This Is What Antarctica Would Look Like If All Its Ice Disappeared

Ice blankets about 98 percent of Antarctica, concealing nearly all of its land beneath a frozen shell. But thanks to remarkable advances in imaging technology, scientists can now reveal what the continent truly looks like beneath all that ice. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The Bedmap2 was created back in 2013 using vast amounts of data on surface elevation, ice thickness, and bedrock topography collected by NASA and the British Antarctic Survey from satellites, aircraft, and surface-based surveys.

As the map shows, the naked land beneath the Antarctic ice sheet is a rugged land, covered in mountain ranges, gorges, and jagged terrain. Remarkably, one part of the bed found under the Byrd Glacier in Victoria Land is 2,8