New Map Shows What Antarctica Looks Like Naked Under Its Massive Ice Sheet

Antarctica isn’t a floating chunk of ice like the Arctic. Beneath its frozen surface sits a solid continent of mountains, rocky terrain, and gold-spewing volcanoes. This hidden world has now been revealed in stunning detail thanks to a groundbreaking map developed by international scientists led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Called Bedmap3, it was created using over 60 years of survey data collected by satellites, planes, ships, and dog-drawn sleds. A variety of imaging techniques were used to map out the bedrock beneath the colossal ice sheet – which has an average thickness of 2,148 meters (7,047 feet) – including radar, seismic reflection, and gravity measurements.

All in all, the map was built using over 82 million data points, rendered on a 500-meter (1,640-foot) grid spacing. As the name suggests, it’s the third incarnation of attempts to map Antarctica’s rock bed, featuring more than double the number of previous data points than the previous effort, Bedmap2.

Bedmap3 shows many geographical features in significantly sharper detail, including Antarctica’s deep valleys, rocky mountains, and regions where the floating ice shelves push out over the ocean at the continent’s edge.

Many of the map’s improvements are thanks to recent technological advances and new expeditions, particularly to East Antarctica, the largest and least explored part of the continent. This vast region includes not only the interior but also the immense ice sheet that remains largely inaccessible due to its extreme remoteness and harsh environmental conditions. As one of the most untouched areas of the world, East Antarctica has long posed challenges for researchers, making it the focus of increased exploration in recent years.

The map will be used to better understand the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets – a crucial issue when considering how climate change will further impact this icy giant. For instance, based on the data used to create this map, it’s possible to see that the global sea level has the potential to rise by around 58 meters (190 feet) if all ice in Antarctica melted.

“This is the fundamental information that underpins the computer models we use to investigate how the ice will flow across the continent as temperatures rise. Imagine pouring syrup over a rock cake – all the lumps, all the bumps, will determine where the syrup goes and how fast. And so it is with Antarctica: some ridges will hold up the flowing ice; the hollows and smooth bits are where that ice could accelerate,” Dr Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at BAS and lead author on the study detailing the new map, said in a statement.

“In general, it’s become clear the Antarctic Ice Sheet is thicker than we originally realized and has a larger volume of ice that is grounded on a rock bed sitting below sea-level. This puts the ice at greater risk of melting due to the incursion of warm ocean water that’s occurring at the fringes of the continent. What Bedmap3 is showing us is that we have got a slightly more vulnerable Antarctica than we previously thought,” said Peter Fretwell, mapping specialist and co-author at BAS.

The map was produced as part of a new study published in the Nature journal Scientific Data.

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