There are 7 continents on Earth and Antarctica is the fourth largest. Although it is covered in 27 million cubic kilometers of ice, Antarctica is the driest continent in the world. There is a misconception that Antarctica is a giant block of water. Instead, under this ice sheet there is a normal land surface like other continents.
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have published a new map of what Antarctica would look like if all the ice on it melted. BAS used data collected over the past 60 years to produce the map above. This is the third time the map has been published by BASA since 2001.
The map, called Bedmap3, shows the hilly surface of Antarctica with an average thickness of ice of 1.9 kilometers. In some areas there are canyons as deep as 4,757 meters carved by the movement of glaciers over millions of years.
Scientists say that if all the water in Antarctica melted, the sea level on Earth would rise by 58 meters. The Antarctic continent will not sink completely but will rise higher because it will no longer have to bear the 24.759 quadrillion tons of ice.