Scientists have discovered an area near the South Pole where the base of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting unexpectedly quickly. Using radar to look through three km of ice, the team found that some of the ice – covering an area that's twice the size of Greater London – appeared to be missing. The results are published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.
This new study explains how an unusual amount of geothermal heat has melted, and continues to melt, the base of the ice, resulting in the ice sheet layers above sagging downwards.
The team believes the heat source is a combination of unusually radioactive rocks, and hot water coming from deep under the ground. This heat melts the base of the ice sheet, producing melt-water which drains away beneath the ice sheet filling subglacial lakes downstream. The presence of this extra water may help lubricate the fast flowing ice in this area.
T. A. Jordan et al. Anomalously high geothermal flux near the South Pole, Scientific Reports (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-35182-0
