CAB Seminar on Thursday 30th of October at 12:00 (CET) by Gabriel A. Pinto (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Laura Colzi
CAB
SEMINARS
Thursday, 30th October 2025, 12:00 (CET) (Auditorio/Zoom)
Antarctica remains one of Earth’s least explored scientific frontiers. Over the past decade, Belgian Antarctic expeditions have recovered more than 1,300 meteorites from blue-ice fields, retrieved ~50,000 microscopic extraterrestrial (ET) particles from high-altitude sedimentary deposits (including micrometeorites, airburst debris, and impact ejecta), and constrained geological and exposure histories for rock outcrops, moraines, and ice in the eastern sector of the continent. Our latest campaign has reached the Belgica Mountains, an isolated ~16-km-long mountain range located, whose scientific potential remains largely untapped. Named during the 1957–1958 Belgian Antarctic Expedition, the area was revisited only briefly by a Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 1998, which recovered 37 meteorites in three days. The ULTIMO project aims to (1) validate the predictive power of existing machine learning approaches to locate meteorite concentration zones and collect/characterize finds in adjacent blue-ice fields, (2) expand the inventory of ET particles and cosmic events by sampling previously unexplored deposits in the Belgica Mountains, (3) assess the potential of surrounding blue-ice fields to preserve ancient ice, (4) study the geological and exposure history of the Belgica Mountains bedrock and associated moraines, and (5) quantify biomass accumulation and microbial colonization in meteorites and soils from this isolated environment. Together, these efforts will advance our understanding of Solar System origins and planetary formation, refine records of past climate, and illuminate the formation and exposure of regional geological and glaciological features.
Join zoom meeting at: https://rediris.zoom.us/j/85134397594?pwd=Sms4OUdSWmdocGh3R1dwU1NJaWk2Zz09
Meeting ID: 851 3439 7594
Passcode: 125143
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A full list of seminars in our webpage: https://cab.inta-csic.es/formacion/seminarios