Buried beneath thick slabs of Antarctic icethere liesa craggy landscape , plate to mountains , valleys , and – scientist now bonk – a monolithic , subglacial gullet deep than the Grand Canyon .
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-what-antarctica-will-look-like-without-all-that-452404119
https://gizmodo.com/our-clearest-view-yet-of-antarctica-stripped-of-all-its-511636795
Photo Credit : IceBridge project scientist Michael Studinger seize this photograph of a arresting Antarctic icescape beneath a looming lenticular swarm on November 24 , 2013 . Beneath the continent ’s icy sweep lies a rugged terrain scientists are just beginning to chart .
A team of researchers lead by Newcastle University ’s Neil Ross used radiolocation and satellite imagination garner in collaboration with NASA ’s IceBridge mission to chart a prehistoric Antarctic mountain scope known as the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands . It was in doing so that they discovered an enormous chasm measuring 1.8 miles deep , 186 miles long and , at some points , as much as 15 land mile wide .
By comparison , the Grand Canyon bill longer and , at point , encompassing than the newly discover Antarctic oceanic abyss , coming it at just over 275 stat mi long and up to 18 mil wide ; but where the Antarctic chasm wins out is deepness , its profundity extend at detail to almost twice that of the Grand Canyon ’s . ( Interestingly , when it comes to sheer upright extent , neither of these geologic rifts can contend with Nepal ’s Kali Gandaki Gorge ; at some point 18,278 foot lower than the bounding peak of Anapurna I , it is arguably the deepest gorge on Earth ) .
In the late issue of theGeological Society of America Bulletin , Ross and his colleagues hypothesize that the canyon and the relief of the Ellsworth subglacial highlands constitute some 80 million years ago , when the Antarctic continent separated from what was once a unified worldwide landmass , and was by and by layer over with glaciers that further gouged , and later hid , the lands below them .
“ To me , this just goes to attest how lilliputian we still know about the surface of our own major planet , ” said Ross in astatement . “ The find and exploration of hidden , antecedently unknown landscape is still potential and incredibly exciting , even now . ”
Read the full studyat the GSA Bulletin .
Antarcticaearth scienceGeologyScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , science , and culture tidings in your inbox daily .
intelligence from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
