The river landscape was hidden for at least 14 million years.
Scientists have discovered a river system that has been preserved underneath the East Atlantic sheet. According to Science Alert, the river landscape has remained hidden for at least 14 million years. The report is based on a study conducted by Durham University glaciologist Stewart Jamieson and colleagues, who analysed data collected by satellites and radar that can penetrate thick sheets of ice. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications and says that fluctuations in Antarctic ice due to climate change will soon reveal the ancient landscape.
The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is the largest on Earth, as per Science Alert. With warnings about our planet on track to warm more than two degrees Celsius, the EAIS could add nearly half a metre of sea-level rise by the year 2100.
In the new study, researchers analysed the past of the glacier sheet, based on the land beneath the Aurora and Schmidt basins, between the Denman and Totten glaciers.
"As ice sheets fluctuate, they modify the landscape upon which they rest, leaving a fingerprint. But it is rare to find unmodified landscapes that record past ice conditions," the researchers said in their published paper.
The ancient landscape stretches across 300 kilometres inland from where the present-day ice sheet meets the sea. The area consists of three river-carved 'blocks' separated by deep troughs about 40 kilometres wide, the study further said.
It also consists of three river-carved blocks separated by deep troughs. These blocks were formed before glaciation, when rivers crossed the region to a coastline that appeared as the Gondwana supercontinent drifted apart.