Lake the size of a city discovered under several kilometers of ice in Antarctica
Scientists searching the underside of the world's largest ice area in East Antarctica have discovered a lake the size of a city, the sediments of which may reveal more Antarctic secrets.
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| Lake the size of a city |
In a first of its kind, scientists have found a vast area of liquid water under the ice layers in Antarctica. A discovery that could have implications for how the icy continent responds to global warming.
This discovery could help understand the mechanism of rising sea levels. On May 5, the prestigious "Science" magazine published a study detailing the discovery made by a group of scientists in the "Whillans Ice Stream", an area in West Antarctica located 700 kilometers from the South Pole.
Under the ice heap was found a layer of very old sediment containing huge amounts of water.
This liquid slick consists of a mixture of seawater and fresh water melted from the ice, and it helps the ice blocks slide over the sediments.
In recent years, researchers have discovered "hundreds" of interconnected lakes and rivers within the ice itself. But the amount of water detected in these sediments is unprecedented, explains Chloe Gustafson, the oceanographer who led the study, noting that "the sediments have a spongy texture."
"We used to think that these sediments could contain water, but no one has done detailed imaging yet," she added.
The study notes the importance of the role groundwater plays in the movement of glacial flows, a process necessary to understand them to predict the effects of climate change on sea levels. These underground currents are responsible for pulling 90% of the ice masses out of Antarctica into the oceans.
Future studies will focus on understanding how quickly this ice moves from the continent to the ocean and affects sea level rise, according to the scientists supervising it.