An unexpected river under the Antarctic ice sheet affects the flow and melting of ice, potentially accelerating ice loss as the climate warms. New research reveals a river deep under the ice in Antarctica that is 285 miles (460 km) long, making it longer than the River Thames. The study details h
, Canada, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, and Newcastle University, were recently published in the journalCo-author Professor Martin Siegert, from the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said: “When we first discovered lakes beneath the Antarctic ice a couple of decades ago, we thought they were isolated from each other.
In Antarctica, however, the surface doesn’t melt in sufficient quantities to create moulins, as the summers are still too cold. It was thought this meant that there was relatively little water at the base of the Antarctic ice sheets. That such a large system could be undiscovered until now is a testament to how much we still need to learn about the continent, says lead researcher Dr. Christine Dow from the University of Waterloo.
For example, the newly discovered river emerges into the sea beneath a floating ice shelf – where a glacier extending out from the land is buoyant enough to begin floating on the ocean water. The freshwater from the river however churns up warmer water towards the bottom of the ice shelf, melting it from below.
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