Vast streams found beneath Antarctic ice sheet

The streams of water, some of which are 250m in height and stretch for hundreds of kilometres, could be destabilising parts of the Antarctic ice shelf immediately around them and speeding up melting, researchers said.

However, they added that it remains unclear how the localised effects of the channels will impact on the future of the floating ice sheet as a whole.

The British researchers used satellite images and radar data to measure variations in the height of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, which reveal how thick the ice is.

Writing in the Nature Geoscience journal, they described finding large rivers of meltwater beneath the floating ice shelf which had not previously been identified.

These channels lined up with areas where similar flows of water are thought to exist under the ice sheet, the ice formation which sits on solid ground, at the point where the land meets the sea.

Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Government shutdown may put Antarctic research on ice

Photo by Flickr user Alan R. Light

U.S. scientists stationed in Antarctica may find their entire summer field season canceled if the government shutdown continues. The researchers only have a small window when the continent is warm enough and has sufficient daylight to complete their studies.

Lockheed Martin, the primary contractor responsible for logistics of the United States Antarctic Program, is due to run out of its Antarctic funding in the next week, which will prompt a decision on whether to pull out all staff except for a bare bones crew left to man the stations.

If the season is canceled, several planned and ongoing projects will have to be put on hold, possibly until the next year.

Travel to and from Antarctic research program sites has ceased since the shutdown went into effect because of reliance on government-funded transportation. The only flights currently operating are bringing supplies to "excepted" employees that are manning McMurdo Station on the icy continent.

Source:http://www.pbs.org