Icebergs sing! How the sound of the sea reveals climate change

Antarctic icebergs are more than just spectacular natural wonders. They produce some of the loudest and most fascinating sounds in the ocean - their "songs" could give us important insights into climate change. Scientists at Curtin University in Australia have determined that these sounds are produced by the icebergs rubbing and scratching on the ocean floor. These acoustic phenomena are characterized by a variety of frequencies that depend on the sizes and shapes of the icebergs. Alexander Gavrilov, a professor at the Center for Marine Sciences, noted: “An iceberg plate works like a tuning fork.” Depending on where the icebergs are and how they move, their songs can be heard in the distant waters of the Indian Ocean. As neighboring icebergs rub against each other, it produces sounds that are analyzed by scientists to learn more about their formation, life and demise, as reported by Today.at.

Another important field of research is the Heinrich events, in which large amounts of icebergs broke off from the ice sheets and drifted into the oceans, which significantly influenced our planet's climate. These processes are associated with the decrease in temperature in northern Europe caused by iceberg meltwater, which affected the circulation of the Gulf Stream. This happened during the last ice age cycle, when massive meltwater greatly altered environmental conditions and influenced climate patterns globally. Scientists like Olga Erokhina and Uwe Mikolajewicz have developed a new iceberg module that can be integrated into ocean models to better understand these historical climate changes. Their approach improves the simulation of iceberg processes by focusing on how many icebergs of certain sizes are present in the ocean MPIMET reported.