Tailor-made Antarctica: In the News

New lakes found under Antarctic ice: 28-12-2007

Antarctica may contain an area of thriving life rather than being a barren polar desert, it has been claimed.

Scientists believe that a subglacial system beneath the ice contain rivers that are bigger than the Amazon and may link a series of lakes that contain life.

Reports from the National Geographic suggest that the underwater environment may be larger than America and has been described as a "new world" by Michael Studinger, a geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York.

"If you peel back the ice sheet, you would expect a watery landscape similar to what we would see on the surface of Earth," he said.

About 145 lakes have been found so far and they are kept warm by the ice sheet above them acting like a blanket and keeping the heat in.

Mr Studinger believes these lakes trigger streams that may drain into parts of the ocean and could have effects on global warming.


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