This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Over a century ago, Australian geologist Sir Douglas Mawson led a sledding expedition over hundreds of kilometers of ice into a remote part of East Antarctica. The party turned back after the tragic death of a party member.
Fellow Australian Cecil Madigan led another group across sea ice into the region before also turning back. These intrepid explorers never set foot on an ice sheet that may be crucial to our future. Even now, we don't know anyone who's been there.
It's time to change that. This remote region is known as the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, an enormous area of ice covering 1,400 kilometers by 400 kilometers (870 miles by 250 miles). It matters because much of the Wilkes basin sits well below sea level.
If all the basin's ice melted, it would raise sea levels 3–4 meters (10–13 feet), while torrents of meltwater would likely disrupt vital ocean currents and cause major upheaval to marine life and the broader climate. As we explain in our new review, the region is vulnerable to change. Reconstructions of past warm periods show its ice sheet shrank dramatically when the climate was 2–3°C warmer—conditions we are rapidly approaching.
If you walked on the Wilkes basin, you wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary—ice as far as the eye could see. It's what's under the ice that matters. The underlying bedrock is up to 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) below sea level.
Subglacial basins are huge ice-filled bowls of rock. Today, the ice is thick enough to keep the ocean out of the basin, but the ocean is always in contact with its edges. Off East Antarctica, ocean temperatures tend to hover around -1.8°C (28.8°F).
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