(Image source from: Look what they found in Greenland})
Scientists have unearthed (un-iced here) an unmapped gorge, about 800 miles deep and almost as massive as the Grand Canyon in U.S.A, cloaked under Greenland ice.
"It's remarkable to find something like this when many people believe the surface of the Earth is so well mapped," lead author Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol in England said.
"On land, Google Street View has photographed just about every building in every major city," he told Reuters of the study, using ice-penetrating radar and carried out with colleagues in Canada and Italy.
The canyon, which is about 750 km (470 miles) long in central and north Greenland, is buried under about 2 km of ice.
“About as long as the Rhone river in France and Switzerland, the ravine was probably cut by an ancient river that eroded rocks as it flowed north before temperatures cooled and ice blanketed Greenland 3.5 million years ago,” Jonathan Bamber added.
The gorge probably still helps in draining some meltwater from beneath the sheet of ice.
AW: Suchorita Dutta
