Few people can say that they know icy paradise, Antarctica This place, in addition to being the fourth largest continent on the planet, is also the driest, cold and windy. With an area of about 14,000,000 km2, ice -free areas constitute only less than 1%. This continent remains a mystery for many and is surprising with new findings and unknowns.
And what is hiding under the ice? This is one of the questions that scientists are most asked. Now, finally, we could answer it thanks to the new investigations of a team led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which leaves us The most detailed map until the date of the Antarctic Landscape. Known as Bedmap3, it incorporates more than six decades of study data acquired by airplanes, satellites, ships and even dogs lying. The results are published this week in the journal Scientific Data.
The map offers us a clear vision of the white continent as if they had eliminated their 27 million cubic kilometers of ice, revealing the hidden location of the highest mountains and the deepest cannons. If all this ice disappeared, the oceans would rise 58 meters worldwide. The average thickness is almost two kilometers.
Rocky mountains and deep cannons
Recent studies in the Eastern Antarctica have filled important knowledge lagoons, including the area around the South Pole, along the Antarctic Peninsula and the coasts of the West Antarctica, and in the transantartical mountains. The contour of the deep valleys is better represented, as well as the places where the rock mountains stand out from ice.
The landscape of the rock bed under Antarctic ice is detected through various techniques, such as radar, seismic reflection and gravity measurements. Subtracting this topography of the form and elevation of the upper ice provides “fascinating” statistical data on the polar south, according to scientists.
Thicker than estimated
Another fact that has also been discovered recently is that the ice layer is thicker. This has been confirmed by Peter Fretwell, a specialist in cartography and co -author of the BAS: “In general, it has been clear that the Antarctic ice layer is thicker than we thought Originally and has a greater volume of ice based on a rock bed located below sea level. This increases the risk of ice member due to the incursion of warm oceanic water in the banks of the continent. What Bedmap3 shows us is that we have A slightly more vulnerable Antarctica than we thought.
#scientists #discover #image #Antarctica #ice
