title: A potential hidden layer of meteorites below the ice surface of Antarctica.
abstract: Antarctica contains some of the most productive regions on Earth for collecting meteorites. These small areas of glacial ice are known as meteorite stranding zones, where upward-flowing ice combines with high ablation rates to concentrate large numbers of englacially transported meteorites onto their surface. However, meteorite collection data shows that iron and stony-iron meteorites are significantly under-represented from these regions as compared with all other sites on Earth. Here we explain how this discrepancy may be due to englacial solar warming, whereby meteorites a few tens of centimetres below the ice surface can be warmed up enough to cause melting of their surrounding ice and sink downwards. We show that meteorites with a high-enough thermal conductivity (for example, iron meteorites) can sink at a rate sufficient to offset the total annual upward ice transport, which may therefore permanently trap them below the ice surface and explain their absence from collection data.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: G W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Evatt
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Coughlan
authors.affiliation: The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Joy
authors.affiliation: Centre for Atmospheric Science, The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: A R D
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Smedley
authors.affiliation: Centre for Atmospheric Science, The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: I D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Abrahams