Enormous river discovered beneath Antarctica is nearly 300 miles long

[Disir]

A river longer than England's Thames flows beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, draining an area the size of France and Germany combined, new research reveals.

This under-ice river was discovered using ice-penetrating radar mounted on aircraft. In a series of aerial surveys, researchers discovered a river system snaking 285 miles (460 kilometers) and draining into the Weddell Sea.

"When we first discovered lakes beneath the Antarctic ice a couple of decades ago, we thought they were isolated from each other," study co-author Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said in a statement. "Now we are starting to understand there are whole systems down there, interconnected by vast river networks, just as they might be if there weren't thousands of meters of ice on top of them."

Enormous river discovered beneath Antarctica is nearly 300 miles long

The hidden river could accelerate ice loss.

www.livescience.com

That's pretty cool and a screwed up way of saying-- ya know......we don't know.

 

[1srelluc]

In before CA claims it.

 

[Concerned American]

In before CA claims it.

Did this river run------------before climate change.

 

[Lastamender]

Did this river run------------before climate change.

1970? Of course not, it is brand new and all man's fault.

 

[Pete7469]

1970? Of course not, it is brand new and all man's fault.

And it's going to flood the earth and we're all going to die.

 

[toobfreak]

This is old news. The river runs down there because it is insulated from the cold above driven by a thermal hot spot in the rock beneath. No doubt there is even life down there. Has nothing to do with climate change.

 

[Damaged Eagle]

No one knows what evil lurks underneath all that ice...

*****CHUCKLE*****

 

[Crick]

Did this river run------------before climate change.

Good question. I would guess that it did but that its size has increased as temperatures have risen. It may well be running in an ancient riverbed. I wonder if sending a UAV down in the Weddell where it exits to get some samples and some chemistry and flow measurements would tell them anything.

 

[Crick]

This is old news. The river runs down there because it is insulated from the cold above driven by a thermal hot spot in the rock beneath. No doubt there is even life down there. Has nothing to do with climate change.

As temperatures have risen increased amounts of meltwater are being produced. Where that meltwater goes is significant. Your premise and your conclusion are anally derived. This isn't old news and you have no idea what its relationship with global warming might be.

 

[toobfreak]

As temperatures have risen increased amounts of meltwater are being produced. Where that meltwater goes is significant. Your premise and your conclusion are anally derived.

No, actually Crock, my conclusions are those of the USGS whom discovered the river as presented on an hour long scientific documentary about it presented on PBS some ways back. As usual, you are bloviating out of the wrong hole in your body. In case you don't know, average temps on the surface there are like -60° below zero, the only climate-related melting can only come at the edges of Antarctica via less cold ocean currents down from S. America, which can only warm the edges of the continent, not cause rivers of water deep underneath. The only other place heat can come from to melt ice there is from the native rock far below most of the continent like I told you, and this has been going on for a very long time. And if you think climate change is heating up the actual crust of the Earth from deep below Antarctica, then you're even dumber than I thought-- -- the crust is simply thinner there and there must be a thermal plume of some kind in the mantle below warming some of the rock more than the snow above can cool it.

 

[Concerned American]

No, actually Crock, my conclusions are those of the USGS whom discovered the river as presented on an hour long scientific documentary about it presented on PBS some ways back. As usual, you are bloviating out of the wrong hole in your body. In case you don't know, average temps on the surface there are like -60° below zero, the only climate-related melting can only come at the edges of Antarctica via less cold ocean currents down from S. America, which can only warm the edges of the continent, not cause rivers of water deep underneath. The only other place heat can come from to melt ice there is from the native rock far below most of the continent like I told you, and this has been going on for a very long time. And if you think climate change is heating up the actual crust of the Earth from deep below Antarctica, then you're even dumber than I thought-- -- the crust is simply thinner there and there must be a thermal plume of some kind in the mantle below warming some of the rock more than the snow above can cool it.

Do you figure that climate warming he is alluding to is warming the lava under Mauna Loa too? Damn that carbon!

