Phys.org May 6, 2022
West Antarctic was an ocean before it was an ice sheet. So the bedrock below the ice sheet is covered with a thick layer of sediments. A team of researchers in the US (Colorado Schools of Mines, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) has found a huge amount of groundwater, including saltwater from the ocean in the thick layer of sediments. They suggested that there is a column of water about 220 to 820 meters (700 to 2,700 feet) deep. They estimated that most of this salty water arrived in the past 10,000 years, based on how much radiocarbon has been found in the upper sediment in previous a study. By measuring electric and magnetic fields on the ice surface, it is possible to figure out the conductivity of the subsurface materials, including water. There’s no reason to think microbes aren’t gnawing away at nutrients in the groundwater, too. When microbial ecosystems are cut off for extended periods of time there is a pretty good analog for how life might exist on other planetary bodies. According to the team knowing that there is a massive reservoir of water that may be linked to how fast-flowing regions of Antarctica behave means scientists need to rethink our understanding of ice streams…read more.
Illustrations of the Whillans ice stream show liquid water under the ice from subglacial lakes and groundwater within the sediment… Credit: Modified from Gustafson et al., 2022