Radio-echo sounding has revealed unexpectedly vast flat surfaces beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, previously thought to be mostly mountainous. These areas, formed by rivers after the breakup of East Antarctica and Australia, are now separated by deep trenches. The flat surfaces affect ice flow, potentially regulating rates of ice loss and influencing global sea level projections. These regions indicate that significant parts of the landscape have been preserved for over 30 million years, crucial for understanding ice sheet behavior in response to climate change.
The landscape hidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the most mysterious not just on Earth, but on any terrestrial planet in the solar system.
The flat areas appear to act as a barrier to ice flow and may currently be regulating the rate of ice loss.
The flat surfaces we have found have managed to survive relatively intact for over 30 million years, indicating that parts of the ice sheet have preserved rather than eroded the landscape.
Adding the flat surface effects into models of future ice sheet behaviour could help refine projections of how the ice sheet might react to climate change.
Collection
[
|
...
]