 

[Crick]

No, actually Crock, my conclusions are those of the USGS whom discovered the river as presented on an hour long scientific documentary about it presented on PBS some ways back. As usual, you are bloviating out of the wrong hole in your body. In case you don't know, average temps on the surface there are like -60° below zero, the only climate-related melting can only come at the edges of Antarctica via less cold ocean currents down from S. America, which can only warm the edges of the continent, not cause rivers of water deep underneath. The only other place heat can come from to melt ice there is from the native rock far below most of the continent like I told you, and this has been going on for a very long time. And if you think climate change is heating up the actual crust of the Earth from deep below Antarctica, then you're even dumber than I thought-- -- the crust is simply thinner there and there must be a thermal plume of some kind in the mantle below warming some of the rock more than the snow above can cool it.

The 300 mile long river draining high pressure meltwater from the under the Antarctic ice sheet comes from a study published in Nature Geoscience in October of 2022 (Antarctic basal environment shaped by high-pressure flow through a subglacial river system - Nature Geoscience). That there is meltwater under glaciers has been known since man first saw a glacier. Another study from April of 2017 shows surface meltwater flowing in rivers across the top of the ice sheet, well inland and well away from any geothermal heating: "Here we show widespread drainage of meltwater across the surface of the ice sheet through surface streams and ponds (hereafter ‘surface drainage’) as far south as 85° S and as high as 1,300 metres above sea level. Our findings are based on satellite imagery from 1973 onwards and aerial photography from 1947 onwards. Surface drainage has persisted for decades, transporting water up to 120 kilometres from grounded ice onto and across ice shelves, feeding vast melt ponds up to 80 kilometres long." Widespread movement of meltwater onto and across Antarctic ice shelves - Nature

 

[elektra]

Maude Volcanic Plateau

 

[Crick]

JellyBelly Tectonic ValleyWalley

 

[elektra]

Maude Volcanic Plateau

is the source of the water, not global warming

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Good question. I would guess that it did but that its size has increased as temperatures have risen. It may well be running in an ancient riverbed. I wonder if sending a UAV down in the Weddell where it exits to get some samples and some chemistry and flow measurements would tell them anything.

So this manmade heat penetrated THROUGH the ice above the river???????

 

[Crick]

Elektra:​

​

Maude Volcanic Plateau​

is the source of the water, not global warming​

Another study from April of 2017 shows surface meltwater flowing in rivers across the top of the ice sheet, well inland and well away from any geothermal heating: "Here we show widespread drainage of meltwater across the surface of the ice sheet through surface streams and ponds (hereafter ‘surface drainage’) as far south as 85° S and as high as 1,300 metres above sea level. Our findings are based on satellite imagery from 1973 onwards and aerial photography from 1947 onwards. Surface drainage has persisted for decades, transporting water up to 120 kilometres from grounded ice onto and across ice shelves, feeding vast melt ponds up to 80 kilometres long." Widespread movement of meltwater onto and across Antarctic ice shelves - Nature

 

[elektra]

What is your point, lil cricket. That we just dont know and it has not been studied?
I will quote from lil cricket's link, the link is very old, but I must use lil cricket's source anyhow.

Crick said:
Another study from April of 2017

Widespread movement of meltwater onto and across Antarctic ice shelves - Nature

Surface water and its drainage across the surface of Antarctic ice is shown to be widespread, large-scale and to have persisted for decades.

www.nature.com

we have little understanding of Antarctic-wide surface hydrology

 

[Crick]

What is your point, lil cricket. That we just dont know and it has not been studied?
I will quote from lil cricket's link, the link is very old, but I must use lil cricket's source anyhow.

Widespread movement of meltwater onto and across Antarctic ice shelves - Nature

Surface water and its drainage across the surface of Antarctic ice is shown to be widespread, large-scale and to have persisted for decades.

www.nature.com

My point is that surface meltwater is not getting melted by geothermal heat several thousand feet down.