Latest news with #Bedmap3
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
An icy new map of Antarctica could help direct the search for alien life
Where does life lurk under the ice of Antarctica? The answers keep surprising us. In January, for example, researchers found corals, sponges and even giant sea spiders some 750 feet under the waves — all suddenly unearthed when a glacier broke free during a Schmidt Ocean Institute voyage. The find is hardly unusual; in 2021, another team uncovered sponges and other species underneath nearly 3,000 feet of ice in the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf — the first time any living creatures had been found there. But with global heating and climate change wreaking havoc on the ice caps of Antarctica, researchers are looking to a new map of the south polar region to better map global warming changes and their effects on subglacial life. These efforts won't just inform how to protect these fragile ecosystems — they could act as a sort of road map for finding alien life on other worlds. Sharper satellite images helped form the backbone of Bedmap3, which updates maps of icy Antarctica — particularly among the high mountains and isolated interior of the eastern part of the continent. As the name Bedmap3 implies, this is the third map of Antarctica produced by a group led by the British Antarctica Survey (BAS); the first was done in the early 2000s. As we better map isolated and icy areas on Earth, these findings also help inform where life not only can form, but thrive. Glacial-crusted moons dot our solar system near the giant planets, most famously watery Europa near Jupiter and the fountain-spouting Enceladus near Saturn. In October, NASA launched Europa Clipper, a probe that will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) and survey the Jupiterian moon. In a release, NASA said Europa Clipper would fly-by just 16 miles from the surface, equipped with 'ice-penetrating radar, cameras, and a thermal instrument to look for areas of warmer ice and any recent eruptions of water.' But it won't arrive until 2031 and that's only one icy world that could be home to life — most recently, it was reported that Miranda, a moon of Uranus, might be another candidate for extremophile life that can flourish under intense cold. We'll need far more spacecraft to figure out if anything living lies under the crust of these worlds, but in the meantime, Antarctica serves as a handy analog to figure out the limits of life. "The more we know about Earth's icy environments, the better we will be able to understand the other environments," said Robin E. Bell, referring to icy moons. Bell is a research professor at Columbia University who has led 10 expeditions to Antarctica and Greenland in part to study deep subglacial lakes. While not involved in Bedmap3, Bell said the study holds potential: its higher resolution will show how "the water clearly pulses between the smaller lakes, and flows uphill in the Gamburtsev Mountains, until it is refrozen to the ice sheet base," she because Bedmap3 bumps up the resolution of imaging from space – after all, satellites have much improved over the decades – as well as better defining the edge of where the ice meets the sea, Peter T. Fretwell, a BAS geographic information officer, told Salon. Fretwell was second author on a scientific paper published last month in Scientific Data describing Bedmap3's results. Each grid square on the map has a resolution of a third of a mile in length, which is a substantial improvement from Bedmap2, he noted. On that map, some of the more isolated areas had a resolution of just three miles by three miles. The community is already working on lake databases and hydrological models based on the Bedmap3 results, and anticipates using this information for ice sheet modeling, geology and better simulations of how the environment used to behave in the ancient past, Fretwell said. "We hope that these new datasets will be out shortly," he added. While Fretwell cautioned he is not an expert in lacustrine habitats, meaning large bodies of water where life may be possible, he said Bedmap3 will help inform new studies of subglacial lakes. The community will be meeting soon to go over the results, he added: "One thing that is planned is a meeting in May to look at how we go forward with future glaciological survey following on from Bedmap3." Bell is already excited for the potential, after having led teams that found a volcano underneath the west Antarctic ice sheet and that spotted several lakes embedded in ice roughly two miles thick. She said the satellites and aerial surveys that created Bedmap3 will allow researchers to better estimate how thick the ice is, particularly in transient zones where the grounded ice changes to a floating ice shelf. "Our knowledge of subglacial lacustrine environments has hinged largely on satellite measurements and radar mapping," Bell said, noting that the under-ice Lake Vostok – first suggested by Soviet sounding studies in the 1950s and 1960s – was at last confirmed in 1993 using laser altimetry from the European Remote Sensing-1 satellite. Lake Vostok is roughly 34 million years old, but Bell is among the researchers who have suggested water circulated through the microbe-filled lake roughly every 50,000 years. When Bell's study was published in 2002, the researchers noted the ice sheet and the lake depend on one another; the circulation of the lake is controlled by the ice sheet thickness, and the cycle of freezing and melting at the base of the ice controls changes in water, sediment and life. Large and small lakes alike are therefore largely affected in the zone "where the base of the ice sheet melts and where that meltwater flows," Bell said. She expects Bedmap3 will help improve the existing ice sheet models and help researchers better understanding how water flows under the thick ice of Antarctica. And perhaps, even faraway moons.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
What's Beneath All That Ice In Antarctica? New Map Reveals The Hidden World And Possibly The Future
