that pattern gave polar scientist mike veba an idea if he could count how many icebergs had traveled through this alley in the past he could calculate how much ice antarctica stands to lose. vader had to find a key to unlock the past a past that's locked away at the bottom of the antarctic ocean at the depths of modern 3000 meters. icebergs contain debris as they melt this rock and soil fulls to the seabed and forms a layer of sediment the daybreak can be measured in core samples extracted from the sediment that allows scientists to calculate the number of icebergs that have traveled along the particular average. most of these niklaus and we've dated the biggest event of 14. 1600 years ago that was a period when sea levels rose by 60 meters in about 400 years understanding is. the sediment cause tell the story. during certain phases the slumbering giant can awaken and the rate of ice loss can soar among con fos in a can and be here we can see phases like here where there's very little sediment and stuff and here these are stable phases in the ice sheet they occur in both cold and war