What would Antarctica look like if it were not covered with ice?

Have you ever wondered what lies beneath the huge ice sheet - which is over 3, 000 meters thick at some points! - covering Antarctica? So take a look at the interesting animation below produced by NASA:

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The video shows Antarctica devoid of all the ice that covers it, revealing what no human being could ever see: the rock bed that makes up the continent. The animation was created from an over-detailed map - Bedmap2 - generated by the British Antarctic Survey.

This new map was developed on the basis of a previous mapping, which incorporated thousands of measurements on the Antarctic surface. This information was combined with satellite imagery obtained through NASA's ICESat, as well as radar-collected data that was also obtained by the space agency through special aircraft monitoring.

In addition to revealing the topography of the terrain beneath the icy layer, the map - the most detailed map produced so far - also helps us understand how the continent-to-ocean ice flow works, and how this dynamics can contribute to rising sea levels. of the seas.