What comes to mind when you think of Antarctica? Probably snow and ice. But a group of international scientists are shaking up what we think we know about the continent after unveiling a new, very detailed map of everything beneath the millions of miles of ice. The map, called Bedmap3, gives a clear view of the towering mountains and deep canyons hidden by the ice sheets. It was compiled using more than 60 years of data from planes, satellites, ships and even sleds pulled by dogs. The British Antarctic Survey led the study and the results were published in the journal Scientific Data. As the name of the map implies, this is the third effort to illustrate Antarctica's rock bed. The project began in 2001, but the researchers involved say the new map represents a dramatic refinement using 82 million data points. That data includes recent surveys in East Antarctica, which helped fill big gaps in our collective knowledge of the region, including around the South Pole. One notable discovery is that Antarctica's thickest ice was found in an unnamed canyon in Wilkes Land. The ice there is more than 15,000 feet thick. Earlier maps placed the thickest ice in the Astrolabe Basin In Adelie Land. Here's why this new map is critical: It will help researchers figure out how Antarctica might respond to warming temperatures. "This is the fundamental information that underpins the computer models we use to investigate how the ice will flow across the continent as temperatures rise," said Dr. Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at BAS and the study's lead author. "Imagine pouring syrup over a rock cake – all the lumps, all the bumps, will determine where the syrup goes and how fast. And so it is with Antarctica: some ridges will hold up the flowing ice; the hollows and smooth bits are where that ice could accelerate." So could this map also be a chilling look at Antarctica's future under a worst-case scenario? This group of scientists did not go that far, but they did discover that those ice sheets are thicker than once thought. Here's what Peter Fretwell, mapping specialist and co-author at BAS, says: "In general, it's become clear the Antarctic Ice Sheet is thicker than we originally realized and has a larger volume of ice that is grounded on a rock bed sitting below sea level. This puts the ice at greater risk of melting due to the incursion of warm ocean water that's occurring at the fringes of the continent. What Bedmap3 is showing us is that we have got a slightly more vulnerable Antarctica than we previously thought." MORE ON - Surprising Discovery Under Antarctic Ice Shelf - Your Area Could Be Next: Tornado Risk Is All Year - Top 10 Worst Cities For Allergy Sufferers
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New Map Shows What Ice-Free Antarctica Looks Like
Millions of years ago, the Antarctic continent was a lush jungle. Millions of years from now, it may be jungle again. But for all of human history, Antarctica has been ice-covered and desolate. Explorers struggled to survive, and researchers struggled to retrieve the few accessible geological samples, hoping to glimpse what lay under the ice. Now, a new model allows us to peel back the frozen white layers and see the land beneath. Called Bedmap3, the model is the most detailed and accurate map of the Antarctic continent ever completed. An International scientific team led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) used over 60 years of information gathered by plane, ship, satellite, and even dogsled. In total, they integrated 82 million data points, double the amount used in Bedmap2, the previous generation. To look beneath the 27 million cubic kilometers of ice, researchers used radar, sound waves, and gravity measurements. This leap forward is thanks to recent surveys in under-explored regions of East Antarctica, including the South Polar area. The map shows the location and size of the massive ice sheets based on 277 ice surveys over the past 60 years. The BAS team, led by glaciologist Hanish Pritchard, estimates a mean ice thickness of 1,948m. The area covered by ice is 13.63 million square kilometers, almost twice the size of Australia. The real importance of Bedmap3 is that it will improve predictions of ice loss and sea level rise. Pritchard says the map will help researchers "investigate how the ice will flow across the continent as temperatures rise." Already, the secrets of the continent's rocky underpinning have provided a worrying hint at Antarctica's future. Much of the ice rests on bedrock below sea level. This ice can melt quickly thanks to incursions of warm ocean water. Thanks to this latest research, if it melts, we know it would raise sea levels by 58m. Bedmap3 is a fascinating glimpse into a hidden world. But it's also a grave reminder of how that buried land is quickly rising to the surface.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Reveal What Antarctica Would Look Like With No Ice
Antarctica was once a lush and thriving land, teeming with prehistoric life. It's hard to believe now, but tucked away, hidden underneath a layer of ice kilometers thick, that ancient landscape still lies buried, never seen by human eyes. Never seen, perhaps, but that doesn't mean forever to remain unknown. For years, the British Antarctic Survey has been flying planes over the frozen southern continent, using radar, sound waves, and gravity mapping to ascertain the shape of the bedrock sequestered below. Their new map of Antarctica as it lies under the ice is the most detailed yet – revealing mountain ranges, ancient riverbeds, deep basins, and low, sweeping plains. This, according to a team led by glaciologist Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey, will provide crucial information to scientists looking to understand the complex interplay between land and ice as Antarctica continues to transform under a changing climate. "This is the fundamental information that underpins the computer models we use to investigate how the ice will flow across the continent as temperatures rise," Pritchard says. "Imagine pouring syrup over a rock cake – all the lumps, all the bumps, will determine where the syrup goes and how fast. And so it is with Antarctica: some ridges will hold up the flowing ice; the hollows and smooth bits are where that ice could accelerate." It's a fascinating question, really. If you