Overview
- An international team aboard AWI’s Polarstern mapped a previously uncharted islet in the northwest Weddell Sea, measuring about 130 by 50 meters and rising roughly 16 meters, with its true position about one nautical mile from a charted hazard.
- Researchers first mistook the feature for a dirty iceberg, then confirmed exposed rock using multibeam sonar and drone photogrammetry after satellite images and legacy charts missed it due to ice cover and sparse data.
- The team plans an official naming process and will release exact coordinates so international nautical charts and datasets can be updated for safer navigation.
- In separate work beneath the Dotson Ice Shelf, the autonomous sub Ran mapped terraces, tear‑shaped depressions up to 300 meters long, channels, and full‑thickness fractures, showing that warm deep ocean water called Circumpolar Deep Water focuses melt on the western side.
- The Ran later failed to reach its pickup point and is now missing, with investigators pursuing recovery efforts and probing unconfirmed causes such as technical failure or a collision with ice; a distinct satellite study also reports more than 30,000 previously unknown subglacial hills, improving ice‑flow models.