{"id":1838066,"date":"2025-03-18T10:28:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T14:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1838066"},"modified":"2025-03-18T10:40:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T14:40:33","slug":"a-new-map-of-the-land-beneath-antarcticas-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/03\/a-new-map-of-the-land-beneath-antarcticas-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Map of the Land Beneath Antarctica\u2019s Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"An<\/a>
From Pritchard et al., Bedmap3 updated ice bed, surface and thickness gridded datasets for Antarctica<\/a>. Sci Data<\/em> 12, 414 (2025).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The British Antarctic Society has announced<\/a> the release of Bedmap3, the third and twice-as-detailed topographic model of the landscape beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Bedmap3,<\/a> as the name suggests, is the third attempt to draw a picture of Antarctica\u2019s rock bed that began in 2001, but this new effort represents a dramatic refinement. It includes more than double the number of previous data points (82 million), rendered on a 500 m grid spacing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big knowledge gaps have been filled by recent surveys in East Antarctica, including around the South Pole, along the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctic coastlines, and in the Transantarctic Mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outline of deep valleys is better represented. So too are those places where rocky mountains stick up through the ice. The latest satellite data have also more accurately recorded the height and shape of the ice sheet and the thickness of the floating ice shelves that push out over the ocean at the continent\u2019s margin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For crunchier details, see the article in Scientific Data<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously: Mapping Antarctica\u2019s Bedrock<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British Antarctic Society has announced the release of Bedmap3, the third and twice-as-detailed topographic model of the landscape beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Bedmap3, as the name suggests, is the third attempt to draw a… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[841],"class_list":["post-1838066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-geology","tag-antarctica","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":927906,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/12\/early-radar-maps-of-antarctica-digitized\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838066,"position":0},"title":"Early Radar Maps of Antarctica Digitized","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 December 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Nature: \"Glaciologists will soon have a treasure trove of data for exploring how Antarctica\u2019s underbelly\u00a0has changed over nearly half a century. An international team of researchers has scanned and digitized 2 million records from pioneering aeroplane radar expeditions that criss-crossed the frozen continent in the 1960s and 1970s. [...]\u00a0The digitized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1787543,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/08\/mapping-the-flow-of-antarctic-ice\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838066,"position":1},"title":"Mapping the Flow of Antarctic Ice","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"1 August 2019","format":"image","excerpt":"This is a map of Antarctic surface ice velocity: the speed at which glaciers flow. It was produced by researchers at the University of California Irvine and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, using radar interferometry and multiple satellite passes to produce a map 10 times more accurate than previous maps. More:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weather and Climate"","block_context":{"text":"Weather and Climate","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/weather-and-climate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/antarctica-mouginot-1024x830.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/antarctica-mouginot-1024x830.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/antarctica-mouginot-1024x830.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/antarctica-mouginot-1024x830.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5581,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/06\/mapping-antarcticas-bedrock\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838066,"position":2},"title":"Mapping Antarctica’s Bedrock","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"4 June 2013","format":"link","excerpt":"NASA has released an updated map of the bedrock beneath the Antarctic ice sheet; the map, called Bedmap2, adds considerable detail\u2014a tighter grid and millions of data points\u2014to its decade-old predecessor. The image above exaggerates vertical scale by a factor of 17 to increase visibility. See also this short video.","rel":"","context":"In "Geology"","block_context":{"text":"Geology","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/geology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bedmap2 topography map of Antarctica (NASA)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2013\/antarctica-bedmap2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2013\/antarctica-bedmap2.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2013\/antarctica-bedmap2.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1786713,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/11\/antarctica-at-eight-metre-resolution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838066,"position":3},"title":"Antarctica at Eight-Metre Resolution","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"20 November 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica is a terrain map of nearly the entire continent at eight-metre resolution, assembled from observations from polar-orbiting satellites (mostly in 2015 and 2016). Version 1 covers 98 percent of Antarctica, and observations are ongoing. Notably, each grid point is timestamped, which will allow researchers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (map poster)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/rema-antarctica-1024x839.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/rema-antarctica-1024x839.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/rema-antarctica-1024x839.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/rema-antarctica-1024x839.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788848,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/05\/maps-of-antarctica-at-the-british-library\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838066,"position":4},"title":"Maps of Antarctica at the British Library","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 May 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Two recent posts at the British Library\u2019s Maps and Views Blog provide \u201ca whistle-stop tour through maps held in the British Library that chart Antarctica\u2019s gradual emergence from obscurity into light.\u201d The first covers maps of Antarctica through the nineteenth century, when the continent went from unknown to unexplored; the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bl-antarctica-150x134.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1786297,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/09\/about-the-spilhaus-projection\/","url_meta":{"origin":1838066,"position":5},"title":"About the Spilhaus Projection","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"20 September 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"This image went a bit viral earlier this week. Some context. It's from an August 2015 blog post at Le Cartographe, in which Alexandre Nicolas discussed (and rendered, above) a projection produced in 1942 by South African oceanographer Athelstan Spilhaus. In Spilhaus's oceanic projection, centred on Antarctica, the world's oceans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Oceans"","block_context":{"text":"Oceans","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/oceans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cartographe-spilhaus.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cartographe-spilhaus.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cartographe-spilhaus.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/cartographe-spilhaus.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838066"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838072,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838066\/revisions\/1838072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}