Science

The 20-foot-long Ran submersible used pulsed sound waves (advanced multibeam sonar) on the ice to map its features, but because of its subantarctic location, Wåhlin and her team couldn’t communicate with the AUV or track its movements with GPS. After 14 missions—some lasting a couple hours and others stretching longer than a day—Ran mapped around 50 square miles of ice, and the structures imaged were more complex than anyone imagined.

“The mapping has given us a lot of new data that we need to look at more closely,” Wåhlin said in a press statement. “It is clear that many previous assumptions about melting of glacier undersides are falling short. Current models cannot explain the complex patterns we see. But with this method, we have a better chance of finding the answers.”

The secret structures are melt patterns in the underside of the ice shelf.

These surveys were conducted in 2022, and the team returned earlier this year to see what changes to the ice shelf had occurred. That’s when Wåhlin and her team’s worst fears were realized—Ran didn’t emerge at the pre-planned rendezvous point. The team suspects that the AUV either ran aground or became the target of some curious seals.

Yeah, probe broke under the ice shelf and didn't come back.

I have to say, Popular Mechanics has become complete shit with headlines like this. I mean, the article is fine for what it is, a story about a group using and self piloting submersible to study glacial melting from below. But that headline is one of the worst click-bait pieces of shit I've ever read.