NASA puzzled over mysterious holes in Arctic sea ice

Latest pictures are showing mysterious holes in the Arctic sea ice, which have left NASA confused.

Since the past decade, NASA’s mission ‘Operation IceBridge’ has been flying over Earth’s Arctic and Antarctic regions to understand the link between world’s climate systems and also observe global warming’s effect on some of the Earth’s coldest places.

In a routine flyover in April over the Arctic Ocean, NASA’s scientist John Sonntag captured pictures of bizarre ice holes over the eastern Beaufort Sea. The ice holes were the first of their kind and left scientists baffled. “I don’t recall seeing this sort of thing elsewhere,” reported NASA.

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Fellow scientist from the project Nathan Kurtz expressed that he can tell from the image that the holes exist in thin ice area because of the grey color but, couldn’t explain the reason behind them. “I’m not sure what kind of dynamics could lead to the semi-circle shaped features surrounding the holes. I have never seen anything like that before.”

Different scientists gave in different explanations after looking at the image. One of them suggested that these might be a result of water washing over the snow and ice as seals surface for air or a kind of drainage feature that results from when the hole is made in the ice.

As per National Geographic, scientists are predicting that these holes are probably caused by seals. A sea ice geophysicist Don Perovich explained, “My guess is a seal pushed ice out of the way to make a hole and thus also made the ice around the hole thicker.”

However, Sonntag contradicted saying that these mysterious holes are several meters is size that doesn’t fit with the ‘seal hypothesis’. Thus led to another scientists suggesting them to be cause of whales. Sue Moore, senior scientist at the NOAA/Fisheries Office of Science and Technology believes given the size, they were more likely caused by bowhead whales punching up through the thin ice to breathe.

Until further research about the holes isn’t carried out, nothing can be said in particular.