Studying the Seafloor around Antarctica Provides New Clues to Sealevel Rise

07.05.2009 - Water & Oceans, Land & Geology, Ice & Snow, Other, Antarctic

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) have used sonar technology to map the seafloor around the Amundsen Sea embayment. The images taken revealed troughs and channels that were carved by glaciers thousands of years ago, offering new clues as to the future of sea-level rise.

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This discovery is important for predicting future sea level rise and Antarctica's contribution to this phenomenon. It also provides new clues as to how the ice sheet responded to warming at the end of the last ice age and how complex processes at the ice sheet's bed controlled its flow to the sea.

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