Buried Volcanic Vent Heats Up Antarctica
What lurks beneath western Antarctica's frozen surface? Volcanic heat, according to a new study. And that extra warmth might be speeding up the disappearance of the Pine Island Glacier, the continent's fastest-melting glacier.
Chilly Antarctica hides much under thick layers of ice, which extend for miles over its bedrock. Scientists previously found a volcanic rift system stretching under West Antarctica and into the Ross Sea, with as many as 138 volcanoes identified. However, those volcanoes have been dormant for 2,200 years, but evidence that turned up near the Pine Island Glacier pointed to recent magma activity deep underground.
Volcanoes typically announce themselves by belching smoke and gas into the air, but in Antarctica, the heat source was buried under miles of ice. However, even though the magma itself was hidden, scientists could spot its "fingerprints" in certain gases they found in seawater samples. The chemistry of melted ice running off the glacier hinted at a volcanic source upstream, warming the ice from below and accelerating melt into the Amundsen Sea.
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