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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."

3 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Volcanos elsewhere... by CaptainPatent · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I wouldn't say it is Earth shaking news. On the contrary, volcanoes are among the leading cause of earthquakes so I would contend this is precisely "earth shaking news"
    --
    Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
  2. Re:And here by BlueParrot · · Score: 0, Redundant

    everyone was blaming global warming for the melting of the icecaps...

    And we still are, these volcano's would be heating the ice from bellow, the icecaps are melting at the surface, forming water pools in the ice.
  3. Re:How long? by Charcharodon · · Score: 0, Redundant
    ....hum let's see...the one area of ice caps that is showing massive amounts of melting, is sort right over the volcano......

    ...volcano under the ice...ice is melting...

    ...President Bush's fault!