Scientists researching climate change have inadvertently discovered one of the world’s biggest canyons beneath the ice sheets of Greenland. Carved out by a river more than four million years ago, the hidden valley is 800 kilometers long and 800 meters deep, making it longer than Arizona’s Grand Canyon.
鈥淭he Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets hide a lot,” professor David Vaughan from British Antarctic Survey told . “It鈥檚 pretty surprising to find this canyon. Greenland isn鈥檛 that big for a canyon of that size, and for it to survive in its pre-glacial form after successive glaciations is quite something.鈥
Meltwater from the canyon still runs out to the sea, and glaciologists believe it plays an important part in transporting sub-glacial meltwater to the ocean. The canyon has never been seen by humans, and researchers believe that there may be bacteria trapped below the ice.