A huge radioactive 'furnace' appeared under the Antarctic ice, which has melted the bottom of the 5,000 square kilometers of ice sheet?

In the 15th and 17th centuries, the great powers of Western Europe set off a wave of ocean voyages. Navigators drove huge wooden sailboats to those new routes that had not been explored in the past. Many people failed to achieve their goals, and even died. On the way, but there are still some people who finally found those unknown "wealth".

The new route has gradually connected human society into a whole. In the past, the civilization that was separated from the powerful civilization and developed almost independently has gradually become a part of the whole human being . It has also brought bloody looting and killing. It is the development of European capitalist society. One of the foundations, the impact is far-reaching.

Humans have been migrating continuously in the development of millions of years, and their footprints have spread all over the world. Researchers can even judge where the local people come from by their appearance and culture.

The current mainstream view is that humans first appeared in Africa and eventually spread to all parts of the world . However, have human beings with tenacious vitality and outstanding wisdom really established civilizations everywhere?

The answer is no, because there is still a mysterious continent on our earth - Antarctica . This continent, which once existed only in the imagination of philosophers, was officially discovered in the 18th and 19th centuries, and we still do not fully understand it.

Mysterious Antarctic Continent

Ancient Greece was a country full of philosophical and artistic brilliance, and the leaders of each school had a set of doctrines about their worldview. For example, some scholars believe that the world is a mass of fire, some scholars believe that the world is floating on water, and some scholars believe that the world is composed of several elements.

The philosopher Aristotle believed that the world is a sphere, and we live on the continent to the north. Although his hypothesis had certain similarities with the real world, the science at that time was obviously unable to explain why the earth could remain in balance. Therefore, Aristotle believed that there should be a mysterious "Southern Continent" on the other side of the world opposite the Northern Continent.

The re-emergence of this theory will wait until after the Renaissance. Many navigators who participated in the exploration of new routes were convinced of this, and they continued to search for the legendary " Southern Continent ".

With the efforts of these people, human beings gradually got closer and closer to the frozen Antarctic continent, and finally realized that the "end" of the ocean is not another mysterious civilization, but a piece of ice and snow without human footprints.

After our science and technology became more developed, various countries carried out active scientific expeditions here. So far, apart from all kinds of unique animals, there are only those scientific researchers who are not afraid of difficulties and dangers.

The climate and ice sheets of the Antarctic continent

The Antarctic continent is located at the southernmost tip of the earth, and the South Pole is included in this continent . Although there are penguins, seals and other animals on the Antarctic continent, in fact, these animals can only live in a small part of the Antarctic continent, and mainly rely on the ocean for a living, because the climate in the hinterland of the Antarctic continent is really terrible.

Humans have not recorded the climate of the Antarctic continent for a long time. The lowest temperature recorded in 1983 was -89.2°C , which is enough to destroy any life. At such extreme low temperatures, apparently no liquid water could exist, so precipitation on the Antarctic continent ended up in snow and thick ice sheets.

There are not many freshwater resources on the earth, and the proportion of rivers and groundwater that can be directly used by humans is even less. Most of the freshwater resources exist in the polar regions in the form of solids. The total volume of the ice sheets on the Antarctic continent is about 24.5 million cubic kilometers . What is the concept?

Nine-tenths of the ice on land is here, as is seven-tenths of all fresh water . Therefore, Antarctica is like a "big refrigerator" that stores the earth's fresh water, maintaining the balance and total amount of the world's overall water resources.

heat source under the ice cap

Scientists' continuous exploration and research in Antarctica, in addition to studying the geological and climate changes over hundreds of millions of years, also includes real-time monitoring of Antarctic ice sheets and glaciers.

Just in 2018, some scientists in the UK discovered a huge heat source under the ice sheet, which is emitting a steady stream of heat and is still melting the ice sheet above. There are already about 5,000 square kilometers. The ice sheet was baked into water by this huge "stove"-like heat source, forming an amazing subglacial lake that is still expanding. The discovery shook the world, and people began to speculate on the origin of the heat source.

According to the legends of some occult fans, there are some mysterious native residents living in Antarctica. They were the Atlanteans back then. After their homes were frozen, they lived underground and had developed technology. Although most people find this claim to be nonsense, the heat source discovered this time leads those who hold these views to believe that this is evidence of the existence of underground people.

Of course, what scientific research needs most is rigor. We can't believe these unfounded legends, and we must face all of this with a scientific and objective attitude. So in the eyes of scientists, how did this "heat source" come from?

The reason for the formation of the "furnace"

When it comes to subglacial lakes in Antarctica, we will think of subglacial freshwater lakes such as Dongfang Lake discovered in Antarctica by researchers in the past, but their formation methods are obviously different from this newly discovered heat source.

Other subglacial lakes are not baked by heat, but under the thick ice layer, the freezing point of water changes, about minus three degrees Celsius , which is caused by different atmospheric pressures .

In addition, the ice layer keeps the temperature of these subglacial lakes stable, so they can remain unchanged and pure for tens of millions of years, possibly even making it the purest liquid water we can find on Earth.

The newly discovered subglacial lake in Antarctica was formed entirely by the continuous baking of that mysterious heat source. Originally, these fresh waters were still solid ice sheets. Its location is about 3000 meters under the ice cap , so could it be a volcano? But according to the calculations of geologists, there should be no volcanoes in this area. This heat source is more mysterious than we thought.

Of course, serious scientists would not associate this phenomenon with the so-called "Atlanteans". After a long period of research, they believed that this should be a radioactive heat source with the earth inside of radioactive heat sources.

We know that the structure of the earth is divided into three layers, namely the crust, the mantle and the core . The mantle and the core are both extremely high temperature worlds, full of various radioactive heat sources. One of the reasons why humans once tried to "drill through the earth" failed is that the temperature below the surface is too high .

But some people will say that under the Antarctic ice sheet should be the surface, how can there be a radioactive heat source that only exists in the depths of the earth? In fact, scientists are also puzzled by this. At present, it can only be considered that the geological structure of the Antarctic continent is different from other places. Therefore, there is a radioactive "furnace" on the surface under the Antarctic ice sheet.

Importance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet

From this incident, we can also see how important the thick ice sheet of the Antarctic continent is to life on Earth. If the ice sheet thins or disappears, then the radioactive material could escape and have an impact on the planet's overall environment.

It would be fine if it was just this heat source, but now no one dares to say whether there are other radioactive heat sources on the surface of the Antarctic continent, and it may even be bigger and more obvious than this one. Of course, even without this discovery, the Antarctic ice sheet would still be indispensable to us. What is this for?

If the ice sheets of the Antarctic continent melt, it means that a huge amount of fresh water will enter the ocean, and there will be a substantial rise in global sea levels. Not only those places that were originally lower altitudes will be directly submerged by sea water, but the overall environment of the earth will also undergo dramatic changes.

Our ecosystems are built on the current climate and are likely to collapse after a major climate change. As the saying goes, "Under the nest, no eggs are complete." How can human beings be "self-sufficient" in such a global change and protect our race? Therefore, changes in the Antarctic ice sheet must attract the attention of each of us.