Researchers have used radar to penetrate Greenland's ice sheet, revealing a monstrous canyon in the bedrock beneath.
The canyon (pictured, looking northwest from central Greenland) runs for at least 750 kilometres to the northern edge of the sheet and is up to 800 metres deep in parts, reports a team led by Jonathan Bamber of the University of Bristol, UK.
Water may have carved the massive canyon at some point before about 3.5 million years ago, when Greenland's ice sheet began growing. This feature could act as a drainage route and might explain why Greenland — unlike Antarctica — has few lakes beneath its ice.
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Greenland's Grand Canyon. Nature 501, 8 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/501008a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/501008a
