Key Highlights
- Greenish-colored rock of 4 cm is found in Antarctica.
- The green rock was come from 1,300km from the floor of the Amundsen Sea by a drilling ship.
- This rock is a warning of an unhealthy environment.
Suspicious green rock in Antarctica
The rock found was a greenish-colored rock with a length of slightly more than 4cm. This little piece of sandstone contains vital keys to all of our futures. It was discovered in deep ocean muds far from the coast of modern-day West Antarctica. But this beautiful green rock is a warning for the future. It’s a dropstone or a fragment of ice-rafted waste. A glacier scraped it off the white continent. Then it is transported to a short distance in the flowing ice. And then discarded it offshore by an iceberg.
Origin of green rock
By using the latest “geo-fingerprinting” techniques. It is founded that it comes from the Ellsworth Mountains. The green rock was come from 1,300km from the floor of the Amundsen Sea by a drilling ship. The origin of the green rock is clear now. How it comes from there because Ellsworth Mountains, is the tallest range in Antarctica. Which is present in the deep of the white continent. It is very skeptical like that how a rock like this survives. And being transported so far under an ice sheet to the coast. Christine Siddoway, professor of geology at Colorado College in the United States state that. It cannot survive extensive transport, including deposition and re-transport over several stages of a period. It is unable to withstand a great deal of contact between the ice cap and the bedrock.
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Journey of green rock
The age of the deposits gathered by the Joides Resolution ship on its International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) “Expedition 379” cruise in 2019 responds. Geologists position them in the mid-Pliocene epoch. It was about three million years ago. The mid-Pliocene is an interesting time in Earth history. 300 million years ago was the last time the atmosphere had the same concentration of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide more than 400 parts per million. Temperatures were considerably higher back then, probably by 2-3 degrees Celsius worldwide. And sea levels were still higher, possibly by as much as 10-20m above the current ocean floor. In this way, the green rock was made. Mid-Pliocene sea levels indicate that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, or at least a substantial portion of it, had melted away. Leaving a huge open seaway in its place. It’s difficult to picture the ice covering as a single stable mass in Antarctica. When the ice is removed, you are left with a vast archipelago which is a collection of major islands.
Highlighting the condition of the environment
If you observe the current climate. It will highlight that the situation is going to be the same as entering Pliocene climate conditions. And if the environmental situation is going to be the same. Then we are moving towards danger. No one expects the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to melt too soon. Scientists say the small green rock is a reminder of the conditions we may face in the future.
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