With the icebergs covering the seafloor, organisms below the shelf cannot get nutrients for survival from the surface. The team hypothesized that ocean currents are a critical driver for life beneath the ice sheets. The team also collected data on the larger ice sheet, whose shrinking size spells concern for the animals that live beneath it.

Earlier this year, an iceberg the size of Chicago broke off the Antarctic Peninsula. When the gigantic iceberg calved, it revealed a previously hidden 209-square-mile area of seafloor that had never been accessible to humans before.