Using a variety of magnetic field datasets, the team calculated the distance between the crust and the mantle at various spots throughout Antarctica, as well as the relative heat flow in those areas. In the new study, the researchers quantified that difference in heat flow for the first time.

Scientists have long suspected that this comparatively thin crust must be absorbing more heat from the planet's upper mantle (which experiences average temperatures of 392 degrees Fahrenheit, or 200 degrees Celsius), impacting the formation and evolution of glaciers there over millions of years. 'Our measurements show that where the Earth's crust is only 17 to 25 kilometers thick, geothermal heat flow of up to 150 milliwatts per square meter can occur beneath Thwaites Glacier,' lead study author Ricarda Dziadek, a geophysicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, said in a statement.īecause West Antarctica sits in an oceanic trench, the crust beneath the seabed is much thinner than the crust below East Antarctica.

Heat of battle 3