658454 external_news 1653411846 1653411846 "Hidden below the surface of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, there is a vast mass of liquid water generated by the heating of Earth and frictional melting." That's how Winnie Chu, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, begins her Perspectives editorial in Science with a look at a new study showing observations of saline groundwater saturating a sedimentary basin beneath the Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica. Chu, who is researching a potentially similar situation in Greenland, says the Antarctica reservoir is estimated to contain a water volume more than 10 times greater than that in the overlaying subglacial hydrologic system. "This finding highlights groundwater hydrology as a potentially critical piece in understanding the effect of water flow on Antarctic ice sheet dynamics," Chu writes. 

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