A Belgian-Dutch scientific team with researchers from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) has developed for the first time a “treasure map” that reveals where in Antarctica meteorites can be found. It is estimated that there are 300,000 meteorites on the surface of the ice sheet.
Veronica Tollenaar, PhD student at the ULB, is the lead author of the study and used new detection techniques, such as drones and satellite images, to develop the treasure map, and linked them to algorithms. In this way, they could indicate zones where meteorites could be found with a high probability. The map is said to be 80 percent accurate.
“We found several never-visited meteorite-rich areas that are relatively close to research stations,” says Tollenaar. When meteorites hit the Antarctic ice sheet, they usually become embedded. They are then carried out to sea by the current of the ice, unless there are mountains hidden under the ice. The mountains push the meteorites to the surface in so-called blue ice regions.
“Through our analyses, we learned that satellite observations of temperature, ice flow velocity, surface area and geometry are good predictors of the location of meteorite-rich regions,” Tollenaar says.
By linking this to a machine learning algorithm, the researchers have been able to identify zones where there is a high probability of meteorites. The results of the study were published in the renowned scientific journal ‘Science Advances’.
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