For eight long months, a small robotic explorer floated through the icy darkness beneath Antarctica’s colossal glaciers. When it finally surfaced, the data it brought back painted a troubling picture of what’s happening beneath the frozen continent.
This autonomous ocean robot — a compact, sensor-equipped float — has just pulled off a remarkable feat: it’s the first machine to successfully navigate beneath East Antarctica’s massive ice shelves and return with groundbreaking data.
Over two and a half years, it drifted more than 300 kilometers beneath the Denman and Shackleton ice shelves, collecting close to 200 detailed profiles of temperature and salinity. The mission’s purpose was clear: to assess just how vulnerable these icy giants are to the effects of climate change.
Robot’s path beneath the Antarctic ice shelves. © CSIRO
Eight months under the ice — and a worrying discovery
The robot spent a total of eight months beneath the frozen surface, briefly surfacing every five days to transmit its readings. What researchers discovered when they analyzed the data, however, was deeply concerning.
The Shackleton Ice Shelf — the northernmost in East Antarctica — currently appears safe from direct contact with warm water that could cause melting from below. But the story is very different for the Denman Glacier. There, the robot detected the presence of relatively warm water flowing beneath the ice — an ominous signal. Even a slight increase in the thickness of this warm-water layer could dramatically speed up melting, triggering an unstable retreat of the glacier.
If that happens, Denman alone could raise global sea levels by up to 1.5 meters, putting millions of people in coastal areas at risk.
Denman Glacier. © Pete Harmsen, Australian Antarctic Division
Building better models for future predictions
Beyond the startling data, researchers called the mission “extraordinary” — proof that even simple, durable instruments can yield discoveries capable of reshaping our understanding of Antarctica.
The data collected will now be integrated into advanced climate and ocean models, helping scientists refine sea-level rise forecasts. The team’s findings were recently published in Science Advances.
Morgane Gillard
Journalist
As a child, I dreamed of being a paleontologist, an astronaut, or a writer… and ultimately, my heart led me to geology. After years of studying to gain deep knowledge, I now share it with you, the readers of Futura!
Looking back, I realize that my passion for Earth and science in general started very early! My first spelunking expedition was at the age of 4, my first scuba dive at 7, fossil hunting all across France, nighttime outings to watch the stars… With a father who was a chemistry teacher and an avid cave diver, and a mother who was the first female commercial diver in France, my childhood was filled with adventure and discovery! One memory in particular stands out: observing the Hale-Bopp comet in 1997, in the middle of the night, standing in a field while my parents whispered the countdowns for the exposure times to photograph that strange celestial object lighting up the sky. That image is forever etched in my memory, a moment filled with a certain magic—and even today, I still get chills when I gaze up at the stars. Head in the stars, feet on the ground. It was probably during our travels in an old Volkswagen van, between Andalusia and the barren lands of the North Cape, that I discovered the incredible beauty of nature and the stunning diversity of landscapes our planet has to offer.
Discovering Earth and Its Inner Workings
After high school, pursuing scientific studies felt like a natural choice, so it came as no surprise when I enrolled at university for a full degree in Earth Sciences. But I struggled to stick to just one field. During my studies, I explored all areas of geoscience: from geodesy to electromagnetism, from mineralogy to field geology… I loved learning about Earth and its complexity, its beauty, its strength, and its fragility. So when I was offered the chance to start a PhD in geodynamics in 2011—studying the development of the Australian and Antarctic margins—I didn’t hesitate. More things to learn and discover!
One of the most fascinating aspects of geosciences is how you juggle both vast timescales and spatial scales. You never stay still—you’re constantly zooming in and out. In a single day, you might shift from looking at the oceanic crust to analyzing a tiny mineral. You might be discussing tectonic plate movements and then chemical interactions between minerals. What could be more exciting?
From Continent to Ocean: The Incredible Journey of a PhD
Over those three years, I gradually specialized in seismic interpretation. Like a detective, I learned to read those striped black-and-white images and reconstruct a story—the story of plate tectonics and the opening of an ocean. Specifically, I worked on the development of detachment faults in the continent-ocean transition zone and the sedimentary record they produce. I had the opportunity to present my work at many international conferences and built a strong scientific identity. Three years of hard work, amazing discoveries, and incredible encounters shaped me into who I am today. After defending my thesis in 2014, I completed several years of postdoctoral research with CNRS and in collaboration with oil companies interested in these increasingly strategic zones for petroleum exploration.
Science, Always and Forever
But… academia is demanding, requiring full-time commitment—something not always compatible with starting a family. So I made the tough decision to shift career paths and turned to scientific writing. It turned out to be a great choice, as it allows me to keep talking about science, especially geology. Working with Futura is a real opportunity because it lets me share the world of Earth Sciences—an often-overlooked field—with a broad audience. After all, what could be more important than understanding the planet we live on?
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