A team of researchers, led by the University of Leeds and comprising CPOM scientists, has discovered 85 previously unknown subglacial lakes hidden beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.
Buried deep under the surface of the ice, subglacial lakes offer a unique insight into how meltwater moves underneath the ice sheet.
The paper, published today in Nature Communications, increases the number of known subglacial lakes to 231 and details five new connected lake networks and drainage pathways.
Leveraging 10 years of Cryosat-2 data
The study, led by Sally Wilson (University of Leeds), used ten years of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) CryoSat-2 mission, to observe changes in ice sheet elevation indicating the filling and draining of subglacial lakes, locating and mapping them as they evolve over time.
Understanding what’s happening beneath ice sheets is important in understanding how they respond to and impact the environment around them, including the ocean. The information can then be considered in ice sheet modelling, which is crucial for projecting future behaviour of ice sheets, how meltwater at the base enters the oceans, and sea level rise.
How do subglacial lakes form?
Geothermal heat and friction created by hundreds of metres of ice sliding over the Earth’s bedrock creates pools of meltwater at the ice sheet base. Some of these lakes are ‘active’, draining and refilling over time, while some don’t, remaining ‘stable’. Lake Vostok is the largest known subglacial lake with enough water to overflow the Grand Canyon and is thought to be stable. Draining of ‘stable’ lakes like Lake Vostok could have a considerable impact on the ice sheet, how it might drain, and therefore the circulation systems of surrounding oceans and sea level rise.
The team was led by Sally F. Wilson (University of Leeds) and included Anna E. Hogg (University of Leeds) Richard Rigby (University of Leeds) Noel Gourmelen (University of Edinburgh and CPOM Associate Investigator: Ice Sheet Modelling and Satellite InSAR) Isabel Nias (University of Liverpool and CPOM Principal Investigator: Glaciology) & Thomas Slater (Northumbria University/CPOM Research Fellow: Land Ice Earth Observation).
Find out more
Wilson, S.F., Hogg, A.E., Rigby, R. et al. Detection of 85 new active subglacial lakes in Antarctica from a decade of CryoSat-2 data. Nat Commun 16, 8311 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63773-9
Read more about this story: ESA article
