Researchers setting up their work site

Britney Schmidt and her team set up their work site to launch the Icefin robot under an ice shelf in Antarctica.

Elaine Hood, USAP

STANDARDS

CCSS: 6.RP.A.3.B, 6.RP.A.2, MP2, MP3, MP6

TEKS: 6.4B, 6.4D

Under The Ice

A high-tech robot is key to understanding the mysterious ecosystem beneath Antarctica’s ice shelves

B. E. Schmidt/Icefin/Project RISE UP

Britney Schmidt

When Britney Schmidt stepped out of the bright-yellow research tent, snow and ice stretched for miles around her. It was early January 2020, and her team had been camping on the Thwaites Ice Shelf in western Antarctica for nearly five weeks. Schmidt is an earth scientist, now at Cornell University. She and her international team were exploring the cold, dark waters underneath the ice shelf. Her main tool: a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Icefin. She and her colleagues had lowered Icefin through a narrow hole in the ice, and were controlling it from the tent.

Schmidt handed the controls to Dan Dichek, an engineer on the Icefin team, while she went to use the restroom. “When I got back, he was like, ‘Britney, there’s some really weird stuff,’” she recalls. Schmidt looked at Icefin’s video feed and saw a ghostly white sea anemone dangling from a burrow in the underside of the ice shelf. Nearby were shrimp-like animals crawling upside down, using their feet to walk along the frozen surface above them.

Britney Schmidt sat inside a bright-yellow research tent. Snow and ice stretched for miles all around. It was early January 2020, and Schmidt had been camping on the Thwaites Ice Shelf in western Antarctica for nearly five weeks. She and other scientists were exploring the cold, dark waters underneath the ice shelf.

Schmidt is an earth scientist at Cornell University. She helped design a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Icefin. She and her colleagues had lowered Icefin through a narrow hole in the ice shelf. Now they were controlling it from inside the tent.

Schmidt took a break and handed the controls to engineer Dan Dichek. “When I got back, he was like, ‘Britney, there’s some really weird stuff,’” Schmidt recalls. She looked at Icefin’s video feed and saw a ghostly white sea anemone. It was dangling from a burrow in the underside of the ice shelf. Nearby were shrimp-like animals that were crawling upside down. They used their feet to walk along the frozen surface above them.

Jim McMahon/Mapman

Frozen World
Schmidt’s team has been studying the Thwaites Ice Shelf. They drill a hole through the ice so that Icefin can explore the ecosystem below. (top)

Ice Shelf
A permanently floating platform of ice that forms when a glacier flows over the ocean’s surface. (bottom)

The Thwaites Ice Shelf is a thick sheet of packed ice and snow that is larger than the state of Rhode Island (see Frozen World, page 18). The ice shelf forms as ice from the Thwaites Glacier flows off the continent and juts out hundreds of miles over the ocean. Before Icefin, scientists didn’t have a way to see the cold, pitch-black waters beneath Antarctic ice shelves. They had no idea how the ice is melting or what animals could be living in there. But now Schmidt and other scientists are discovering things beneath the ice they’re only beginning to understand.

The Thwaites Ice Shelf is a thick sheet of packed ice and snow that is larger than the state of Rhode Island (see Frozen World, page 18). It forms as ice from the Thwaites Glacier flows off the continent. The ice shelf juts out hundreds of miles over the ocean. Before Icefin, scientists didn’t have a good way to see the cold, pitch-black waters underneath. It was hard to study how the ice is melting or what animals were living beneath it. But now Schmidt and other scientists are starting to learn more.

Strange Sights

Ice anemones were first spotted in 2010. A team from the U.S. and New Zealand had traveled to the Ross Ice Shelf, 1,500 kilometers from Thwaites, to test out new drilling technology. They used a jet of hot water to melt a hole 250 meters through the ice shelf, then explored beneath it with an ROV. They found a field of the bizarre anemones covering an area of about 100 square meters.

The ROV hadn’t been designed to collect biological specimens. So the researchers created a makeshift tool using the filter basket from their coffee machine. They caught more than 20 anemones and sent them to Meg Daly, an evolutionary biologist at Ohio State University. Daly found that they were a previously unknown species, most closely related to anemones that burrow into sandy beaches around the world.

But Daly couldn’t explain how boneless anemones burrow into rock-hard ice—or how they survive once they’re there. “If you took a typical sea anemone and put it in the freezer, it would die,” says Daly. “How does an ice anemone not freeze its little butt off?”

Ice anemones were first spotted in 2010. A team from the U.S. and New Zealand had traveled to the Ross Ice Shelf, 1,500 kilometers from Thwaites. They were there to test out new drilling technology. They used a jet of hot water to melt a hole 250 meters through the ice shelf. When they explored beneath it with an ROV, they found a field of the anemones. The animals covered an area of about 100 square meters. 

The ROV hadn’t been designed to collect animal specimens. So the researchers created a net using a part from their coffee machine. They used it to catch more than 20 anemones. They sent them to Meg Daly, a biologist at Ohio State University. Daly realized that the anemones were a previously unknown species. They were related to anemones that burrow into sandy beaches around the world.

But Daly couldn’t explain how soft, squishy anemones burrow into rock-hard ice. She also didn’t understand how they survive the freezing temperatures. “If you took a typical sea anemone and put it in the freezer, it would die,” says Daly. “How does an ice anemone not freeze its little butt off?”

