Never-before-seen shapes up to 1,300 feet long discovered beneath Antarctic ice

Visualization of the sand dune shaped ice structures, with three large and three small curves of dark under the ice.

Scientists have discovered never-before-seen patterns beneath a floating ice shelf in Antarctica following an expedition to create the most detailed picture ever of the glacier's underside.

The strange teardrop shapes were discovered below Dotson Ice Shelf in West Antarctica in 2022, when a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dove 10 miles (17 kilometers) underneath the glacier and traveled more than 600 miles (1,000 km) along the underside of the ice.