Under parts of the Antarctic is hidden a dark underwater world. Traces of it have been discovered by researchers from Australia. As reported by a team from the Australian Antarctic Program, it has found several lakes under the largest glacier on the coast of the East Antarctic.

The researchers discovered the waters as they detonated small explosive charges two meters down the Totten Glacier and tracked the sound waves. The pattern of reflected sounds allowed them to draw conclusions about the geological layers. Liquid water is reflected differently than ice or rock. The researchers recorded the reflected sound waves with so-called geophones, special microphones placed on the surface of the glacier.

According to the investigations, under the approximately two-kilometer-thick ice several freshwater lakes that "carry considerable amounts of water, about which we know very little," says the glaciologist Ben Galton-Fenzi.

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Findings about the surface of the glacier are of great importance to the researchers. From this they hope for hints on the speed with which he moves. "If it's under the glacier, it's slower, with softer sediments or water flowing faster," says Galton-Fenzi. Insights into these processes are important in predicting how fast the glacier could melt.

Ice shelf melts away from below

The Totten Glacier is more than 30 kilometers wide and over 60 kilometers long in some places. Its glacier tongue empties into the Southern Ocean. As with many other glaciers on the Antarctic continent, researchers noted a decline in its ice load because warm water attacks the ice shelf from below. For the Totten Glacier, this had been shown in a study in "Nature Communications".

According to researchers from Australia, the sea level could rise by about seven meters, should the entire ice of the Totten glacier melt. It has been known for some time that there are many lakes under the Antarctic ice sheet. Most are located in the east - where the Totten Glacier is located. Many are connected underground by rivers, some over hundreds of kilometers.