Justin Lawrence/Icefin/Project RISE UP/B.E. Schmidt

Icefin on a test dive near McMurdo Station. The water and ice appear green because of the algae that live there.

Race to Explore

These mysterious ice anemones are only a small part of this underwater ecosystem. But studying it is no easy feat. Ice shelves are hundreds of meters thick, and bringing drilling equipment to remote Antarctica is costly and difficult. The larger the hole scientists need to drill, the more expensive and complicated the expedition will be.

To help, Schmidt’s team has spent nearly 10 years developing and testing Icefin. The torpedo-shaped robot can fit down a hole just 25 centimeters across. It can carry more than a dozen sensors, including cameras, thermometers, and instruments that analyze water chemistry. The 3.5-meter-long robot can be taken apart and packed in separate pieces to make it easier to transport.

Icefin was first deployed in 2017, and has only had three summer research seasons to explore. There’s still a lot more it can help us learn about the mysterious world beneath Antarctic ice shelves. But Schmidt also has another goal: to look for life in other parts of the solar system. Jupiter’s moon Europa, for example, is covered in thick ice with an ocean underneath it that could potentially support life. Exploring with Icefin “allows us to get ready for what we might do 50 to 100 years from now in places like Europa,” says Schmidt.

In the meantime, Thwaites and Antarctica’s other ice shelves are already changing rapidly. Climate change is warming the waters around Antarctica, melting the floating ice from below. That’s why scientists like Schmidt and the rest of the Icefin team are racing to learn all they can—before it’s too late. “People come together and work really hard together,” says Schmidt. “We even had Christmas dinner and celebrated New Year’s Eve out there.”

Ice anemones are only a small part of this underwater ecosystem. But studying it is no easy feat. Ice shelves are hundreds of meters thick, and bringing drilling equipment to Antarctica is expensive and difficult. The larger the hole scientists need to drill, the more complicated the process will be.

To help, Schmidt’s team has spent nearly 10 years working on Icefin. The torpedo-shaped robot is 3.5 meters long and can fit down a hole just 25 centimeters across. It can carry more than a dozen scientific sensors, including cameras and thermometers. It can also be taken apart into separate pieces to make it easier to transport.

Schmidt’s team first deployed Icefin in 2017. They have used it for three summer research seasons so far. It can still help scientists learn a lot about the mysterious world beneath Antarctic ice shelves. But Schmidt also has another goal: to look for life in other parts of the solar system. For example, Jupiter’s moon Europa is covered in thick ice. The ocean underneath it could potentially support life. Exploring with Icefin is practice for exploring places like Europa, says Schmidt. “It allows us to get ready for what we might do 50 to 100 years from now,” she says.

In the meantime, ice shelves like Thwaites are already changing. Climate change is warming the waters around Antarctica, melting the floating ice from below. That’s why scientists like Schmidt and the rest of the Icefin team are racing to learn all they can before it’s too late. “People come together and work really hard together,” says Schmidt. “We even had Christmas dinner and celebrated New Year’s Eve out there.”

Answer the questions to learn more about how researchers explore beneath Antarctic ice shelves. Round answers to the nearest tenth. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.

Answer the questions to learn more about how researchers explore beneath Antarctic ice shelves. Round answers to the nearest tenth. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.

The Icefin robot made 5 dives beneath the Thwaites Ice Shelf. It traveled a total of 15 kilometers on these dives. What was the average distance it traveled on each dive, expressed in kilometers per dive?

The Icefin robot made 5 dives beneath the Thwaites Ice Shelf. It traveled a total of 15 kilometers on these dives. What was the average distance it traveled on each dive, expressed in kilometers per dive?

The ROV that captured the first images of ice anemones made 14 dives beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. It spent 29 hours exploring in total. What was the average duration of each dive, expressed in hours per dive?

The ROV that captured the first images of ice anemones made 14 dives beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. It spent 29 hours exploring in total. What was the average duration of each dive, expressed in hours per dive?

A. Engineers used a drill that sprays a jet of hot water to melt the hole in the ice for launching the Icefin. Drilling took about 6 hours. How long is that in minutes?

A. Engineers used a drill that sprays a jet of hot water to melt the hole in the ice for launching the Icefin. Drilling took about 6 hours. How long is that in minutes?

B. The finished hole was 600 meters deep. How fast did the drill melt the ice, in meters per minute?

B. The finished hole was 600 meters deep. How fast did the drill melt the ice, in meters per minute?

C. Drilling the hole took 43,200 liters of hot water—enough to fill a cargo container! How much water per minute was used?

C. Drilling the hole took 43,200 liters of hot water—enough to fill a cargo container! How much water per minute was used?

A. The scientists who first spotted the ice anemones counted 25 of the animals in an area of 0.13 square meters. How many anemones per square meter is that?

A. The scientists who first spotted the ice anemones counted 25 of the animals in an area of 0.13 square meters. How many anemones per square meter is that?

B. The researchers estimated that anemones covered 100 square meters of ice and were spaced evenly apart. Using the unit rate you calculated in part A, estimate how many anemones there were in all.

B. The researchers estimated that anemones covered 100 square meters of ice and were spaced evenly apart. Using the unit rate you calculated in part A, estimate how many anemones there were in all.