Health & Science

A revelation beneath the Antarctic ice; Elephants grasp teamwork; Parenthood and happiness; A pathway to lost memories?

A revelation beneath the Antarctic ice

Antarctica’s vast ice sheets grow as the result of snow that piles up on top and freezes. Or so scientists always thought. Surprising new research has found that the sheets also grow from the bottom, as the result of layers of water that freeze and become part of the ice. “It’s jaw-dropping,” study co-author Robin Bell, a professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, tells BBCNews.com. “The first time I showed the data to colleagues, there was an audible gasp.” Using radar images taken from planes over the ice-encased Gamburtsev Mountains, her team spotted enormous subsurface plumes of ice, created when water flowing between the ice sheets and the rock surface froze. That previously unknown process can account for more than half the depth of the ice sheets, which are 2 miles thick in some places. Scientists have long viewed the ice sheets essentially as layer cakes of compressed snowfall, and figured the water beneath them functioned only as a lubricant that allowed them to move, much as glaciers do. The new discovery could be “critical” to predicting how the world’s ice sheets respond to global warming, researchers say. The stakes are high: All told, the ice sheets hold enough water to raise global sea levels by 200 feet.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us