If you were to look at an image of Antarctica today, it would probably look like a long, flat expanse of ice (minus the mountains and cliffs, of course).
However, underneath, it's a completely different story.
The average thickness of ice at the top of everything is 1.4 miles, but underneath are the Rockies, volcanoes, and canyons that have been trapped there for millions of years.
Satellite data and radar surveys allow the bedrock topography to be seen with stunning clarity, We have a really amazing map called BedMachine Antarctica.
The map is the culmination of years of research by 19 different institutions around the world, including NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Australian Cooperative Research Center Programme, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the British Antarctic Survey.
Looking at it is like having X-ray vision, and the data on the map is a gold mine for the scientific community around the world.
One of the biggest surprises discovered by the study is how large Denman Glacier actually is – at 11,500 feet below sea level, it is the deepest point on Earth's continent.
Professor Mathieu Morlighem, associate professor at the University of California, Irvine, issued a statement on the discovery in 2019.
“Older maps show a shallower canyon, but that's not possible; something is missing. Based on conservation of mass, combined with existing radar measurements and ice motion data, we know how much ice flows through the canyon—according to By our calculations, the canyon reaches 3,500 meters below sea level, making it the deepest point on land. Because it is relatively narrow, it must be very deep to allow that much ice to reach the coast.
The fact that Antarctica has volcanic tendencies also surprises some people, Although there are 138 volcanoes in West Antarctica alone.
Most are dormant, but about nine of them are still active today. At 12,448 feet tall, Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano on Earth.
So, it's not as boring as it seems.
I guess that's true of a lot of things in this world.
h/t James K.
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