Map shows Antarctica without ice. Bedmap3 is the newest map showing what Antarctica will look like without ice. British Antarctic Survey
A team of international scientists has created a map revealing Antarctica's topography beneath its miles of ice after compiling more than 60 years of data.
Newsweek reached out to British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the group that published the map, by email for comment.
Why It Matters
Antarctica sea ice has been disappearing over the last several years as global temperatures rise amid climate change.
The new map of Antarctica's topography beneath the ice gives scientists a better look at how the continent might respond to global warming.
What to Know
Last week, the BAS released Bedmap3, "the most detailed map yet" of Antarctica's landscape beneath its blanket of ice, a press release about the map said.
Scientists used data from planes, satellites, ships, and dog sleds to create the map and then published the results on March 12 in the Scientific Data journal.
"The map gives us a clear view of the white continent as if its 27 million cubic km of ice have been removed, revealing the hidden locations of the tallest mountains and the deepest canyons," the press release said.
Antarctica is covered with ice that is miles thick, and scientists have been studying what the continent's landscape looks like under all that ice for years.
Bedmap3 comes 12 years after BAS scientists published Bedmap2 in 2013. BAS scientists originally began seeking the answers to what the landscape looked like beneath Antarctica's ice in 2001.
The newest map doubles the data points in the original map and provides a better representation of Antarctica's valleys. The newest map changes where scientists previously thought the thickest ice was.
"Earlier surveys put this in the Astrolabe Basin, in Adélie Land. However, data reinterpretation reveals it is in an unnamed canyon at 76.052°S, 118.378°E in Wilkes Land," the press release said. "The ice here is 4,757 m thick, or more than 15 times the height of the Shard, the UK's tallest skyscraper."
What People Are Saying
Dr. Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist at BAS and lead author on the study, said in a statement: "This is the fundamental information that underpins the computer models we use to investigate how the ice will flow across the continent as temperatures rise. Imagine pouring syrup over a rock cake – all the lumps, all the bumps, will determine where the syrup goes and how fast. And so it is with Antarctica: some ridges will hold up the flowing ice; the hollows and smooth bits are where that ice could accelerate."
Peter Fretwell, mapping specialist and co-author at BAS, said in a statement: "In general, it's become clear the Antarctic Ice Sheet is thicker than we originally realised and has a larger volume of ice that is grounded on a rock bed sitting below sea-level. This puts the ice at greater risk of melting due to the incursion of warm ocean water that's occurring at the fringes of the continent. What Bedmap3 is showing us is that we have got a slightly more vulnerable Antarctica than we previously thought."
What Happens Next
NASA estimates that Antarctica is losing ice mass at an average rate of about 150 billion tons per year.
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This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 2:35 PM.