Beneath the ice in Antarctica lies a volcano
19 Nov 2013 11:43 PM GMT
In a surprising discovery, scientists have stumbled upon a smouldering volcano, hiding a kilometre beneath the ice sheet in West Antarctica, which may be building up steam for a massive eruption.
The finding raises concerns about the increased rate of ice loss in the region, researchers said.
In January 2010, a team of scientists set up two crossing lines of seismographs across Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica.
The goal, said Doug Wiens, professor of Earth and planetary science at Washington University and one of the project’s principle investigators, was essentially to weigh the ice sheet.
Automated-event-detection software was put to work to comb the data for anything unusual.
When the team found two bursts of seismic events between January 2010 and March 2011, Wiens’ PhD student Amanda Lough looked more closely to see what was rattling the continent’s bones.
Uncertain at first, the more Lough and her colleagues looked, the more convinced they became that a new volcano was forming a kilometre beneath the ice.
‘I started seeing events that kept occurring at the same location, which was odd. Then I realised they were close to some mountains - but not right on top of them,’ Lough said.
The events were weak and of very low frequency, which strongly suggested they weren’t tectonic in origin. While low-magnitude seismic events of tectonic origin typically have frequencies of 10 to 20 cycles per second, this shaking was dominated by frequencies of 2 to 4 cycles per second.
The finding raises concerns about the increased rate of ice loss in the region, researchers said.
In January 2010, a team of scientists set up two crossing lines of seismographs across Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica.
The goal, said Doug Wiens, professor of Earth and planetary science at Washington University and one of the project’s principle investigators, was essentially to weigh the ice sheet.
Automated-event-detection software was put to work to comb the data for anything unusual.
When the team found two bursts of seismic events between January 2010 and March 2011, Wiens’ PhD student Amanda Lough looked more closely to see what was rattling the continent’s bones.
Uncertain at first, the more Lough and her colleagues looked, the more convinced they became that a new volcano was forming a kilometre beneath the ice.
‘I started seeing events that kept occurring at the same location, which was odd. Then I realised they were close to some mountains - but not right on top of them,’ Lough said.
The events were weak and of very low frequency, which strongly suggested they weren’t tectonic in origin. While low-magnitude seismic events of tectonic origin typically have frequencies of 10 to 20 cycles per second, this shaking was dominated by frequencies of 2 to 4 cycles per second.
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