Scientists discover 85 ‘active’ lakes buried beneath Antarctica’s ice

abdulmanannet77@gmail.comSeptember 24, 2025

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Scientists discover 85 ‘active’ lakes buried beneath Antarctica’s ice

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Scientists have identified 85 lakes unknown before hidden below AntarcticIce using a decade of satellite data.

The new lakes are “active”, which means that they drain and fill up periodically, changing size and form in the months and years, the researchers said. This sub-Glacial activity affects the stability of glaciers and their grinding movement on the basis of Antarctica, which in turn could have an impact on the world’s sea level, noted the team.

“It was fascinating to discover that the areas of the Lake Sub-Glacial can change during different filling or drainage cycles”, co-author of the study Anna HoggA professor of earth observation at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, said in a statement of the European Space Agency (ESA). “This shows that Antarctic sub-Glacial hydrology is much more dynamic than we thought, so we must continue to monitor these lakes as they evolve in the future.”

Before this last discovery, 146 active sub-group lakes were already known in Antarctica. The new study brings the total number of active lakes to 231 and adds to the understanding of the scientists of the moment and the way in which the sub-Glacial lakes flow and fill up, the main author of the study Sally Wilson said in the press release.

“It is incredibly difficult to observe filling and drainage events for sub-Glacial lakes,” said Wilson, who is a doctoral student at the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Leeds. “Only 36 complete cycles, from the start of the sub-Glacial garnish until the end of drainage, had been observed worldwide before our study. We observed 12 more complete filling events, bringing the total to 48.”

The sub-glacial lakes are pools of cast iron water which form when the geothermal heat from the inside of the earth rises at the base of a glacial cap, or when enough heat by friction is generated by the crushing of ice on the rocky substratum. The sub-glacial lakes can sometimes flow periodically, creating a flow of water that lubricates the bottom of the ice cap and helps to slide on the rocky substratum, accelerating the movement of the ice to the ocean.

For the study, the researchers analyzed the data captured between 2010 and 2020 from the ESA Cryosat-2 satellite, which measures the variations in the thickness of sea ice, glaciers and glacial caps in the world. Cryosat-2 transports an instrument called radar altimeter which can detect small changes in the height of ice characteristics, including changes resulting from draining and filling lakes at the base of the ice.

The data revealed dozens of locations where the antarctic ice cap flows and increases slightly as a result of the emptying and filling of the sub-Glacial lakes below the surface. Observations have also shown 25 lakes clusters and five underglacial lakes ever seen with interconnected drain and filling cycles, researchers wrote in the study, which was published on September 19 in the journal Nature communications.

Antarctic card showing the location of active and stable sub-glacial lakes.

A map of the Antarctic showing the locations of 85 active “newly discovered” sub-glacial lakes (red triangles). The shaded area in pink is the place where Cryosat-2 collected data between 2010 and 2020. (Image credit: European space agency)

The results are important because they improve the understanding of scientists of the dynamics of the ice cap and the impact that they have an impact on the world level of the sea, which could help researchers design more precise climate and land models. “The digital models that we are currently using to project the contribution of whole ice cream caps to sea level elevation do not include sub-glacial hydrology,” said Wilson. “These new sets of data from the locations of sub-galacial lakes, expanses and change times will be used to develop our understanding of processes resulting in a flow of water under Antarctica.”

Certain underglacial lakes in Antarctica are stable, which means that they do not flow and do not fill. An example is Lake Vostokwhich is under the ice cap of the eastern Antarctic and contains more than enough water to fill the Grand Canyon, according to the press release. If Lake Vostok has started to empty, it could affect the entire ice cap and cause an increase in the world’s sea level, the researchers noted.

“The more we understand about the complex processes affecting the antarctic glacial cap, including the flow of cast iron water at the base of the ice cap, the more we can precisely project the extent of the future elevation of sea level”, ” Martin carryingA scientist from the digital Twin Earth and coordinator of the polar science cluster of ESA, concluded in the declaration.