The land beneath Antarctic ice is less known than Mars
Beneath two kilometers of Antarctic ice, scientists have uncovered a landscape frozen in time for at least fourteen million years — a terrain of hills and valleys shaped by ancient rivers, now mapped through radar and satellite data. The discovery speaks to how much of Earth's own story remains hidden from us, and why that ignorance carries consequence: the East Antarctic ice sheet holds enough water to raise global seas by sixty meters, and the climate conditions that once shaped this buried world are, by some projections, returning. In learning to read what lies beneath, humanity may find a mirror for what lies ahead.
- A Belgium-sized ancient landscape, sealed under Antarctic ice for over fourteen million years, has been mapped for the first time — revealing hills, valleys, and the ghost of flowing rivers.
- The stakes are not merely geological: the East Antarctic ice sheet contains enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by sixty meters, and its behavior under warming conditions remains dangerously poorly understood.
- What makes this find extraordinary is its near-perfect preservation — the ice base here never melted, denying erosion its usual grip and leaving the terrain as legible today as it was millions of years ago.
- Scientists used ice-penetrating radar and satellite surface measurements to detect the buried topography, with subtle ripples at the ice surface acting as a fingerprint of the landscape hidden two kilometers below.
- The discovery lands at an urgent moment: Earth's climate is trending toward the same temperatures that existed when this landscape was last exposed, making it a potential guide to how the ice sheet may respond to future warming.
Beneath two kilometers of Antarctic ice, a landscape has been waiting in silence for at least fourteen million years. Scientists have now mapped it — thirty-two thousand square kilometers of ancient terrain shaped by rivers long before the East Antarctic ice sheet sealed it away. The expanse is roughly the size of Belgium, and its hills and valleys remain, remarkably, intact.
Most landscapes trapped beneath moving ice are eventually ground into featureless rubble. This one survived because the base of the ice sheet in this region stayed extraordinarily cold, never generating the liquid water that normally lubricates erosion. The bedrock remained frozen solid, and the terrain above it was preserved like a photograph — resembling, researchers say, the topography of present-day North Wales.
Stewart Jamieson of the University of Durham, who led the study, noted that the land beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet is less understood than the surface of Mars. That gap matters enormously: the shape of bedrock controls how ice flows, and the East Antarctic ice sheet holds enough water to raise global sea levels by sixty meters. Predicting its future behavior is not a theoretical exercise.
The researchers detected the buried landscape through ice-penetrating radar and by reading subtle undulations in the ice surface itself — faint echoes of the valleys below. The data suggests a world that was once wet and almost certainly vegetated, though what lived there remains unknown.
The discovery carries a particular urgency because the landscape likely formed when Earth was three to seven degrees warmer than today — temperatures that current climate trajectories are approaching. How the ice sheet behaved then, and how it might behave again, is a question this ancient, frozen terrain may help answer.
Beneath two kilometers of Antarctic ice lies a landscape that has been sealed away for at least fourteen million years. Scientists have now mapped it using satellite data and radar-equipped aircraft, revealing thirty-two thousand square kilometers of ancient terrain—an expanse roughly the size of Belgium—that was shaped by rivers long before the East Antarctic ice sheet entombed it.
The discovery is striking not because it is old, but because it has survived so completely intact. Normally, the grinding movement of ice as it expands and contracts over millions of years would obliterate any landscape trapped beneath it, smoothing away the valleys and ridges into featureless rubble. This terrain, however, remains remarkably well-preserved, its hills and valleys still legible in the geophysical data—resembling, according to the researchers, the topography of present-day North Wales.
Stewart Jamieson, a geographer at the University of Durham who led the study, noted the profound gap in human knowledge this discovery addresses. The land beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet, he observed, is less well understood than the surface of Mars. That ignorance matters because the shape of the bedrock fundamentally controls how ice flows across it and, by extension, how the ice sheet will respond as the planet warms. The East Antarctic ice sheet holds enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by sixty meters. Predicting its behavior under future climate conditions is not academic—it is consequential.
The researchers used ice-penetrating radar to peer through the frozen layers and satellite measurements to detect subtle variations in the ice surface itself. Those tiny undulations at the top of the ice sheet, Jamieson explained, are the ghost of the landscape below—a series of interconnected valleys that the radar confirmed. The data told a story of flowing water, of a landscape that was once wet and, almost certainly, vegetated. What plants and animals inhabited this terrain remains unknown, but the evidence of rivers suggests life was present.
What makes this particular landscape so exceptional is the reason it survived. The base of the ice sheet in this region has remained extraordinarily cold and stable for millions of years. Normally, friction and geothermal heat create liquid water at the ice-bedrock interface, and that water acts like a lubricant, allowing ice to slide and grind away the underlying terrain. Here, that liquid water never formed. The bedrock stayed frozen solid, locked in place, protected from erosion.
The timing of this discovery carries its own weight. The landscape likely formed between thirty-four and fourteen million years ago, when Earth's climate was three to seven degrees Celsius warmer than today. Current climate trajectories are pushing the planet toward those same temperatures. Understanding how the ice sheet behaved under those conditions—and how it might behave again—offers a window into what lies ahead. The survival of this ancient landscape, preserved in its cold tomb, may hold clues to how the ice sheet will respond when the world around it grows warm once more.
Notable Quotes
The land underneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is less well known than the surface of Mars, and that's a problem because that landscape controls the way that ice in Antarctica flows.— Stewart Jamieson, lead researcher, University of Durham
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does it matter that we can see this landscape now? It's been hidden for millions of years.
Because the shape of the ground beneath ice controls how that ice moves and breaks apart. If we don't understand the bedrock, we can't predict what the ice sheet will do as temperatures rise.
So this particular landscape is special because it's still intact. Why didn't the ice just erase it like it does everywhere else?
The base of the ice here stayed frozen solid—no liquid water to act as a lubricant. Elsewhere, friction creates meltwater that grinds everything away. This place was locked in place.
And the landscape is old enough to tell us something about a warmer world.
Exactly. It formed when Earth was three to seven degrees warmer than today. We're heading back toward those temperatures. This landscape is a record of what the ice sheet looked like then.
What was actually living there?
We don't know. But the rivers suggest water flowed, which almost certainly means vegetation existed. It wasn't a barren place.
And now we can use this to predict what happens next.
That's the hope. The ice sheet contains enough ice to raise sea levels by sixty meters. Understanding how it behaved in a warm climate before is our best guide to what it might do again.