Antarctic heat source found driving ice melt, volcanism
A NASA study has found evidence that a geothermal heat source as powerful as US' Yellowstone supervolcano, called a mantle plume, lies deep below Antarctica's ice sheet, with a maximum thickness of 4.7 km. Geologists believe the plume formed 50-110 million years ago, when Antarctica was not covered in ice and has since worked to heat up the frozen continent.