Massive super-hot rock underground is the cause of an ice area larger than the US island of Rhodes missing in Antarctica.
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has used radar to see through 2.9km of ice in an area called the South Pole , near the southernmost point, to understand the thickness of the ice and the underground lakes below. .
Thanks to that, they found the culprit that caused an ice area larger than the US island of Rhodes to suddenly disappear recently. Rhodes Island has an area of up to 3,144 square kilometers .
Diagram of a hot rock (red) melting Antarctic ice from below – (photo: Tom Jordan).
The frozen area has been unusually melted and scientists previously suspected that some mysterious geothermal source was emerging. Now, through the radar image, a radioactive hot rock measuring 100x500km has appeared.
Scientist Tom Jordan, a member of the research team, said that the process of the aforementioned rock melting the ice could have been going on for thousands, even millions of years, silently beneath the permafrost before the changes can be observed from the surface.
Explorers on the plane used to take radar pictures, detect rocks – (photo: BAS).
This process does not immediately change the texture of the Antarctic ice sheet as a whole, but in the long run, excess water from molten rock could make the icy continent more sensitive to climate changes. Queen.
In addition to hot rocks, geothermal springs may also be partly responsible for this melting.
The results surprised scientists because previous knowledge confirmed that beneath Antarctica’s permafrost lies an ancient layer of cold ice that has little effect on the ice above.
Map depicting the location of the South Pole hot rock – (photo: BAS).
This is not the first mysterious heat source in Antarctica. Last year, scientists discovered an ancient source of heat known as the ” mantle plume” in West Antarctica, which is also unusually hot rock that rises from the Earth’s crust, melting even solid rock in its path. It. Currently, it is not very active, but in the past, this mantle beam has risen and saved the earth from the ice age.