Operation IceBridge by NASA, which oversees the poles by plane 10 years ago, has allowed IceBridge mission scientist John Sonntag to discover something he had never seen before: strange circular features around holes in the Arctic sea ice.
Sonntag took the photograph that heads this entrance from the window of the P-3 research plane while flying over the east of the Beaufort Sea.
Operation IceBridge
The exact location of the holes is 69.71 ° north and 138.22 ° west, about 50 kilometers northwest of the Mackenzie River delta in Canada. And they do not have an easy explanation.
One idea is that they are caused by mammals: the holes may have been gnawed by the seals to create an open area in the ice through which they can emerge to breathe. The holes are similar to the photographs of the breathing holes created by the annular joints and harp seals. Equally plausible is that the holes were caused by convection.
According to Chris Shuman, of the University of Maryland. at the Baltimore County glaciologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center:
This is in fairly shallow waters in general, so there is a good chance that they are simply 'hot springs' or seepage of groundwater that flows from the mountains inland that make their presence in this particular area. The other possibility is that the warmer water of the Beaufort or Mackenzie River currents is reaching the surface due to the interaction with the bathymetry, as some polynyas are formed.