The deepest point in the world on land

The researchers found an abyss below the Denman glacier located 3.5 km below sea level, just below the depth of the ocean trench.

Denman depression.(Photo: BBC).

The team discovered the area through the most detailed mapping project of the soil layer below Antarctica.BedMachine is an Antarctic topographic map showing peaks, trenches and slopes. The international team headed by ice scientists at the University of California, Irvine, mapped data based on more than 40 years of data from 19 institutions. The team also used radar and satellite images to calculate the thickness of the ice and the underlying soil over a large area.

The map and findings were published in Nature Geoscience. Lead researcher Mathieu Morlighem realized that if they wanted to model a better band, they needed a better map of the underlying rock. Later, Morlighem devised a new technique to view the soil under the ice, using satellite data on surface changes, snow accumulation, and radar data.

"The biggest challenge is that Antarctica is so vast, bigger than the United States and Mexico combined, so applying this method to the entire coastal area is very time consuming. It took us 5 years to create BedMachine , " Morlighem shared.

However, after completing the map, the team could explore previously unknown features of the land beneath the ice. A big surprise for them was the recessed area of ​​the Denman glacier . Thanks to the new technology, the researchers were able to calculate the Denman depression, 3.5 km deep above sea level, setting a record for the deepest point on land. The depression is about 100 km long and 20 km wide. For comparison, the deepest point on Earth is the Challenger Deep cape in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean with a depth of nearly 11km.