And this month, a team of scientists will venture to the long-ice-buried expanse to investigate the mysterious ecosystem that was hidden beneath the Antarctic ice shelf for so long.

The newly exposed seabed stretches across an area of about 2,246 square miles (5,818 square kilometers), according to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which is leading the expedition. The scientists consider their journey “urgent,” as they hope to document the system before sunlight begins to change at least the surface layers. [In Photos: Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf Through Time]

“The calving of [iceberg] A-68 [from the Larsen C Ice Shelf] provides us with a unique opportunity to study marine life as it responds to a dramatic environmental change. It’s important we get there quickly before the undersea environment changes as sunlight enters the water and new species begin to colonize,” Katrin Linse, of the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement.

Perspective view of the shallow megathrust looking seaward towards the trench; the frontal prism has been cut away. The color scales indicate depth below seafloor, and grey denotes the seafloor. Credit: Edwards et al., Nature Geoscience, Feb-2018 Geophysicists have obtained detailed three-dimensional images of a dangerous megathrust fault west of Costa Rica where two plates of the Earth’s crust collide. The images reveal features of the fault surface, including long grooves or corrugations, that may determine how the fault will slip in an earthquake. The study, published February 12 in Natu…

With a new, “portable” atomic clock, scientists are measuring not what time it is but changes to time itself.

Using lasers instead of electrodes to vibrate the hairs in the inner ears could lead to less damaging cochlear implants.

An international team of researchers has developed a tiny, liquid-based engine powered by a demixing fluid. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their little engine and possible uses for it.

Fabricated device and band structure. (A) Scanning electron microscope image of the device, which is composed of two regions identified by blue and yellow shading, corresponding to two photonic crystals with different topological properties. The interface between the two photonic crystals supports helical edge states with opposite circular polarization (s+ and s–). Grating couplers at each end of the device scatter light in the out-of-plane direction for collection. (B) Close-up image of the interface. Black dashed lines identify a single unit cell of each photonic crystal. Credit: Science…