What's Hiding Underneath Antarctica?
Scientists recently used an innovative approach to reveal the
geological component of the elusive edge of East Antarctica
from which they discovered embayment the size of the United
Kingdom formed part of its elusive edge.
According to a SpaceRef report (
https://bit.ly/3KHYWvl), the
data the researchers gathered offers new understandings into the
hidden geology of the South Pole that's helping limit the extent
and the shape of the edge of East Antarctica.
Essentially, East Antarctica is the least region on this planet.
Examining this remote part of the earth is very difficult,
necessitating scientists to look underneath kilometers of
blanketing ice.
The European Space Agency and the British Antarctic Survey
team have performed exactly this, although for a new study
published recently.
The international team behind this research, published in the
Nature Communications Earth & Environment journal, which
included Dr. Tom Jordan of BAS, flew over East Antarctica
using devices that gauge changes in the magnetic and gravity
signatures generated by the different rocks hidden underneath
the ice.
The data the researchers collected allowed them to identify
key characteristics of rocks, offering tantalizing new hints about
how East Antarctica's edge evolved.
To the team's surprise, the new data revealed that an area of
ancient rocks, the size of the UK, which was believed to make
up part of the coast of East Antarctica, is totally missing.
They discovered an embayment composed of younger rocks
than expected in this area. Such a discovery proposes that less
of East Antarctica than previously assumed formed portion of
the ancient continent from which Antarctica was formed.
As specified in the report, the consequences of this result will
form the basis of a great range of Antarctic research. It will help
scientists develop global reconstructions of the ancient
supercontinents of Earth and those attempting to understand
how the ancient geology of East Antarctica affects the modern
ice sheet's flow and stability.
According to the study's lead author Dr. Tom Jordan, BAS
geologist and geophysicist, it is as if "a huge bit has been taken
out of East Antarctica."
Understanding that East Antarctica is not a one-uniform continental
block is changing how scientists think about the tectonics of the
continent.
Jordan explained this embayment in the South Pole regions possibly
affected how mountain ranges and volcanoes grew in the site and
the scars at the edge of the place the embayment once continued
to guide the present-day ice sheet's flow.
The research was made possible by the ESA PolarGap international
collaborative campaign. The primary objective of this project was
to augment the GOCE satellite gravity field in the polar gap area
around the South Pole, where satellite measurements were missing.
By careful survey design and planning, a comprehensive spectrum
of scientific findings has arisen in this previously largely
undiscovered frontier in East Antarctica, Phys.org said in
a similar report.
