What is hidden under the ice of the South Pole?

During the summer season at the South Pole, scientists made several attempts at once to study what lies beneath a layer of ice. Acoustic, seismic study methods were used , and the atmosphere was also studied. This year, specialists received a more or less detailed idea of ​​what the ice is hiding.

The image below shows the landscape of the terrain, “solid ground,” so to speak. On top - more than 3 kilometers of ice. It should be noted that the scaling of the X and Y axes is different.
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The process of "freezing" the South Pole has been delayed for many tens of thousands of years. For many years, the snow that fell here compressed and turned into layers of ice. The process, rather long, led to an increase in the ice layer. Now, as mentioned above, the ice layer in many places of the South Pole is more than 3 kilometers.

At the same time, scientists were able to obtain an image of individual layers of ice, which represent a kind of “one-year” rings, by which much can be judged, not only about the age of the ice cover. For example, each of the layers is unique in composition. And according to the characteristics of each layer, it is possible to judge the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere at different periods. The chronology of the reference is from the beginning of the freezing of the South Pole to the current moment.


When you click on the picture will open the original image (3.5 MB)

By the way, the radar data displayed on the image was obtained quite a long time ago, back in 1998, by specialists from UTIG ( University of Texas Institute for Geophysics ).

The same data is now used by scientists who have decided to carry out deep drilling of the ice mass at the South Pole. The goal is a 1.5 km deep well and a sample of ice for analysis. 1.5 kilometers is about 40 thousand years. Analysis of ice samples will help to create a detailed picture of climate change and the environment over this period.