole by earthloop · · Score: 2

    Not knowing where it came from, scientists are looking into it.

  6. Any scifi fan will know by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Funny

    Giant holes in Antarctica are where the ice has melted because of the warmth from a recently reactivated alien spacecraft trapped beneath the ice millions of years ago.

    1. Re:Any scifi fan will know by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      If there is any time for Alien overlords it is now.
      Heck I would be happy with Richard Nixon Head in a headless robot body of Agnew.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  7. Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

    Again already? But it just ended on Sept 23.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  8. Weddell Polynya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Weddell Polynya is reasonably well understood

    "The Southern Ocean is strongly stratified. A very cold but relatively fresh water layer covers a much warmer and saltier water mass, thus acting as an insulating layer," explains Prof. Dr. Mojib Latif, head of the Research Division at GEOMAR. Under certain conditions, the warm water of the lower layer can reach the surface and melt the ice. "This is like opening a pressure relief valve - the ocean then releases a surplus of heat to the atmosphere for several consecutive winters until the heat reservoir is exhausted," adds Professor Latif

  9. Re:How thick is the ice? by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Arctic Sea's ice thickness is likely just a few meters, even though the inland ice sheet can be thousands of meters thick.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  10. Re: Queue up the jokes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

  11. Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! by stealth_finger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Again already? But it just ended on Sept 23.

    It's a buy one get one free deal.

    --
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    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  12. Re: Queue up the jokes by stealth_finger · · Score: 2

    Quite clearly the lizard people are getting ready for their attack on the over world.

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  13. Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everyone knows that the world will end in 2038, on January 19.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  14. Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! by chill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Upgrade the universe to 64-bits already!

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  15. Re:It's the Gods of Climate Change by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    A government actions or lack of action are a multiplier effect of the people ability to act personally on helping environmental problems.
    If the government signs papers that will put funding into Electric Car R&D. Help local communities update their infrastructure for more efficient methods. Insure education and training are modern and up to date, so high school graduates don't feel they will have to work in the coal mine for the next 20 years.

    If they are a bunch of available electric cars (Suited for different types of jobs) out there and power stations setup in convenient locations then people would buy them. If Upgrading to Solar on your home, will have a payoff within 5 years then people may invest into upgrading their homes.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  16. Re:Oh God, it's Cthulu by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

    Shocking as it may seem, Creimer appears to have become the new Natalie Portman.

  17. For those who use metric by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those who use metric, it's a bit less than three standard Belgiums.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:For those who use metric by blindseer · · Score: 2

      A "standard" Belgium? As opposed to what? An "imperial" Belgium?

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    2. Re:For those who use metric by hazardPPP · · Score: 4, Funny

      A "standard" Belgium? As opposed to what? An "imperial" Belgium?

      Yes. Imperial Belgium is much bigger, as it included the Congo. The Congo is very big.

  18. Re: How thick is the ice? by bestweasel · · Score: 2

    Um, this is the Antarctic and "hundreds of kilometres from the ice edge".

  19. Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

    Again already? But it just ended on Sept 23.

    It's a buy one get one free deal.

    And we still haven't recovered from the May 2011 end of the world. Ahhh, those were good times.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  20. Reboot the universe by DrYak · · Score: 3, Funny

    Upgrade the universe to 64-bits already!

    But then I'll need to reboot the universe, and I still have a few unsaved tabs.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  21. Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! by Immerman · · Score: 2

    Nah, that was just the Rapture. All the true followers of Jesus ascended to Heaven - didn't you notice?

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  22. Re:IT'S NO JOKE !! by Immerman · · Score: 2

    *woosh*

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.