The first study on underwater avalanches in the Antarctic begins

The European Research Council (ERC) has just awarded €2.7 million to the Antarctic Canyon Experiment (ACE) project, a five-year initiative led by the University of Plymouth and involving the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS).

The project will use innovative technology to analyse the causes and effects of Antarctic turbidity currents — also known as underwater avalanches — that occur in the depths of the Southern Ocean. The project will also analyse their role in regulating the Earth's climate.

The aim is to better understand Antarctica's role in regulating one of the Earth's most important carbon reservoirs: its marine slopes, which currently store around 40% of all anthropogenic carbon in the oceans.

It will also investigate how the effectiveness of this process has changed over time, particularly during the Earth's warmer periods, in order to predict how it might be affected by current and future climate change.