The icy blue peaks jutting out of the water across Antarctica are breathtaking in nature… but have you ever wondered what the underside of an ice shelf looks like?

That question was posed by researchers who used an underwater drone to map the underside of Dotson Ice Shelf, West Antarctica, and recently published their findings in the journal Science Advances. The study was meant was meant to help gauge how fast ice in Antarctica is melting due to global warming.

“I couldn’t stop looking at it,” University of Gothenburg, Sweden oceanographer and the study’s first author Anna Wahlin told  The New York Times. “We had no idea it could look like this.”

The belly of the icy beast is its own unique landscape, shaped by the strong ocean waves that melt and chip away at the structures across the continent.

As the study noted:

Convection and intermittent warm water intrusions form widespread terraced features through slow melting in quiescent areas, while shear-driven turbulence rapidly melts smooth, eroded topographies in outflow areas, as well as enigmatic teardrop-shaped indentations that result from boundary-layer flow rotation. Full-thickness ice fractures, with bases modified by basal melting and convective processes, are observed throughout the area. This new wealth of processes, all active under a single ice shelf, must be considered to accurately predict future Antarctic ice shelf melt.

Wahlin and her team used a 20-foot underwater drone dubbed Ran, to dive under the Dotson Ice Shelf in West Antarctica and capture its hidden underside using sonar technology. The images it captured help scientists better understand how ocean waves impact the evolution of ice shelves as they melt.

Peter Davis, a British Antarctic Survey oceanographer and study contributor, told the NYT that the team believed the waves would smooth out the hidden watery depths of the ice shelf, but the images from the drone show that’s clearly not the case.

“It looks like a beach after the tide’s gone out,” Davis said.

The information gathered could help scientists forecast more precise sea level increases from global warming, New York University mathematics and ocean science professor and study contributor David Holland told the NYT.

And this information may also inform us on how to make more resilient major cities and neighborhoods in low-lying areas, which are in danger of geting swamped by rising sea levels.

The next key? We have to listen to what the ice shelves are telling us.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.