Longest subglacial river

The longest subglacial river has been inferred to be 460 kilometres (286 miles) long and flows from under the interior of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet until it emerges under the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea. The findings were published in the journal Nature Geoscience on 27 October 2022.

This hydrological system was detected using a combination of computer modelling and radar images of the ice sheet bed and it carries large volumes of meltwater (up to 24 cubic metres/848 cubic feet per second) at very high water pressures.

Numerous subglacial rivers occur under the ice sheet in Antarctica and they are far larger than those that flow over its surface or over the land. For example, the longest supraglacial river is only 120 km (75 mi) long and the longest terrestrial river in Antarctica, the River Onyx, is only 32 km (19.9 miles) long.