According to new research, the discovery may have implications for how the frozen continent reacts to the climate crisis. 9News
The groundwater system, found in deep sediments in West Antarctica, likely to be the consistency of a wet sponge, reveals an unexplored part of the region and may have implications for how the frozen continent reacts to the"People have hypothesised that there could be deep groundwater in these sediments, but up to now, no one has done any detailed imaging," said the study's lead author, Chloe Gustafson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California San Diego's...
But this is the first time the presence of large amounts of liquid water in below-ice sediments has been found.Matt and Chloe checking the data from a magnetotelluric station. Photos provided to Katie Hunt by Kerry Key, Columbia University. Permission for CNN to use across all platforms/distribute to affils.
The technique can detect the differing degrees of electromagnetic energy conducted by ice, sediment, bedrock fresh water and salt water and create a map from these different sources of information.Chloe preparing to install a magnetotelluric station. Photos provided to Katie Hunt by Kerry Key, Columbia University. Permission for CNN to use across all platforms/distribute to affils.
"The Empire State Building up to the antenna is about 420 metres tall," Gustafson, who did the research as a graduate student at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said in the statement. Ocean water likely reached the area during a warm period 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, saturating the sediment with salty seawater. When the ice advanced, fresh meltwater produced by pressure from above and friction at the ice base was forced into the upper sediments. It probably continues to filter down and mix into the groundwater today, Key said.
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