Discovery of largest canyon ; Geography and Prelims : IAS
2:21 PM
- world's largest canyon - over 1,000 kilometre long and up to one kilometre deep - may lie under the Antarctic ice sheet,
- The canyon system is made up of a chain of winding and linear features buried under several kilometres of ice in one of the last unexplored regions of the Earth's land surface - Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL) in East Antarctica.
- Very few measurements of the ice thickness have been carried out in this particular area of the Antarctic, which has led to scientists dubbing it one of Antarctica's two 'Poles of Ignorance'.
- that the landscape beneath the ice sheet has probably been carved out by water and is either so ancient that it was there before the ice sheet grew or it was created by water flowing and eroding beneath the ice.
- not visible to the naked eye, the subglacial landscape can be identified in the surface of the ice sheet.
- The canyons may be connected to a previously undiscovered subglacial lake
- The data suggests the area of the lake could cover up to 1,250 kilometres,
- international collaboration of US, UK, Indian, Australian and Chinese scientists
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