World's Largest Canyon Discovered Hidden Beneath Antarctic Ice

The world's largest canyon could be hidden under the Antarctic ice sheet. Scientists have analyzed satellite data and have discovered that some unusual features may be locked beneath the ice.

The researchers detected faint traces of the canyons with the help of satellite imagery. The scientists also used radio-echo sounding data to look at small sections of the canyons. This technique involves sending radio waves through the ice to map the shape of the rock beneath it.

The canyon system itself could be over 1,000 kilometers long and in some places as much as one kilometer deep. This is comparable in depth to the Grand Canyon, but many times longer.

It's likely that the landscape beneath the ice sheet was carved out by water. It's either so ancient that it was there before the ice sheet grew, or it was created by water flowing and eroding beneath the ice.

The canyons may actually be connected to a previously undiscovered subglacial lake as the ice surface above the lake shares characteristics with those of large subglacial lakes previously identified. The data suggests the area of the lake could cover up to 1250 square kilometers. That's more than 80 times as big as Lake Windermere in the English Lake District.

"Our analysis provides the first evidence that a huge canyon and a possible lake are present beneath the ice in Princess Elizabeth Land," said Steward Jamieson, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It's astonishing to think that such large features could have avoided detection for so long. This is a region of the Earth that is bigger than the UK and yet we still know little about what lies beneath the ice."

The findings are published in the journal Geology.

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