After the breaking of a ginormous iceberg from the fourth largest ice shelf in Antarctica, scientists have now discovered what could be said as the largest volcanic region on Earth at 2km below the surface of the ice sheet that covers west Antarctica.
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The project, by Edinburgh University researchers found out the volcanic bodies lying underneath. One of the glacier experts named Robert Bingham has mentioned in his paper that if even one of them erupts, it can further destabilise West Antarctica’s ice sheets.
A SECTION OF THE WEST ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET WITH MOUNTAINS, AS SEEN FROM A NASA
The discovery of these volcanoes is crucial because the activity of the volcanoes can have some serious effects on the planet. If it erupts, the ice would obviously melt and that would result into high sea levels.
Geologists are also predicting that the west Antarctica would be the most affected by the volcanoes as global warming has already begun in the region. The volcanoes range in the height from 100m to a towering 3,850m tall. Measurements from ice-penetrating radar were compared with satellite and database records.
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NEW SCIENTIST
It was a third-year student at the University of Edinburgh, Max Van Wyk de Vries who gave the idea of looking further for volcanoes beneath the ice sheet. "As a young scientist I was excited to learn about something new and not well understood. After examining existing data on west Antarctica, I began discovering traces of volcanism. Naturally I looked into it further, which led to this discovery.", he told the Sky News.