An ancient river landscape preserved beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet

• Main Authors: Jamieson, SSR, Ross, N, Paxman, GJG, Clubb, FJ, Young, DA, Yan, S, Greenbaum, J, Blankenship, DD, Siegert, MJ
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Research 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; East Antarctic Ice Sheet; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/134600; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42152-2

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this record Data availability: The data used for this work is the radio-echo sounding data from the ICECAP project, which is openly accessible via the Blankenship 2017 references38,39 (HICARS1: https://doi.org/10.5067/F5FGUT9F5089; HICARS2: https://doi.org/10.5067/9EBR2T0VXUDG). The mapping data generated in this study (Fig. 3a) are openly available as GIS shapefiles at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.815922373. Source data are provided with this paper—these relate to the data that underlies Figs. 3c and 4. Source data are provided with this paper. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) has its origins ca. 34 million years ago. Since then, the impact of climate change and past fluctuations in the EAIS margin has been reflected in periods of extensive vs. restricted ice cover and the modification of much of the Antarctic landscape. Resolving processes of landscape evolution is therefore critical for establishing ice sheet history, but it is rare to find unmodified landscapes that record past ice conditions. Here, we discover an extensive relic pre-glacial landscape preserved beneath the central EAIS despite millions of years of ice cover. The landscape was formed by rivers prior to ice sheet build-up but later modified by local glaciation before being dissected by outlet glaciers at the margin of a restricted ice sheet. Preservation of the relic surfaces indicates an absence of significant warm-based ice throughout their history, suggesting any transitions between restricted and expanded ice were rapid. National Science Foundation (NSF) NASA G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)