What Antarctica Looks Like Without Ice
Beneath its frozen surface sits a solid continent of mountains, rocky terrain, and gold-spewing volcanoes. This hidden world has now been revealed in stunning detail thanks to a groundbreaking map developed by international scientists led by the British Antarctic Survey
Called Bedmap3, it was created using over 60 years of survey data collected by satellites, planes, ships, and dog-drawn sleds.
A variety of imaging techniques were used to map out the bedrock beneath the colossal ice sheet – which has an average thickness of 2100 meters (6900 feet) – including radar, seismic reflection, and gravity measurements.
All in all, the map was built using over 82 million data points, rendered on a 500-meter (1,640-foot) grid spacing. As the name suggests, it’s the third incarnation of attempts to map Antarctica’s rock bed, featuring more than double the number of previous data points than the previous effort, Bedmap2.
Bedmap3 shows many geographical features in significantly sharper detail, including Antarctica’s deep valleys, rocky mountains, and regions where the floating ice shelves push out over the ocean at the continent’s edge.
Many of the map’s improvements are thanks to recent technological advances and new expeditions, particularly to East Antarctica, the largest and least explored part of the continent.
This vast region includes not only the interior but also the immense ice sheet that remains largely inaccessible due to its extreme remoteness and harsh environmental conditions.
As one of the most untouched areas of the world, East Antarctica has long posed challenges for researchers, making it the focus of increased exploration in recent years.
The map will be used to better understand the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets. For instance, based on the data used to create this map, it’s possible to see that the global sea level has the potential to rise by around 58 meters (190 feet) if all ice in Antarctica melted.
Editor’s note: this would require a temperature increase in Antarctica of at least 40C, just to get to zero degrees C, and if that happened, there would be no life on Earth to witness the melting.
“This is the fundamental information that underpins the computer models we use to investigate how the ice will flow across the continent as temperatures rise. Imagine pouring syrup over a rock cake – all the lumps, all the bumps, will determine where the syrup goes and how fast. And so it is with Antarctica: some ridges will hold up the flowing ice; the hollows and smooth bits are where that ice could accelerate,” Dr Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at BAS and lead author on the study detailing the new map, said in a statement.
“In general, it’s become clear the Antarctic Ice Sheet is thicker than we originally realized and has a larger volume of ice that is grounded on a rock bed sitting below sea-level. This puts the ice at greater risk of melting due to the incursion of warm ocean water that’s occurring at the fringes of the continent. What Bedmap3 is showing us is that we have got a slightly more vulnerable Antarctica than we previously thought,” said Peter Fretwell, mapping specialist and co-author at BAS.
The map was produced as part of a new study published in the Nature journal Scientific Data.
See more here iflscience.com
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
Who is Tom Hale? Now we now will better see how much ice there is on the actual continent. And I will see if the recent comments will be posted as before.
Have a good day
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Jerry Krause
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Hi, I see I lucky that weeks ago a new button ‘W’ appeared from I know not where.
And I find the previous old bottoms still do not work.
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James Edward Kamis
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This high definition subglacial topographic map greatly improves our understanding Antarctica’s geological setting. For instance, as has been proposed by many geoolgists, it proves that there are thousands of medium to smaller size interconnected faults in West Antarctica. Multiple research studies during the last twenty years have concluded that the subglacial bedrock heat flow of West Antarctica is up to three times higher than the average value of non-ice covered continents. Knowing the location of these faults and then comparing them to the exsiting low resolution bedrock heat flow maps helps us judge which faults act as open condiuts for high heat emitted deep earth molten lava chambers to rise upward and melt specific portions of West Antarctica’s glacial ice.
Those advocating the Climate Change Theory claim that the melting of certain specific West Antrctic glaciers is caused by anthropogenic warming of the underlying ocean water. This idea doesn’t “hold water” becuase proposing that it is possible to divide for long periods of time the massive volume of ocean water present along the coast of West Anarctica into distinct areas of hot and cold is difficult to envision and some would say impossible. Also, the ever changing vertical and horizontal current speed of ocean water surrouding West Antarctica into well defined small areas for long periods of time is again difficult to envision. The high resolution topographic map of Antarctica is the frist step in proving geological forces play a far greater role in many aspects of this underexplored continent.
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