An ancient landscape painting that has remainedhidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet(EAIS ) for at least 14 million years has been let out by a Modern artificial satellite data and radio detection and ranging imaging study . According to the researchers , the preservation of this primordial scene certify to the fact that the EAIS has stay comparatively unchanged for eons , yet this stableness could soon be threatened by anunprecedented rise in planetary temperature .
The study authors used satellite data to identify undulation in the ice sheet ’s surface that provided clues as to the nature of the terrain at a lower place . Using radio - sound reflection sound proficiency , they were then able to image thelandscape covered by the iceover an arena of 32,000 square kilometers ( 12,355 hearty mile ) .
“ The land underneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is less well known than the surface of Mars , ” explained study author Professor Stewart Jamieson in astatement . “ And that ’s a problem because that landscape painting controls the style that methamphetamine hydrochloride in Antarctica fall , and it controls the way it might respond to past , present and future climate change . ”
The river valleys and highlands are situated about 350 kilometers (217 miles) from the edge of the ice sheet.Image credit: Stewart Jamieson
Analyzing their data , the researchers identified three river - carve upland closure separated by mystifying U - shaped valleys . It ’s likely that the waterway that form this landscape painting feed during and after the time out - up of theGondwana supercontinent , before the first glaciers appear and help erode the valleys to a astuteness of around 800 meters ( 2,625 feet ) .
“ What we recover is an ancient land surface that has not been erode by the chalk rag and instead it look like it was created by rivers before the shabu come along , ” said Jamieson . “ This tells us that there has n’t been a lot of variety in this particular domain , which indicates that although this part of the ice sheet may have retreated during warmer times in the past , the conditions at this situation likely did not shift much , and that help us understand how the ice sheet might respond to future and ongoing warming . ”
In their write - up , the subject area authors explain that the landscape has in all likelihood been encased in ice for at least 14 million days . During this period , the warm temperatures occurred about three million years ago in the mid - Piacenzian quick menstruation , yet the most reliableice sheetmodels suggest that the EAIS did n’t retreat as far as this river landscape .
It ’s even possible that the ancient scene formed as far back as 34 million year ago , when the EAIS first appeared following the Eocene - Oligocene transition ( EOT ) from affectionate to polar conditions . However , it ’s indecipherable if the frosting sheet has ever pull back far enough during this period to expose and alter the three river valleys , which lie some 350 klick ( 217 miles ) from the edge of the EAIS .
“ The age of the farming open is changeable , but it is probable to predate the mid - Miocene [ 14 million years ago ] and perhaps dates from the transition from warm to glacial conditions in Antarctica following the EOT , ” write the researchers . “ The survival of the landscape painting implies a long - term unchanging basal thermic government and that the ice margin is unlikely to have retreated as far inland as this locality during warm periods of the last 14 [ million years ] . ”
Moreover , these finding indicate that the temperature increase of the mid - Piacenzian warm menstruation was deficient to make the EAIS to retreat as far as this ancient landscape painting . However , the study authors warn “ we are now on class to originate atmospheric condition similar to those that prevailed between 34 and 14 [ million eld ago ] [ … ] between now and 2100 under continue fossil fuel electrocution . ”
Unless this is stanch , the long - condition stability of the EAIS could soon be a thing of the past tense .
The discipline is published in the journalNature Communications .
