VOLCANO MELTING ICE SHEET NEAR SOUTH POLE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993                   TAG: 9302120188
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
VOLCANO MELTING ICE SHEET NEAR SOUTH POLE
Scientists seeking the source of voluminous ice streams in West Antarctica have discovered a volcano baking under nearly a mile of solid ice near the South Pole - the first time an active volcano has been found under an ice sheet.
Heat from the volcano may be the source of water that is soaking the ground and lubricating the glaciers' relatively rapid slide down the Whitmore Mountains, across the West Antarctic ice sheet, through the Ross Ice Shelf and, eventually, into the Pacific Ocean.
The West Antarctic ice sheet is of particular interest to scientists because it is the only ice sheet in the world that crosses ground that lies below sea level, a feature that makes it inherently unstable.
They also are interested in the effect of global warming on Antarctic ice and the possibility of a catastrophic collapse of the sheet.
Such a collapse, which scientists believe is unlikely, would release enough water into the ocean to raise global sea levels by more than 18 feet, inundating many of the low-lying coastal areas where most of the planet's population has settled.
"Catastrophe is pretty remote," said Steven M. Hodge of the U.S. Geological Survey and a co-author of an article on the Antarctic volcano published Thursday in the journal Nature.
But, he added, the fact that the enormous ice sheet crosses land below sea level makes it "potentially inherently unstable."
Radar mapping of the ground under glaciers showed a lot of dormant or extinct volcanoes, with the apparent exception of one.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB