Scientists have unveiled the most detailed map yet of the landscape beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet, providing a clear view of the continent’s hidden features and elevations. The map, known as Bedmap3, incorporates data from over six decades of surveys using planes, satellites, ships, and even dog-drawn sleds.
The results reveal that the thickest overlying ice is not in the previously thought Astrolabe Basin but in an unnamed canyon in Wilkes Land at 76.052°S, 118.378°E. This ice is 4,757 meters thick, equivalent to 15 times the height of the UK’s tallest skyscraper.
The new map will become a crucial tool for understanding how Antarctica might respond to a warming climate. It enables scientists to study interactions between the ice sheet and the bed, helping them predict where the ice will flow as temperatures rise.
“We’re looking at a situation like pouring syrup over a rock cake,” says Dr. Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at BAS. “The lumps and bumps in the terrain determine where the syrup goes and how fast it flows.”
Bedmap3 includes more than double the number of data points as its predecessor (82 million) on a 500m grid spacing, providing a refined picture of Antarctica’s rock bed. Recent surveys have filled significant knowledge gaps, including around the South Pole, along the Antarctic Peninsula, and in the Transantarctic Mountains.
The map also offers new insights into deep valleys, rocky mountains sticking through the ice, and grounding lines – areas where ice meets the ocean and begins to float. The updated data provides fascinating statistics on Antarctica’s polar south, including a total volume of 27.17 million cubic kilometers of ice, a mean thickness of 1,948 meters (excluding ice shelves), and a potential global sea-level rise of 58 meters if all ice melted.
While the findings confirm that Antarctica is thicker than previously thought, with a larger volume of ice grounded on bedrock below sea level, they also highlight the continent’s increased vulnerability to melting due to warming ocean water at its edges.
Source: https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/new-map-of-landscape-beneath-antarctica-unveiled