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Scientists collect more evidence that could reveal hidden lake deep below Antarctica
| Maine News Online | - |
The Christian Science Monitor
reported that the first announcement in relation to this data was made
in January this year. Many scientific institutes have published the
initial proof in the scientific journal Geology.
Scientists collect more evidence that could reveal hidden lake deep below Antarctica
Written by Tanya Campbell on 29 Apr 2016
Last week, while giving a presentation at the European Geosciences Union in Vienna, scientists disclosed data indicating the presence of a canyon system under Princess Elizabeth Land on Antarctica’s Eastern coast. According to the predictions of the researchers, a huge sub-glacial lake is running across the system.
In case the discovery of lake proves right, it can possibly prove helpful in filling gaps regarding one of the most enigmatic areas of the continent.
The mystery lake is supposedly nearly 100 km long and 10 km broad and has a shape of that of a ribbon. While speaking to New Scientist, Martin Siegert, one of the members of the lake investigating team of Imperial College London, said that the canyon system that runs through it is possibly over 1,000 kilometers long and at some sites goes around one kilometer deep.
The Christian Science Monitor reported that the first announcement in relation to this data was made in January this year. Many scientific institutes have published the initial proof in the scientific journal Geology.
Both canyon system and lake could be present deep underneath the glacial sheets, but the proof of their existence was originally observed from the surface using satellite imaging and radio-echo sounding methods.
According to a report in CS Monitor by Corey Fedde, "Scientists, presenting at the European Geosciences Union in Vienna last week, revealed data that indicates the existence of a canyon system beneath Princess Elizabeth Land on the Eastern coast of the continent. The researchers predict that a large subglacial lake runs through that system."
"Our analysis provides the first evidence that a huge canyon and a possible lake are present beneath the ice in Princess Elizabeth Land," lead researcher Dr. Stewart Jamieson, of England's Durham University, said in a press release in January. "This is a region of the Earth that is bigger than the UK and yet we still know little about what lies beneath the ice."
"Collectively, the researchers describe a wetland-like area beneath the ice. Subglacial Lake Whillans is primarily fed by ice melt, but also contains small amounts of seawater from ancient marine sediments on the lake bed. The lake waters periodically drain through channels to the ocean, but with insufficient energy to carry much sediment," according to a news report published by Ucsd.
The new insights will not only allow scientists to better understand the biogeochemistry and mechanics of the lake itself, but will also allow them to use that information to improve models of how Antarctic subglacial lake systems interact with the ice above and sediment below. These models will help assess the contribution that subglacial lakes may have on the flow of water from the continent to the ocean, and therefore to sea-level rise.
A report published in MNN said, "Antarctica might be an icy, barren, windswept landscape today, but millions of years ago it was home to thriving forests, dinosaurs, and a breathtaking landscape replete with rivers, lakes and massive canyons. Much of its past is still sitting there, buried underneath layers of ice, waiting to be discovered in the form of fossils and geology."
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