The Race To Save Antarctica’s Meteorites From Climate Change

Antarctica harbors numerous large meteorite concentrations at its surface, and as such, the icy continent contains an unparalleled wealth of information on our Solar System, enabling us to understand, for example, the emergence of life on Earth, and how the Moon was formed.

A study carried out by scientists from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, ETH Zurich, WSL Birmensdorf, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel highlights a rapid disappearance of meteorites due to global warming, a loss with far-reaching consequences for our understanding and knowledge of extraterrestrial life.

Using artificial intelligence to combine satellite observations of the continent with climate model projections, the scientists calculate that for every tenth of a degree of increase in global air temperature, 5,100 to 12,200 meteorites are lost from the surface of the ice sheet. By 2050, about one quarter of meteorites will be lost, and this can rise to three-quarters by the end of the century, depending on future greenhouse gas emissions.