Bombshell new map reveals what sits below Antarctica’s icy surface | UK | News
Bombshell new map reveals what lies beneath Antarctica’s icy surface (Image: Getty)
A bombshell new map has revealed exactly what lies beneath Antarctica’s mysterious surface. Covering an area of approximately 14 million square kilometers, the sheet is the largest single ice mass on Earth.
But scientists know less about Antarctica’s heartland. They do so on the surfaces of some planets in our Solar System because of the complexity of observing underneath. ice.
Now, an international team led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh has used a detailed mapping technique with satellite data to provide the most sophisticated insight yet.
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Landscapes beneath Antarctica mapped from space (Image: Science.org)
Antarctica is the world’s largest ice floe (Image: Science.org)
The lead author of the study, Dr. “Because scientific observations are difficult to make through ice, we know less about the hidden landscapes beneath Antarctica than we do about the surface of Mars or Venus,” said Helen Ockenden. he said.
“So it’s really exciting that this new method allows us to use satellite measurements of the ice surface to fill in all the gaps in our maps, revealing new details about mountain ranges, canyons and geological boundaries.” Daily Mail.
The mapping technique is called Ice Flow Perturbation Analysis (IFPA), which identifies patterns on the glacier surface by tracking how the ice moves. They combined IFPA data with satellite observations to reveal the landscape across the entire continent.
“I’m very excited to look at this and see the entire bed of Antarctica at once,” said study co-author Prof Robert Bingham, a glaciologist at the University of Edinburgh.
After being shaped by Antarctica’s ice sheet over millions of years, the flat plains, shattered plateaus and sharp mountains are all “hidden beneath the current mile-thick ice cap,” he said.
Complex mesoscale landscapes beneath Antarctica mapped from space (Image: Science.org)
“With this technique, we can observe for the first time the relative distributions of these highly variable landscapes across the entire continent.”
The team said their findings could provide important information about how Antarctica may respond to climate change and what this could mean for rising sea levels.
Mathieu Morlighem, from Dartmouth College in the US, said: “Understanding the landscape beneath Antarctica is really important for ice sheet models.
“Tougher areas, especially with more hills, can really slow down the retreat of the ice sheet, and so this new map will help our models produce better predictions of where and how much sea levels will rise in the future.”
There’s still much to discover about the rocks beneath the ice, but researchers believe the maps are a valuable step forward.
The findings were published in the journal Science.
