Something strange and hot is hiding under the ice of Antarctica

Something unusual – and very hot – is happening under the ice sheets of Antarctica.

A new study has shown that the Antarctic ice sheet at the South Pole has a giant "hot spot": its size is three times larger. London – under its rock in place.

As reported in the journal Scientific Reports this week, the extremely hot zone is not likely to melt Antarctica so early. However, the researchers noted that its extreme heat had caused the subsidence of an ice cover of 100 km by 50 km (62 km by 31 km), as you can see on the graph below. .

"This project was really exciting. It consisted of exploring one of the last regions of the planet totally unsupervised. Our results were quite unexpected, as many people thought that this region of Antarctica was made of old and cold rocks, which had little impact on the pack ice above, "said the main author, Dr. Tom Jordan of the British Antarctic Survey in a statement . "We show that even in the old continental interior, the underlying geology can have a significant impact on the ice."

It is unknown how long the hotspot has been there, but it is certainly not new.The researchers believe that it has been there for years. thousands, if not millions of years. "That said, the outside environment is changing rapidly, and this part of the Antarctic ice could become particularly vulnerable to melting.

" In the future , the extra water on the surface of the icecap could make this region more sensitive to external factors such as climate change, "added Dr. Jordan 19659011] It is believed that heat is generated by unusually heavy rocks. radioactive material in the earth's crust, as well as geothermally heated water from underground depths. Scientists are uncertain because they do not have access to rocks.

The British Antarctic Survey team came to this conclusion using radar data collected by an aircraft to scan through 3 km (1.8 miles) of ice, providing them all kinds information on the thickness, structure and conditions of the ice cap and its layers.

This project also aimed to fill the gaps of an incredible mission of the European Space Agency using satellite gravimetric mapping data around the South Pole. to examine the terrestrial lithosphere under the ice. The results have been remarkable. As noted in a recent study, their work has uncovered a mosaic of continents and geological features that have disappeared from the Earth's lithosphere.