New map of Antarctica without ice: how it would be done without glaciers

A new map has been published showing the “naked” surface of Antarcticathat is, how the continent would appear if it were free of his 27 million km³ ice. Carried out as part of the international project Bedmap3 and published on March 10 in the magazine Nature – Scientific Datethe map is the result of the integration of over 60 years of detection campaigns and measurement of the ice thicknessfrom the position of the coast line and of the Morphology of the rocky substrate. Bedmap3 offers an accurate vision of the landscape hidden under the glacial cap, outlining the profile of deep valleys and canyons with greater clarity and detail, as well as the characteristics of the mountain ranges.

The data integrated within the project also made it possible to process surprising statistics on Antarctica, the continent populated by a few thousand researchers: the total surface of the Antarctic ice amounts to 13.63 million km²with an average thickness equal to 1 948 m. Moreover, according to the estimates, if all the ice of the continent messee, the global level of the sea would rise by about 58 m.

How the Antarctica map was created

They were needed over 6 decades of data and monitoring to create the Antarctica map free of his glacial blanketin the highest resolution version ever obtained. This is not the first attempt, but of the third, as the name of the project suggests: Bedmap3. The results of the previous versions were published in 2001 For Bedmap and in 2013 For Bedmap2.

Like its predecessors, Bedmap3 is based on the integration and interpolation of a multitude of dataset, collected with different detection techniques, developed through Geographical information systems (Gis – Geographic Information System). However, Bedmap3 clearly exceeds its predecessors for volume and detail of the data, integrating the post 1950 dataset already used in Bedmap2 Ben 84 new aero-geophysical reliefs of the thickness of the ice, including 52 million of additional data points e 1.9 million km linear measurements. In addition, Bedmap3 shows greater resolution, with a detail up to 500 mwell 10 times Greater than its predecessor Bedmap2, whose resolution could reach 5 km.

The new measurements have made it possible to fill important gaps in the mapping of Eastern Antarctive – including areas such as the South Pole, the Pensacola basin, the Dronning Maud Land, the glacier Recovery, Dome Fuji and the Princess Elizabeth Land – as well as in the Peninsula Antarcticalong the coasts of western Antarctica and in the chain of Transantartici mountains.

Exploratory campaigns between the glaciers

As mentioned, the results of numerous detection campaigns have merged into the Bedmap3 project. Among these appear the measurements Insar satellite satellite (Interferometric synthetic openings radar), carried out between the 1992 and the 2020which, together with altimetric data and satellite images, have been used to identify the waterline (or “Grounding Line“), Or the border between the continent and floating glaciers.

The thickness of the ice was estimated starting from the data collected in beyond 227 Detection and carotage campaigns conducted in the last 60 years, including measurements carried out in the open sea and batteries. To these were added the altimetric data provided by the satellite Cryosat-2 of ASAoperational between the 2011 and the 2014which from an altitude of just over 700 kilometers has monitored the variations in the thickness of polar caps and floating seafood with high precision. Digital elevation models (Dem) with very high resolution and the distribution of rocky outcrops Finally, they were used as a base for the reconstruction of the topographical surface of Antarctica below the blanket of ice.

The Bedmap3 project

Bedmap3 is an international collaborative project, started in 2020with the aim of producing a new high resolution map of the thickness of the ice and topography of the entire Antarctic region. The project is coordinated by British Antarctic Surveybased in Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, and involves numerous universities and research institutes from all over the world, including entities based in Australia, Chile, China, South Korea, Denmark, France, Germany, Greenland, India, England, Norway, Russia, the United States and Switzerland. Also Italy actively participates in the initiative thanks to the contribution of experts of theNational Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv) and ofNational Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS).

The results of Bedmap3, including the new maps of Antarctica and the data collected, have been published March 10, 2025 In the international scientific journal Nature – Scientific Data. The results and data produced during the Bedmap3 project are preparing a fundamental piece for understanding the climatic, geological and environmental system of Antarctica, in particular for the study of the effects of global warming and complex interactions between the glacial cap and the rocky substrate below.