A team of American scientists from Brown University and Lehigh University has concluded that the melting of Antarctica's glaciers could lead to more frequent and extensive volcanic eruptions.
According to Report, the study, published in the scientific journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (GGG), reveals a hidden threat lurking beneath the continent's vast ice sheet
Antarctica is home to approximately 100 volcanoes, many of which are clustered along its western coast. The majority of these volcanoes are buried several kilometers deep under the ice. To investigate how ice loss affects these hidden fire mountains, the researchers conducted 4,000 computer simulations.
The results suggest that the unloading of ice sheets reduces the pressure on magmatic chambers beneath the surface, causing compressed magma to expand. This expansion increases the pressure of the molten rock on the chamber walls. Additionally, some magmatic chambers are saturated with volatile gases that are typically dissolved in the magma. As the magma cools and the rock pressure decreases, these gases escape from the solution, further increasing the pressure within the magmatic chamber.
While eruptions of subglacial volcanoes may not be visible on the surface, they can have significant consequences for the ice sheet. The heat from these eruptions can intensify ice melting deep below the surface and weaken the ice cover above, creating a feedback loop between decreased surface pressure and new eruptions.
The scientists emphasized that the process they discovered is slow and takes hundreds of years to unfold.