Overview
- Researchers fused decades of ice‑penetrating radar, gravity and magnetic surveys with satellite data and ice‑flow physics to infer the buried landscape.
- The mapping uncovers thousands of previously unseen hills, crests and canyons, including a major channel in the Maud Subglacial Basin measuring roughly 50 m deep, 6 km wide and nearly 400 km long.
- Active rivers under the ice appear to flow under extreme pressure, in some cases uphill, sustained by geothermal heat and the friction of moving glaciers.
- Experts caution that these hidden pathways could accelerate ice retreat, suggesting current projections for global sea‑level rise may be too low, with implications for Totten, Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers.
- Study authors and independent scientists welcome the advance yet stress remaining uncertainties due to model assumptions and urge targeted airborne, ground and borehole validation.