A new study has discovered a massive active volcano under Antarctica's ice sheet.
The volcano, which was accidentally discovered by a group of seismologists working in Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica, lies beneath nearly a mile of ice in the region and is certain to erupt at some juncture in the near future, according to the study that was published in Nature Geoscience on November 17.
In the event the volcano erupts, then the flow of ice sheet into the sea will be accelerated, which will in turn raise the current sea levels which are already rising.
"This is really the golden age of discovery of the Antarctic continent," said Richard Aster, a co-author of the study and a seismologist at Colorado State University. "I think there's no question that there are more volcanic surprises beneath the ice."
When the volcano will erupt is not known, but the catastrophe is quite likely.
"At some point, it is going to erupt," said Amanda Lough, lead researcher and a PhD student in seismology at Washington University in St. Louis. "Is it going to erupt in any of our lifetimes? That is not something that we can pinpoint."
The team of researchers, led by Lough, used ice-penetrating radar and found a elliptically-shaped deposit which measured 1,000 sq Kms in the area where the dept was 1,400 meters.
Researchers opine that the deposit is volcanic ash, which was spewed out by an eruption that occurred nearly 8,000 years ago. This time frame is an estimate which was based on the assumption that the volcano has been covered with ice that accumulates at 5 inches per year.
"Together, these observations provide strong evidence for ongoing magmatic activity and demonstrate that volcanism continues to migrate southwards," per Lough.
Per the study, the ice sheet loss from Antarctica could partly be attributed to the active volcano, which lies in the continent's eastern part.
"Eruptions at this site are unlikely to penetrate the 1.2 to two-km (0.75-1.2-mile) -thick overlying ice, but would generate large volumes of melt water that could significantly affect ice stream flow," per the study.
However, Robert Bindschadler, an expert on glacial ice dynamics, opines that this is "speculative."
"The implication of large amounts of under-ice water accelerating ice flow, ice discharge and, thus, raising sea levels is 'permissible,' but remains highly speculative," said Bindschadler to NBC News in an email. "The actual processes involved are still very much topics of research."
Between 2002 to 2011, the average rate of Antarctic ice sheet loss every year increased nearly five times from 30 billion tones to 147 billion per the UN's panel of climate scientists.
