Under the ice sheet of Antarctica is a network of lakes formed as a result of melting glaciers. Between 2007 and 2008, one of these lakes overflowed, throwing about 6 billion tons of water into the ocean. About the same amount of water is consumed by the USA in two days. This is the largest recorded flood on the continent in history, writes Discovery, a popular science online magazine.
The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Cook Lake is located at a distance of 2700 meters from the ice edge in the eastern part of the continent. This is one of 379 ice lakes in Antarctica. The largest of these is Lake Vostok.
Researchers learned about the existence of these lakes when they noticed a vertical displacement of the ice sheet of Antarctica. Remote sensing and modeling showed that the ice started to break after filling the lake with glacial glacial water. Sometimes they overflowed, and water flowed into the ocean.
Between 2006 and 2008, there was a sharp subsidence of ice over Lake Cook. For two years, the ice sank more than 20 meters, forming a deep funnel. Scientists have suggested that the cause of this was the spill of an icy lake.
To measure the geometric dimensions of the ice crater, data from satellites were used. Scientists have suggested that the volume of the crater is equal to the volume of water flowing from the lake to the ocean.
According to calculations, the lake lost about 1.2-1.7 trillion gallons of water. Such massive flooding caused a rapid flow of water into the ocean at an approximate speed of 42,000 gallons (159 cubic meters) per second. The Colorado River (USA) flows at about the same speed.
Want to know what Antarctica really looks like? Then to you here.
According to scientists, in the XXI century catastrophic floods can become more frequent ten times.
The article is based on materials .
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