Level 1 - Absolute Beginner

Scientists have made a big discovery in Antarctica. They found a huge hidden structure under the ice. The structure is very old. It has been there for about 150 million years.

The structure is shaped like a fan. It is very large, about the size of a continent. Scientists named it the East Antarctic Fan-shaped Basin Province. It is buried under ice that is three kilometers thick in some places.

The discovery was published in a science journal called Nature Geoscience in June 2026. Scientists think this hidden structure affects how the ice of Antarctica moves. This is important for understanding climate change.

Antarctica

the continent at the South Pole, covered by a massive ice sheet and home to the coldest temperatures on Earth

basin

a large, bowl-shaped depression in the ground, often filled with water or ice, formed by geological processes

ice sheet

a very large continuous mass of ice covering a land area, like the one covering most of Antarctica

tectonic

relating to the movement and structure of large pieces of Earth's crust, which cause earthquakes, volcanoes, and the formation of mountains

subglacial

located beneath a glacier or ice sheet, hidden under the ice

province

in geology, a large geographic region that shares common geological features or history

structure

in geology, a large formation in the rock of Earth's crust shaped by natural processes over millions of years

geology

the scientific study of the history, structure, and composition of the Earth, including its rocks and minerals

Level 2 - Elementary

Scientists have discovered a massive hidden geological structure buried under the ice of East Antarctica. Published in Nature Geoscience on June 3, 2026, the study was led by a team from Durham University in the United Kingdom. Using radar surveys and satellite data collected over many decades, the researchers identified a giant fan-shaped network of subglacial basins. They named it the East Antarctic Fan-shaped Basin Province.

The newly identified province encompasses several well-known individual basins, including the Wilkes Basin, the Aurora Basin, and the basin containing Lake Vostok -- the world's largest known subglacial lake. Previously, these features were studied separately. The new research shows that they are all part of one enormous, connected geological structure, making it the largest unrecognized geological feature on Earth. In some parts of the province, the overlying ice sheet is more than three kilometers thick.

The structure most likely formed through a process called distributed rotational extension, in which the Earth's crust gradually stretches outward from a central point. Scientists believe the formation took place over multiple tectonic episodes connected to the breakup of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, which began splitting apart about 180 million years ago. The hidden basins continue to shape how the Antarctic ice sheet moves today, influencing the locations of subglacial lakes and potentially affecting the stability of the ice sheet in a warming world.

subglacial lake

a body of liquid water trapped beneath a thick glacier or ice sheet, kept liquid by geothermal heat from the Earth below

radar survey

a technique that uses radio waves sent through ice or rock to map structures hidden below the surface

rotational extension

a geological process in which the Earth's crust stretches and spreads outward from a central point in a rotating pattern

Gondwana

an ancient supercontinent that broke apart about 180 million years ago to eventually form South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and India

supercontinent

a very large landmass formed when several continents are joined together, existing before they drifted apart through tectonic movement

geothermal heat

heat that comes from within the Earth, generated by radioactive decay deep in the planet's interior

tectonic episode

a period of significant movement and deformation of the Earth's crustal plates, often associated with volcanic activity or continental drift

ice sheet stability

the ability of a large mass of glacial ice to maintain its current size and shape rather than collapsing or melting into the ocean

Level 3 - Intermediate

In a study published in Nature Geoscience on June 3, 2026, a team led by Durham University geologists has described the largest previously unrecognized geological structure on Earth: the East Antarctic Fan-shaped Basin Province (EAFBP). The EAFBP is a system of enormous subglacial basins that stretches across much of East Antarctica beneath ice up to three kilometers thick. The province incorporates several features that were previously treated as independent geological entities, including the Wilkes Basin, the Aurora Basin, and the basin housing Lake Vostok, the world's largest known subglacial lake. By integrating multiple generations of airborne radar surveys, satellite altimetry, and gravity data, the team was able to reconstruct the bedrock topography at sufficient resolution to identify the province as a coherent structural system.

