Scientists create first-ever genealogy of volcanoes beneath Antarctic ice

An international team of scientists has compiled the first comprehensive reference archive of volcanoes hidden beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet, marking a major breakthrough in polar and Earth system research, as reported by China Daily, a partner of TV BRICS.

The newly developed catalogue documents 207 known subglacial volcanoes across the continent, offering the most detailed and standardised dataset to date on their size, shape, distribution and geological characteristics. The archive fills a long-standing gap in understanding Antarctica’s hidden volcanic landscape and provides an open scientific resource for researchers worldwide.

Antarctica is covered by an ice sheet averaging more than two kilometres in thickness, with some regions approaching five kilometres. Beneath this ice, volcanic structures have remained largely inaccessible, limiting their systematic study for decades. Recent scientific work, however, has shown that subglacial volcanoes can significantly influence ice-sheet behaviour by reshaping the bedrock, increasing basal melting, altering subglacial water systems and affecting ice flow and stability.

To address this challenge, researchers integrated decades of fragmented scientific observations into a unified, continent-scale dataset. Using advanced data analysis and computer vision techniques, they extracted precise morphological parameters for each volcano, creating a quantitative classification framework based on height, volume, slope and basal width.

The volcanoes themselves vary dramatically in scale, ranging from relatively small structures just over 100 metres high to massive formations exceeding 4,000 metres in height. Their volumes span from just one cubic kilometre to nearly 3,000 cubic kilometres, underscoring the diversity of Antarctica’s concealed volcanic terrain.

Scientists say the new archive lays the groundwork for future research into volcanic origins, geothermal heat flow and ice-sheet dynamics, as well as improved assessments of Antarctica’s long-term stability in a warming climate.

Photo: goinyk / iStock