Another week , another “ unknown sighting ” in the Arctic ice . If it was one of those sites that perpetually spotspace mice , floating spoonful , andBatman ’s signalon Mars orpyramids in the Antarctic , then we ’d obviously be resurrect a doubting supercilium right now . But it was NASA who spotted these strange hole in the Arctic meth , so color us scheme .
Operation IceBridge , despite sounding like something Jon Snow is planning forGoT ’s last season , is NASA ’s airborne mission that has been running for nine years , flying over both the Arctic and the Antarctic , photographing , mapping , and documenting the part ’ changing sea levels , country , and ocean ice .
On April 14 , IceBridge mission scientist John Sonntag go through something he ’d never seen before – and this is the guy who give us theincredible photos of the cracks in the icebefore the Larson C frosting shelf broke off last summer – so he ’s no alien to the mysterious fixed landscape .
While fly over the eastern Beaufort Sea , Sonntag and the team discern the curious physique – R-2 with what looked like kettle of fish in the middle . “ We saw these sorta - rotary features only for a few minute today , ” Sonntagsaid . “ I do n’t recall seeing this sort of matter elsewhere . ”
The ikon snapped was so curious it dependent as Earth Observatory ’s April“puzzler ” ; each month they partake curiosities with the public with the challenge to help identify or spill light on the national and the fortune to win NASA identification , " credit and glory " .
The undertaking scientists themselves have a few theories for what could have made these lap as some aspects are recognizable , but in all honesty , they ’re still a little stumped .
“ It ’s definitely an area of slight ice , as you could see finger raft near the holes and the colouring is gray enough to suggest little snow cover,”saidIceBridge member Nathan Kurtz . However , “ I ’m not sure what kind of moral force could result to the semi - circle shaped features surrounding the holes . I have never seen anything like that before . ”
One suggestion is the fundamental holes are created by marine mammals like seals eat at through the ice to make line holes as they appear similar todocumented breathing holescreated by ring and harp stamp .
“ The encircle features may be due to waves of water wash out over the snowfall and trash when the seals surface,”offeredWalt Meier , a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center . “ Or it could be a form of drainage feature that results from when the hole is made in the frappe . ”
Other suggestions include ardent leap made from groundwater flux from the mountains , or the warmer flow of the Beaufort Sea or the nearby Mackenzie River reaching the surface . The truth is , presently no one knows . We told you , intriguing !