The mechanism of formation is interpreted as distributed rotational extension -- a geodynamic process in which continental lithosphere progressively stretches and thins outward from a central pivot, forming a series of rift-like depressions arranged in a characteristic arc or fan geometry. The Durham team argues that the EAFBP developed through multiple tectonic episodes spanning from the initial fragmentation of Gondwana roughly 180 million years ago through the later separation of Antarctica and Australia approximately 34 million years ago. Each episode of rifting added new structural elements to the province, and the researchers propose that the fan geometry may itself have influenced the pathway taken by the Australia-Antarctica rift, contributing to continental-scale plate reorganization.

The discovery carries significant implications for glaciology and climate science. The shape of the bedrock beneath an ice sheet exerts a controlling influence on where ice flows, where subglacial lakes form, and where the ice sheet is most vulnerable to basal melting driven by geothermal heat or ocean-water intrusion. East Antarctica has long been considered the more stable of the two Antarctic ice sheets. If the EAFBP contains a set of deep, interconnected basins that channel warm subglacial water toward marine-grounded sectors of the ice sheet, stability assessments for East Antarctica under twenty-first-century warming scenarios may need to be revised upward.

bedrock topography

the shape and height variation of the solid rock surface beneath a glacier or ice sheet, mapped to understand ice flow

lithosphere

the rigid outer layer of the Earth consisting of the crust and the upper part of the mantle, broken into tectonic plates

rifting

the geological process in which the lithosphere is pulled apart, forming rift valleys, new ocean basins, and eventually new continents

basal melting

the melting of ice at the base of a glacier or ice sheet, caused by geothermal heat from below or by warm ocean water intruding underneath

Level 4 - Advanced

The identification of the East Antarctic Fan-shaped Basin Province (EAFBP), published by Stewart et al. in Nature Geoscience on June 3, 2026, represents a significant conceptual reorganization of East Antarctic subglacial geomorphology. Prior to this study, the Wilkes Basin, Aurora Basin, Recovery Basin, and the basin complex associated with Lake Vostok -- the world's largest known subglacial lake at approximately 250 by 50 kilometers -- were analyzed as independent geomorphic entities, each the subject of discrete radar-survey and glaciological modelling efforts. The Durham-led team, working with a comprehensive synthesis of legacy airborne radio-echo sounding transects, CryoSat-2 satellite altimetry, GRACE gravity anomaly maps, and seismic refraction data, demonstrate that these features are structurally coupled components of a single continental-scale basin system organized in a fan geometry that radiates approximately 2,400 kilometers from a pivot zone near Dome Argus.

The formation mechanism proposed by Stewart et al. is distributed rotational extension, a variant of non-volcanic passive margin development in which lithospheric thinning propagates radially rather than along a single rift axis. The structural evolution of the EAFBP is interpreted as polyphase: an initial extensional episode associated with the disaggregation of eastern Gondwana from roughly 180 to 130 Ma, a secondary reactivation phase coincident with the separation of India from Antarctica at approximately 130 to 90 Ma, and a third episode broadly contemporaneous with the Antarctica-Australia divergence beginning at roughly 55 Ma and continuing until oceanographic isolation of the Antarctic continent at approximately 34 Ma. The fan geometry is proposed to have concentrated mechanical weakness along the pathway subsequently followed by the Southeast Indian Ridge, contributing to the specific configuration of circum-Antarctic seafloor spreading and therefore to the oceanographic isolation event that initiated Antarctic glaciation.

For glaciologists and climate modellers, the structural coherence of the EAFBP reframes the stability question for East Antarctica. The canonical view -- that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is a robust, high-elevation, mostly-marine-grounded-free repository of approximately 53 metres of sea-level-equivalent ice -- is predicated on the assumption that the deep interior basins are hydraulically semi-isolated. If the EAFBP constitutes a hydrologically connected system capable of routing geothermally and frictionally generated meltwater toward marine sectors at the Totten, Denman, and Recovery glacier outlets, the sensitivity of the EAIS to ocean-temperature forcing may be substantially higher than current ice-sheet models, which were parameterized on the assumption of basin independence, have captured. The authors call for a dedicated reanalysis of EAIS dynamic simulations using bed geometries that incorporate EAFBP structural connectivity, noting that even modest upward revisions to projected twenty-first-century East Antarctic mass loss would have multi-decadal implications for global mean sea level.