Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands facts for kids
The Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands are a chain of mountains completely hidden under a thick layer of ice in West Antarctica. Imagine mountains that are so deep under the ice, you can't see them! They stretch from the main Ellsworth Mountains all the way towards Mount Moore and Mount Woollard.
How We Found These Hidden Mountains
For a long time, no one knew these mountains existed because they were buried under so much ice. Scientists first got a hint about them in 1957. A group called the Marie Byrd Land Traverse Party, led by Charles R. Bentley, used special sound waves to "see" through the ice. This method, called seismic sounding, helped them understand what was beneath the ice.
Later, between 1967 and 1979, more detailed maps were made. This was done by a team from the Scott Polar Research Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the Technical University of Denmark. They used airplanes with special radar equipment that could send radio waves through the ice. This "radio echo sounding" helped them map out the hidden mountains very clearly. The highlands were named after the nearby Ellsworth Mountains.
What's Under the Ice?
Beneath the ice, there's a huge valley that runs through these hidden mountains. This valley is incredibly deep, going down as much as 3 kilometers (about 1.8 miles)! It's also very long, stretching for about 280 kilometers (174 miles), and at least 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) wide.
In some places, the bottom of this valley is more than 1,500 meters (almost a mile) below sea level. This shows just how deep and vast this hidden landscape is, even though it's completely covered by ice.
