Have you ever stared at the long ice sheets of Antarctica and wondered what lay beneath? Now researchers at Columbia University have studied this question and found an answer that may surprise you, according to a statement released by the institution on Thursday.
Hypotheses come to life
The team discovered for the first time a once huge, actively circulating system of groundwater in deep sediments in West Antarctica.
“People speculate that there may be deep groundwater in these sediments, but so far no one has taken any detailed images,” the study’s lead author, Chloe Gustafson, who did the study as a graduate, said in a press release. student at Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Observatory.
“The amount of groundwater we found was so significant that it probably affects the processes of ice flow. Now we need to understand more and figure out how to include it in the models.”
Significant danger in warming climates
As exciting as the discovery is, it also shows some of the dangers associated with today’s climate crisis. Researchers warn that most of Antarctica’s sedimentary basins are currently below current sea levels, which means that if ice shelves recede in a warming climate, ocean waters could invade the sediments again and glaciers behind them could rush in. forward, raising sea levels around the world.
“Antarctica has 57 meters (187 feet) of potential for sea level rise, so we want to make sure we include all the processes that control how ice flows off the continent into the oceans. Groundwater is currently lacking a process in our ice flow models, “Gustafson said in an email to CNN.
Gustafson and her team used a technique called magnetotelluric imaging to map the sediments under the ice for a six-week period in 2018. They explored a 60-mile (96.6-kilometer) area belonging to Whillans Ice Stream, one of several streams. feeding the Ross Ice Shelf, the world’s largest.
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