Friday, December 16, 2011

New digital map reveals more secrets about Antarctica

Sydney: New digital map on the set of British and Australian researchers have shown an amazing new geological facts about Antarctica, it is not known yet.

BEDMAP2 is a detailed digital map of the bedrock and the Antarctic continent, close-up, minus the ice. It is configured for more than 27 million pieces of data acquired by aircraft, satellites, ships, and a dog-drawn sleds.

One important fact that the map shows the Antarctic ice sheet sitting atop its steep peaks and deep vales - especially in the geological feature has been discovered for the first time.

Map also reveals deep troughs within the interior of the continent, where the bedrock far below sea level and rugged mountains, reaching 3,000 meters, as high as the Alps, but hidden under kilometers of ice.

Australian Antarctic Division and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) has played an important role in the gathering of data through aerial radar surveys 2008-09.

British Antarctic Survey scientists who produced the map, saying that it will provide important information to understand how the Antarctic might respond to climate change.

"These improvements are the focus of more accurate predictions of how the Antarctic climate change and react to what this means for future sea level," said Australian scientist Roland Warner

Warner and his colleagues Jason Roberts, Tas van Ommen, and Glenn Hyland, were part of a research team of Casey base in Antarctica, between 2008 and 2011, radar is used to map the bedrock topography Basler DC3 aircraft around the Totten and Denman glaciers, and the Aurora Subglacial Basin Law Dome , East Antarctica.

Article Source:- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/New-digital-map-reveals-more-secrets-about-Antarctica/articleshow/11136019.cms