CBSNEWS / livescience.com Nov 18 2013
Earthquakes deep below West Antarctica reveal an active volcano hidden beneath the massive ice sheet, researchers said Sunday in a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The discovery finally confirms long-held suspicions of volcanic activity concealed by the vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Several volcanoes poke up along the Antarctic coast and its offshore islands, such as Mount Erebus, but this is the first time anyone has caught magma in action far from the coast.
"This is really the golden age of discovery of the Antarctic continent," said Richard Aster, a co-author of the study and a seismologist at Colorado State University. "I think there's no question that there are more volcanic surprises beneath the ice."
The volcano was a lucky find. The research project, called POLENET, was intended to reveal the structure of Earth's mantle, the layer beneath the crust. In 2010, a team led by scientists from Washington University in St. Louis spent weeks slogging across the snow , pulling sleds laden with earthquake-monitoring equipment.
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