Bombshell new map reveals what sits below Antarctica’s icy surface (Image: Getty)
A bombshell new map has revealed exactly what sits underneath Antarctica’s mysterious surface. The sheet, which covers an area of almost 14 million square kilometres, is Earth’s largest single ice mass.
But scientists know less about Antarctica’s underbelly than they do about the surfaces of some planets in our Solar System, due to the complexities of observing beneath the ice.
Now, an international team led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh have used a detailed mapping technique with satellite data to provide the most intricate insight to date.
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Landscapes beneath Antarctica mapped from space (Image: Science.org)
Antarctica is Earth’s largest ice mass (Image: Science.org)
“Because making scientific observations through ice is difficult, we know less about the landscape hidden beneath Antarctica than we do about the surface of Mars or Venus,” lead author Dr Helen Ockenden said.
“So it’s really exciting that this new method allows us to use satellite measurements of the ice surface to fill all of the gaps in our maps, revealing new details about mountain ranges, canyons and geological boundaries,” reports the Daily Mail.
The mapping technique is called Ice Flow Perturbation Analysis (IFPA), which identifies shapes in the glacial surface by tracking how the ice moves. They combined IFPA data with satellite observations to reveal the landscape across the whole continent.
“I’m just so excited to look at that and just see the whole bed of Antarctica at once,” said co-author of the study, Prof Robert Bingham, a glaciologist at the University of Edinburgh.
He said that flat plains, dissected plateaus and sharp mountains were all “hidden under the present miles–thick ice cover”, after being sculpted by Antarctica’s ice sheet over millions of years.
Complex mesoscale landscapes beneath Antarctica mapped from space (Image: Science.org)
“With this technique we are able to observe for the first time the relative distributions of these highly variable landscapes over the whole continent.”
The team said their findings could provide crucial insight into how Antarctica may respond to climate change, and what it could mean for rising sea levels.
Mathieu Morlighem from Dartmouth College, US, said: “Understanding the landscape beneath Antarctica is really important for ice–sheet models.
“In particular, rougher areas with more hills can really slow down the retreat of the ice sheet, and so this new map will help our models to produce better projections of where and how much sea levels will rise in the future.”
There is still much to be discovered about the rocks below the ice, but researchers believe that the maps are a valuable step forward.
The findings were published in the journal Science.
