Friday , June 2 2023

Something weird and hot is hidden under Antarctic ice



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There is something unusual – and very, very hot – it happens under the Antarctic ice sheets.

A new study showed that the Antarctic ice sheet on the south pole has a huge "focal point" – the triple size of London – under its thigh.

As published in the journal Scientific reports This week, probably a hot zone is unlikely to sink Antarctica soon. However, researchers note that its extreme heat caused an area of ​​ice layers of 100 to 50 km (62 to 31 miles) to bend and lean down, as you can see in the picture below.

"This was a really exciting project, exploring one of the last completely untapped regions on our planet. Our results were quite unexpected, because many believe that this region of Antarctica was made of ancient and cold rocks, which had little impact on the ice sheet above "said lead author Dr Tom Jordan of the British Antarctic Survey statement. "We show that even in the ancient continental interior, basic geology can have a significant effect on ice."

A graphic representation of an aircraft used by an aerial radar to map an ice sheet and a bed. Tom Jordan / British Antarctic Survey

It's not clear how long the focus was there, but certainly it's not new. Researchers estimate that it has been there for thousands of years, perhaps even millions. After all, the external environment is changing rapidly. With global temperatures continuing to grow, this part of the Antarctic ice can become particularly sensitive to melting.

"In the future, an additional amount of ice on the ice can make this region more vulnerable to external factors such as climate change," added Dr. Jordan.

It is thought that heat generates unusually radioactive walls in the upper crust of the earth, as well as geothermal warm water that comes deep under the earth. However, the truth is said, scientists are not sure about it because I can not access the walls.

The team of the British Antarctic Research made this conclusion using data from radars collected from aircraft to learn about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of ice, providing them with all kinds of insights into the thickness, structure and conditions of the ice sheet and its layers.

This project also tried to fill the void of an incredible mission of the European Space Agency that used gravity mapping of satellite data around the southern pole to be in the lithosphere of the earth under the ice. The results were excellent. As documented in a recent study, their work was able to detect the patchwork of long lost continents and geological features on the Earth's lithosphere.

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