What's under all that ice in Antarctica? New map has answers.
Have you ever wondered what Antarctica might look like without ice?
Now, a new map released this week gives us a clear view of the continent as if its massive sheet of ice has been removed, revealing the hidden locations of its tallest mountains and the deepest canyons.
The mapping effort, called Bedmap3, includes far more detail than previous maps and includes millions more data points.
"In general, it's become clear the Antarctic ice sheet is thicker than we originally realized," said Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey, which produced the map.
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The findings were published this week in the journal Scientific Data.
What is an ice sheet?
Ice sheets are masses of glacial land ice extending more than 20,000 square miles, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said. There are only two ice sheets worldwide today, the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. They contain more than 99% of the land ice on Earth.
The huge size of the ice sheets means that the loss of even a small fraction of their total ice can significantly raise sea levels. From 2002 to 2017, for example, due to global warming, ice sheet losses accounted for roughly a third of mean sea level rise.
The Antarctic ice sheet, which covers 98% of the continent, averages around 1.2 miles in thickness, with its thickest point reaching nearly 3 miles, the Australian Antarctic Program reports.
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Why is the map important?
“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," said Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at BAS and lead author of the study.
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Known as Bedmap3, the map incorporates more than six decades of survey data acquired by planes, satellites, ships and even dog-drawn sleds.
The outline of deep valleys is better represented in the new map, the BAS said. So too are those places where rocky mountains stick up through the ice. "The latest satellite data have also more accurately recorded the height and shape of the ice sheet and the thickness of the floating ice shelves that push out over the ocean at the continent’s margin," the BAS said in a statement.
A 'vulnerable Antarctica'
Scientists said the map revealed that the ice sheet is 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," Fretwell said.