By Craig Stevens, Christina Hulbe and Yingpu Xiahou* of
Photo: AFP / Claudius Thiriet
Beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf lies one of the least measured oceans on Earth - a vast, dark cavity roughly twice the volume of the North Sea.
This hidden ocean matters because it is the ice sheet's Achilles heel. The ice sheet is the continent's enormous, kilometres-thick mass of land-based ice, while the ice shelf is the floating platform that fringes it.
If warmer water reaches the underside of the shelf, it can melt the ice that holds back millions of cubic kilometres of Antarctic ice, with consequences for global sea levels.
Yet almost everything we know about this cavity has come from brief snapshots at its edges. Until now, no one had captured a long, continuous record from its central heart.
Continue Reading on RNZ
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.