Under Antarctica there is more than just ice. There is an entire continent, with its wrinkles, its wounds and its history, which has remained hidden for millions of years. Now, thanks to a new map created from space, that invisible world is finally starting to take shape. And the discovery is surprising: beneath kilometers of ice lies a more complex landscape than we imagined, so much so that scientists admit without hesitation that today we know the surface of Mars better than what lies beneath our feet, at the South Pole.
Ice as an imprint of an ancient continent
Antarctica is often described as a still and silent expanse, but the reality is very different. It is a real continent, made up of mountains, valleys, plains, very deep canyons and ancient, now buried rivers. All this remained invisible because it was covered by a blanket of ice several kilometers thick, formed over tens of millions of years.
The new map was born from an international study led by researchers from the University of Grenoble-Alpes and the University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with Dartmouth College. The work, coordinated by Helen Ockenden and Robert G. Bingham, was published in the journal Science and introduces a completely new way of “looking under the ice”.
Scientists have not punctured the ice sheet or dug underground. They did something more subtle: they observed how the ice moves on the surface, using very high-precision satellite data. Every little ripple, every variation in the flow, tells something about what lies beneath. It’s like reading the imprint of an object without seeing it directly. This technique, called Ice Flow Perturbation Analysis, made it possible to reconstruct the hidden landscape even in areas where direct data was missing.
Mountains, canyons and valleys that influence global climate
What emerges from the map is a surprisingly complex Antarctica. There are over thirty thousand Alpine valleys, reliefs reminiscent of the European Alps, plateaus similar to those of Scotland and vast plains comparable to today’s desert regions. In some areas the land sinks well below sea level, with canyons up to 3,500 meters deep in East Antarctica and large depressions in West Antarctica.
It is not only a fascinating discovery from a geological point of view. It’s a fundamental key to understanding how ice moves and how it might melt in the coming decades. The shape of the land beneath the ice sheet guides the flow of ice: some structures slow it, others channel it towards the ocean, accelerating its loss. And this has direct consequences on sea level rise.
According to scholars, many of these forms date back to a time when Antarctica was not yet frozen, more than 34 million years ago. It is an ancient landscape, partly preserved under the ice as if in a time capsule. Today, however, that past is becoming relevant again, because it determines the future of the ice sheet.
In recent years, other maps, such as Bedmap3 from the British Antarctic Survey, have already shown how delicate the Antarctic balance is. If all the ice were to melt, sea levels would rise by 58 metres. But the new research highlights an even more disturbing point: You don’t need an extreme scenario to have serious consequences. Even much smaller increases, of the order of a few decimetres, would be enough to put islands, coastal cities and entire regions of the world, including Italy, in difficulty.
Helen Ockenden says it clearly: directly observing what lies beneath kilometers of ice is very difficult, and this is why we know more about Mars and Venus than about the hidden Antarctica. This new map is not the end word, but a starting point. It helps us understand where to look best, where the ice is most vulnerable and where climate change could hit first and hardest.
Ultimately, Antarctica continues to do what it has always done: tell us about the future of the planet, a little in advance. It’s up to us to decide whether to listen to it.
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