Ghost Particles and Singing Ice: 11 Wild Antarctic Stories from 2018

Countdowns
By published

Ice highways

A series of mountain ranges divide east and west in Antarctica.

(Image credit: NASA)

Two major regions in Antarctica — the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet — are connected by enormous valleys that cross the continent. These canyons — now called Foundation Trough, Patuxent Trough and Offset Rift Basin — were unknown and undescribed until a recent survey.

Foundation Trough is the longest of the canyons, measuring 217 miles (350 kilometers) long and 22 miles (35 km) wide. These "highway" valleys enable the flow of ice from the larger and more stable East Antarctic Ice Sheet to its smaller neighbor.

Originally published on Live Science.

Mindy Weisberger
Mindy Weisberger
Live Science Contributor

Mindy Weisberger is a science journalist and author of "Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind-Control" (Hopkins Press). She formerly edited for Scholastic and was a channel editor and senior writer for Live Science. She has reported on general science, covering climate change, paleontology, biology and space. Mindy studied film at Columbia University; prior to LS, she produced, wrote and directed media for the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Her videos about dinosaurs, astrophysics, biodiversity and evolution appear in museums and science centers worldwide, earning awards such as the CINE Golden Eagle and the Communicator Award of Excellence. Her writing has also appeared in Scientific American, The Washington Post, How It Works Magazine and CNN.