"We don't have a single record of all those events in one place, but the sediments at the bottom of this lake could be ideal."Lake Snow Eagle was named after one of the aircraft used in its discovery. The sediments at the bottom of the lake are 1,000 feet deep and might include river sediments older than the ice sheet itself.Moving forward, the researchers said getting a sample of the lake's sediments by drilling into it would fill big gaps in scientists' understanding of Antarctica's glaciation and provide vital information about the ice sheet's possible demise from climate change."This lake's been accumulating sediment over a very long time, potentially taking us through the period when Antarctica had no ice at all, to when it went into deep freeze," said co-author Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at Imperial College London. Along with the gravity and magnetic surveys, which lit up the underlying geology of the region and the depth of water and sediments, Yan constructed a detailed picture of a jagged, highland topography with Lake Snow Eagle nestled at the base of a canyon.The newly discovered lake is about 30 miles long, 9 miles wide and 650 feet deep. To confirm it was there, researchers spent three years flying systematic surveys over the site with ice penetrating radar and sensors that measure minute changes in Earth's gravity and magnetic field."I literally jumped when I first saw that bright radar reflection," said the paper's lead author, Shuai Yan, a graduate student at UT Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences who was flight planner for the field research that investigated the lake.What Yan saw was the lake's water that, unlike ice, reflects radar like a mirror. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || ).push() īecause it lies relatively close to the coast, researchers think that Lake Snow Eagle might contain information about how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet first began and the part played by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a ring of cold water circling the continent that scientists think is responsible for keeping it cool.The first hint that the lake and its host canyon existed emerged when scientists spotted a smooth depression on satellite images of the ice sheet. (Photo: The Ocean Exploration Trust/E/V/Nautilus/YouTube Screenshot) "Yellow Brick Road" Discovered In Pacific Ocean During First-Ever Exploration Of Underwater VolcanoesAn expedition to a deep-sea ridge, just north of the Hawaiian Islands, has revealed an ancient dried-out lake bed paved with what looks like a yellow brick road.The eerie scene was chanced upon by the exploration vessel Nautilus, which is currently surveying the Liliʻuokalani ridge within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM).PMNM is one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, larger than all the national parks in the United States combined, and we've only explored about 3 percent of its seafloor.Researchers at the Ocean Exploration Trust are pushing the frontiers of this wilderness, which lies more than 3,000 meters below the waves, and the best part is, anyone can watch the exploration.
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