Thanks to an underwater survey robot, oceanographers are getting the first-ever readings collected from underneath East Antarctic’s vast ice shelves. However, the float at one point journeyed underneath the Denman and Shackleton Ice Shelves, where it spent the next eight months collecting readings from a never-accessed region of the planet. “These unprecedented observations provide new insights into the vulnerability of the ice shelves,” Rintoul added. The Shackleton Ice Shelf is the furthest north in the East Antarctic and remains unexposed to warmer waters that might melt it from below. This melting is largely dependent on the ocean’s state within a nearly 33-foot-thick boundary layer that exists directly underneath the ice shelf itself.