Scientists uncover entirely new mountain range – 13000ft underwater with eight volcanoes | World | News
Whether it be the Himalayas, the Andes or the Atlas Mountains, there are a number of huge mountain ranges around the globe.
While many are blown away by the 29,000ft high peak of Mount Everest, scientists discovered a very different kind of mountain range that could change our understanding of the planet.
In December, researchers found a hidden mountain range in the Antarctic Ocean.
Scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) scanned a previously unmapped part of the ocean floor and found a huge mountain range lying 13,100 feet below the surface.
The mountain range lies between Tasmania and Antarctica, and 200 nautical miles west of Macquarie Island.
CSIRO geophysicist Chris Yule said the range is a “spectacular chain of ancient seamounts.”
As well as mountains, eight dormant underwater volcanoes also lie deep beneath the surface. They had peaks of around 5,000 feet.
Mr Yule added: “Four of them are new discoveries, and we filled in details on two seamounts and a fault line ridge partially mapped on a previous voyage.
“We now know the ridge, just west of the survey area, drops into a valley over a 1,600 mature high cliff [5,249 feet[.”
Helen Phillips, from the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership at the University of Tasmania added: “The Antarctic Circumpolar Current ‘feels’ the seafloor and the mountains in its path, and where it encounters barriers like ridges or seamounts, ‘wiggles’ are created in the water flow that form eddies.
“Valleys and cliffs can also accelerate deep currents at the bottom of the ocean. Eddies are like the weather systems of the ocean, playing a major role in transporting heat and carbon from the upper ocean to deeper layers—a critical buffer against global warming.
“Knowledge of the depth and shape of the sea floor is crucial for us to quantify the influence of undersea mountains, hills and valleys on the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the leaking of heat towards Antarctica.”
Benoit Legresy, chief scientist on the voyage that led to the discovery of the mountain range, explained how the new research can help experts better understand the impact of climate change in Antarctica.
He said: “The ocean has absorbed more than 90 percent of heat due to global warming and around 25 percent of human CO2 emissions, providing an enormous service as a climate shock absorber.
“Knowing how to deal with human-induced climate change brings an urgency to tracking down the heat and cartoon pathways in the global climate system.
“We’ve been working in a gateway where heat is funneled towards Antarctica, contributing to ice melt and sea level rise. We need to understand how this gate worlds, how much heat gets through and how this may change in the future.”
