A NASA mission to examine the world beneath continental ice sheets found a behemoth trench larger than the Grand Canyon under Greenland\u2019s ice, according to a NASA press release. <\/p>\n
The findings resulted from radar data collected between 2009 and 2012 as part of NASA\u2019s Operation IceBridge. A combination of data collected by researchers from the United Kingdom, Germany and NASA helped determine that the canyon existed.<\/p>\n
The researchers flew over Greenland examining the ice sheet. \u00a0NASA scientists used a Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder to see beneath the ice, among other instruments. Returning readings from the sounder indicate thickness and geometry of underlying rock formations.<\/p>\n
Collected data show that the canyon is a minimum of 460 miles long and as deep as 2,600 feet. \u00a0The researchers suspect the canyon transports melt water below ice into the Arctic Ocean.<\/p>\n
[youtube id=”ENg9Hci9y3M” width=”620″ height=”360″]<\/p>\n
Top image: Glaciers flowing through a valley in northeast Greenland seen from NASA’s P-3B research aircraft on Apr. 19, 2013. (Credit: NASA\/Michael Studinger)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A NASA mission to examine the world beneath continental ice sheets found a behemoth trench larger than the Grand Canyon under Greenland\u2019s ice, according to a NASA press release. The findings resulted from radar data collected between 2009 and 2012 as part of NASA\u2019s Operation IceBridge. A combination of data collected by researchers from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-atmosphere","category-news"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"\n