Abstract :
[en] AbstractMore than 60% of meteorite finds on Earth originate from Antarctica. Using a data-driven analysis that identifies meteorite-rich sites in Antarctica, we show climate warming causes many extraterrestrial rocks to be lost from the surface by melting into the ice sheet. At present, approximately 5,000 meteorites become inaccessible per year (versus ~1,000 finds per year) and, independent of the emissions scenario, ~24% will be lost by 2050, potentially rising to ∼76% by 2100 under a high-emissions scenario.
Funding text :
This study is dedicated in loving memory to Pietro De Bernardini.
V.T. is a Research Fellow of the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique
(FRS-FNRS). V.T., H.Z. and F.P. were supported by the Belgian Federal
Science Policy Office (BELSPO; FROID project) and an Université libre
de Bruxelles (ULB) Action Blanches project (QUOI). H.Z. acknowledges
funding received as a postdoctoral fellowship (chargé de recherches)
of the FRS-FNRS, from the research foundation Flanders (FWO)
through an Odysseus Type II project (grant agreement number
G0DCA23N; ‘GlaciersMD’ project) and from the European Research
Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Framework
research and innovation programme (grant agreement number
101115565; ‘ICE3’ project). H.Z., S.L. and F.P. were supported by the
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 869304 (PROTECT). C.K. was
supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme under grant agreement number 101003826 via
project CRiceS (climate relevant interactions and feedbacks: the key
role of sea ice and snow in the polar and global climate system). V.D.,
S.G. and P.C. thank BELSPO (BELAM, Amundsen and BAMM! projects)
for supporting the Antarctic field expeditions. V.D. thanks the ERC StG
ISoSyC and FRS-FNRS for funding. S.G., P.C. and V.D. were supported
by the Excellence of Science (EoS) project ‘ET-HoME.’ S.G. and P.C.
were also supported by the FWO and the VUB strategic programme.
K.H.J. is funded by the Royal Society (grant numbers URF\R\201009
and RF\ERE\210158) and STFC (grant number ST/V000675/1). We
would like to thank the Lost Meteorites of Antarctica project field team
for their work in collecting the samples (supported by Leverhulme
Trust grant number RPG-2016–349, The British Antarctic Survey/NERC
and UoM internal Faculty of Science and Engineering funding). We
also thank the ANSMET programme for collecting and documenting
meteorite MIL 07710 shown in Fig. 1.
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