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First Evidence Of Under-Ice Volcanoes In Antarctica

Posted by Zonk on from the a-touch-extreme dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica's ice sheet has been discovered by members of the British Antarctic Survey. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet began erupting some 2,000 years ago and remains active to this day. Using airborne ice-sounding radar, scientists discovered a layer of ash produced by a 'subglacial' volcano. It extends across an area larger than Wales."

5 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. You missed a part of TA. by VON-MAN · · Score: 3, Informative

    it (the eruption) cannot explain the more widespread thinning of West Antarctic glaciers that together are contributing nearly 0.2mm per year to sea-level rise. This wider change most probably has its origin in warming ocean waters.
    1. Re:You missed a part of TA. by Shihar · · Score: 2, Informative

      You should be skeptical when someone says they can say the ocean has risen 0.2mm. If that is the only number they have given, they are liars, stupid, or both. The world's oceans might very well have risen that much, and it might very well be something you can measure. That said, I can promise that there is an uncertainty in that measurement. Someone who fails to report their level of uncertainty is either incompetent or taking you for a ride. This is why I suggest taking newspaper science with a grain of sea salt. 0.2mm with a 95% confidence of +/- 0.01m is a whole hell of a lot different from 0.2mm with a 95% confidence of +/-0.2mm.

  2. It's more than a possibility. by VON-MAN · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Lakes Found Under Antarctic Ice Using Space Lasers"
    http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/19/1319228&from=rss
    "Exploration of lake hidden beneath Antarctica's ice sheet begins"
    http://www.physorg.com/news119682885.html

  3. Re:Oh well, screw global warming by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Informative

    Even a 1M rise is not good news for Denmark see map, or many places in the USA like New orleans or even Sacramento.

  4. Re:will accelerate melting at some point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    There is a quite thick layer of soot and ash trapped inside the glacier. At some point when the glacier melts enough, that whole layer becomes visible and thus the reflection of sunlight from the glacier surface diminishes.

    That's not how things work in Antarctica. The snow falls on the top and the ice flows out to the sea and breaks off as ice bergs. Most of the melting ice is at the bottom, where it's warmest. There's only a handful of small places were the ice sublimates on the surface. Those areas are cool, because it's not just ash in the ice, there's also lots of meteors, which just sit on the blue ice waiting to be picked up.