NASA map shows what Antarctica would look like without ice

CBC News ^ | JUNE 7, 2013

[OldNewYork]

Interesting. Thanks for posting this.

[muawiyah]

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmos/layers.htm ~ plus, the atmosphere is simply less thick over the Antarctic ~ which means it gets colder than elsewhere more often so there’s always going to be some ice in/on/alongside the mountainous areas there

[tbw2]

If the ice all melt, would the land rise because it is no longer pressed down by the weight?
If so, how much would that map change?

[Ramius]

I’m really curious to find out what might be in some of those great large lakes they’ve found... Down under a few miles of ice. A liquid water lake, isolated for hundreds of millions of years... What sorts of critters might be in there? The possibilities are awesome.

[Ramius]

If the ice all melt, would the land rise because it is no longer pressed down by the weight?

Probably, yes.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Without ice it would be Antarta.

[Ramius]

Imagine what’ll happen to textbooks if they dive into one of those lakes and find a bronze whaling harpoon. :-)

[Ramius]

Atlantis. :-)

[blueunicorn6]

Here’s what snow looks like.

Here’s what a polar bear in a snowstorm looking at you looks like.

. .

[SamAdams76]

I think the X-Files already gave us that answer. It wasn’t pretty.

[Chode]

that's sure enough bizarre...

[houeto]

Thanks for the extra SunkenCiv.

[RegulatorCountry]

Anybody else see two fairly distinct, large impact craters on the lower edge of the photo? Looks like it to me. Formed those mountain ranges if so.

[beaversmom]

Extra cool.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

IMO the world-wrapping mountain/fault lines came about with lunar capture, but there was an impact about 2 million years ago, and there must have been other impacts before and since.

The Eltanin Impact Crater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1248414/posts

Forests Frozen In Time
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1321587/posts

Did a Pacific Ocean meteor trigger the Ice Age?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2933778/posts

off-topic post in another topic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/825168/posts?page=31#31

Massive Eltanin Meteor 2.5 million years ago set off mass tsunami, changed the climate?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2937621/posts

Cosmic Impact Site That Created Earth’s Axial Tilt and Fault Lines
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2639823/posts

ah, different impact:

Giant asteroid rocked Antarctica
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1248406/posts

and lunar origin discussion:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1234919/replies?c=4

[Sirius Lee]

Old news.

[RegulatorCountry]

I was looking at the large, central mountain range in that image of Antarctica, and seeing the rim of the two apparent large craters below them. The range is scalloped in two places. The larger of the two, to the right in the image, even has an obvious upwelling of impact debris in the center, or at least the reasonably convincing appearance of it from afar.

AFAIK, meteorite fragments and “slices” are astoundingly expensive and valuable. Drill down into the center of that upwelling and there's likely a large one, imho, protected all these eons by a thick coating of ice that seems to have been somewhat static, otherwise all those evident geological features would have been ground down substantially.

[meadsjn]

Lovely place to exile the commies.

Bring your beach attire. Global warming will be along any minute.

[DemforBush]

I don’t know about astronaut training, but I have been told that some of the early Viking mars lander prep work was done in these parts of Antarctica.