Strange Ice Holes Are the Arctic's Latest Mystery
The Arctic is a strange place, and as our climate continues to change, it's changing faster than scientists can understand it. Glaciers are shrinking, sea ice is receding, and, according to NASA, strange holes have started appearing in the ice, and nobody knows what causes them.
The photo showing the strange holes was taken by John Sonntag, a scientist with NASA’s Operation IceBridge. IceBridge is NASA’s ambitious mission to image the North and South Poles with as much tech as possible, in the hope of understanding more about these parts of our planet.
Unfortunately, this photo of the strange holes in arctic ice is raising more questions than it answers, at least for now. Even the scientists at IceBridge have no definite answer, but there are a few possibilities. These holes could be caused by ice melting due to warming seawater underneath, or they might be air holes formed by seals or whales hunting beneath the ice.
NASA posted the photo as their April 2018 Puzzler, inviting the public to take a guess at what the photo depicts. There were plenty of creative guesses, but in the end there’s no way to know for certain what caused those strange holes without further research. Hopefully the IceBridge team devotes more time to solving this mystery.
Source: Washington Post
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