A hole about 40,000 km 2 wide, formed in the middle of Antarctica, in the winter of Australia (from July to August), is attracting the attention of a large number of scientists and experts in the field of science and technology. climate in the world. Opinion of the scientific community is quite divided on this phenomenon, which was once known in 1974.
This circular hole is at least 40,000km 2 wide (equivalent to the area of Switzerland or 1/8 of the total area of Vietnam), even some news agencies say that this hole has an area of up to 80,000km2. , was discovered last month thanks to satellite images. According to information from the Swiss daily Le Temps, this hole is located in the Weddell Sea , northwest of Antarctica.
Huge hole.
While some institutions directly link this phenomenon to global warming, climate expert Heinz Wanner, founder of the Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research in Berne (Switzerland), asserts , “for climate studies, causal links like these are difficult to determine”. This scientist also said that more research is needed to be able to confirm the link between this Antarctic phenomenon and global warming.
To many scientists, this hole called a “polynie” (in French) is an area of ice or a very thin layer of ice in the middle of a large block of ice. The cause of this hole is still unclear, possibly due to the action of ocean currents, strong wind pressure or the thickness of the ice. According to the founder of the Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, “in the case of the Weddell Sea hole , this is definitely melting of the ice mainly due to an increase in hot water under the ice. An ocean current. the upward movement melted the ice from below”.
Scientists have known about the phenomenon of “polynie” but rarely has it reached such a large scale, especially at sea. A similar phenomenon is known to have occurred in 1974, also in the same area. That hole was 300,000km 2 , disappeared 40 years later, before reappearing last year for a few weeks, then reappearing again this year, significantly wider than the hole. The hole appeared last year.
According to scientists studying the phenomenon, it is still too early to attribute this phenomenon to global warming. But conversely, melting ice certainly has an effect on the temperature of the water and therefore, at least on the climate in that area. Either way, the link between “polynie” and climate change remains at the heart of debates about the phenomenon, both in the scientific world and on social media.