removed the 27 million cubic kilometers (6.5 million cubic miles) of ice that covers Antarctica, what would the continent look like? What ancient geology is hidden thereunder; what history remains undiscovered? It wasn't so long ago that we'd have little way of finding out. Now, we can fly planes and satellites carrying the sensitive tools of metrology to measure what we can't see. This is the work the British Antarctic Survey has been carrying out, incrementally adding more data over the course of six decades to fill in their map of what lies beneath. The latest map, known as Bedmap3, comprises data collected from planes, satellites, ships, and dog sled teams on the ground to catalog the hidden landscape of Antarctica. The 277 ice thickness surveys used to compile the map contributed 82 million data points, filling in huge gaps in the previous map. One of those gaps is the point at which the ice that covers Antarctica is at its thickest. Previous surveys had placed it in Adélie Land's Astrolabe Basin. The new map, however, reveals that the true position is at 76.052 degrees South, 118.378 degrees East, where an unnamed canyon produces an ice thickness of 4,757 meters (15,607 feet). Ice thickness surveys were particularly lacking around mountains, coastlines, and nunataks (isolated mountains sticking out of the ice). Bedmap3 clarified the regions around the South Pole itself, along the coastlines of the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica, and the Transantarctic Mountains. We know how high the top of the ice that covers Antarctica reaches from sea level. Mapping the topography of a mass that is open to the sky is relatively straightforward. By forging a more accurate map of the shape of the bottom of the ice, Pritchard and his colleagues could more accurately calculate how much ice is there. The total volume of ice is 27.17 million cubic kilometers, covering an area of 13.63 square kilometers. The mean thickness of the ice, including the ice shelves, is 1,948 meters; excluding the ice shelves, it's 2,148 meters. If all the ice in Antarctica was to melt, this means sea levels would rise by 58 meters. That's consistent with previous surveys, but with a couple of tweaks. "In general, it's become clear the Antarctic Ice Sheet is thicker than we originally realised and has a larger volume of ice that is grounded on a rock bed sitting below sea-level," explains cartographer Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey. "This puts the ice at greater risk of melting due to the incursion of warm ocean water that's occurring at the fringes of the continent. What Bedmap3 is showing us is that we have got a slightly more vulnerable Antarctica than we previously thought." But hey, at least we might finally be able to find the Mountains of Madness…? The team's research has been published in Scientific Data. Common Habit Could Be a Source of Plastic Pollution We Never Considered Microplastics Are Disrupting Photosynthesis, And The Impact Could Be Huge NASA Reports Sea Levels Rose by 'Unexpected' Amount in Earth's Hottest Year
USA Today
19-03-2025
- Science
- USA Today
What's under all that ice in Antarctica? New map has answers.
What's under all that ice in Antarctica? New map has answers. Show Caption Hide Caption Do people live in Antarctica? What to know about the icy continent. Do people live in Antarctica? What to know about the continent's residents and visitors. Have you ever wondered what Antarctica might look like without ice? Now, a new map released this week gives us a clear view of the continent as if its massive sheet of ice has been removed, revealing the hidden locations of its tallest mountains and the deepest canyons. The mapping effort, called Bedmap3, includes far more detail than previous maps and includes millions more data points. "In general, it's become clear the Antarctic ice sheet is thicker than we originally realized," said Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey, which produced the map. A mix of good news and bad news about butterflies: They in trouble, but it doesn't take much to help. The findings were published this week in the journal Scientific Data. What is an ice sheet? Ice sheets are masses of glacial land ice extending more than 20,000 square miles, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said. There are only two ice sheets worldwide today, the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. They contain more than 99% of the land ice on Earth. The huge size of the ice sheets means that the loss of even a small fraction of their total ice can significantly raise sea levels. From 2002 to 2017, for example, due to global warming, ice sheet losses accounted for roughly a third of mean sea level rise. The Antarctic ice sheet, which covers 98% of the continent, averages around 1.2 miles in thickness, with its thickest point reaching nearly 3 miles, the Australian Antarctic Program reports. Read more news about our planet: Sign up for USA TODAY's Climate Point newsletter. Why is the map important? 'This is the fundamental information that underpins the computer models we use to investigate how the ice will flow across the continent as temperatures rise," said Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at BAS and lead author of the study. A mix of good news and bad news about butterflies: They in trouble, but it doesn't take much to help. Known as Bedmap3, the map incorporates more than six decades of survey data acquired by planes, satellites, ships and even dog-drawn sleds. The outline of deep valleys is better represented in the new map, the BAS said. So too are those places where rocky mountains stick up through the ice. "The latest satellite data have also more accurately recorded the height and shape of the ice sheet and the thickness of the floating ice shelves that push out over the ocean at the continent's margin," the BAS said in a statement. A 'vulnerable Antarctica' Scientists said the map revealed that the ice sheet is at greater risk of melting due to the incursion of warm ocean water that's occurring at the fringes of the continent. "What Bedmap3 is showing us is that we have got a slightly more vulnerable Antarctica than we previously thought," Fretwell said.
