New Map Reveals Antarctica’s Hidden Landscape
Scientists have produced the most detailed map yet of the landscape hidden beneath Antarctica’s vast ice sheet, offering new insights into how the continent may respond to climate change. Using satellite observations combined with physical models of glacier movement, researchers reconstructed the shape of the land buried under kilometres of ice. The results reveal thousands of previously unknown hills and ridges and provide far clearer images of subglacial mountain ranges than earlier maps. Although uncertainties remain, the team says the new data significantly improves understanding of Antarctica’s underlying terrain and its influence on ice flow. This knowledge is critical for predicting how fast glaciers could retreat as temperatures rise and how much they may contribute to future sea-level rise. Until now, scientists have had a strong grasp of Antarctica’s icy surface thanks to satellites, but the bedrock below has been […]