Remote-sensing researcher Noel Gourmelen and his colleagues enlisted the help of the European Space Agency (ESA) to better understand the natural phenomena.

Using the ESA’s CryoSat and Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites, which have radar techniques to gauge ice-shelf thickness and dynamics, the team have been examining the Dotson ice shelf in West Antarctica.

According to Mr Gourmelen, the 50km wide crevasse is responsible for the thinning of the ice shelves and also rising sea levels.

“We have found subtle changes in both surface elevation data from CryoSat and ice velocity from Sentinel-1, which shows that melting is not uniform, but has centred on a 5km wide channel that runs 60km along the underside of the shelf,” he said in a statement.

Mr Gourmelen believes the under-ice canyon is caused by warm water, about 1C, which circulates under the shelf, stirred clockwise and upward by Earth’s rotation.

“Revisiting older satellite data, we think that this melt pattern has been taking place for at least the entire 25 years that Earth observation satellites have been recording changes in Antarctica,” he said.

“Over time, the melt has calved in a broad channel-like feature up to 200m deep and 15km across that runs the entire length of the underside of Dotson ice shelf.

Mr Gourmelen said the canyon was deepening by about 7m a year, causing the ice above to be heavily crevassed.

“Melt from Dotson ice shelf results in 40 billion tonnes of freshwater being poured into the Southern Ocean every year, and this canyon alone is responsible for the release of four billion tonnes — a significant proportion,” he said.

“The strength of an ice shelf depends on how thick it is. Since shelves are already suffering from thinning, these deepening canyons mean that fractures are likely to develop and the grounded ice upstream will flow faster than would be the case otherwise.”

This is the first time researchers have been able to see this process in the making and now they hope to expand their area of interest to the shelves all around Antarctica.

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