Melting glaciers may have revealed lost Antarctic island – and humans are already visiting it
CLIMATE change in Antarctica may be linked to a never-before-seen island emerging from the ocean, experts have said.
The uncharted island is actually big enough to spot from space but may have gone unnoticed due to previously being hidden beneath a lot of ice, a Nature report suggests.
Rising temperatures in Antarctica over the past decades have been linked to glacial retreat, which is a possible trigger for this island's appearance.
Extreme melting and changes to the climate may have released pressure on to the continent, allowing the ground to rise up, a Nature report .
"As glaciers have retreated in West Antarctica, they have released pressure on Earth’s crust, allowing it to rebound and rise," said Lindsay Prothro, a glacial geologist at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.
Rebounding ground can accelerate the ice cracking and falling away, which may be what happened with this new island that potentially emerged off the coast of Antarctica around 2010.
The island has been named after Sif, the Norse goddess of Earth and wife of Thor.
It was first spotted by members of the Thwaites Offshore Research (THOR) project as their research vessel passed through Pine Island Bay.
This bay is where ice flows into from the Pine Island Glacier, one of the fastest-retreating glaciers in Antarctica.
According to , experts aren't sure how long the island has been visible but they think climate change may be behind its appearance.
University of Houston marine geologist Julia Wellner was one of the investigators on the expedition that spotted the island.
She : "After being the first visitors, we can now confirm that Sif Island is made of granite and that it is covered by remnant ice shelf, and a few seals."
The expedition crew has taken geological samples of the island, which could help to explain the way the continent is shifting.
We've contacted them to ask more details about the size of the Sif.
Extreme melting events in Antarctica have recently revealed more of existing islands.
Nasa recently released a image of Eagle Island losing 20% of its snow cover in only 9 days at the start of this month.
Climate change explained
Here are the basic facts...
- Scientists have lots of evidence to show that the Earth’s climate is rapidly changing due to human activity
- Climate change will result in problems like global warming, greater risk of flooding, droughts and regular heatwaves
- Each of the last three decades have been hotter than the previous one and 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have happened during the 21st century
- The Earth only needs to increase by a few degrees for it to spell disaster
- The oceans are already warming, polar ice and glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising and we’re seeing more extreme weather events
- In 2015, almost all of the world's nations signed a deal called the Paris Agreement which set out ways in which they could tackle climate change and try to keep temperatures below 2C
This article has been updated to reflect the fact that melting glaciers are only a likely explanation for the island's appearance, and not proven. The article also mistakenly suggested that recent Antarctic temperature records were linked to the island's appearance. A map that inaccurately placed the island was also removed.
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