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A research team led by Eric Rignot, a professor at Earth System Science School of Physical Sciences at UC, has, for the first time mapped the speed and direction of ice flow in Antarctica.

The ground breaking map was created using data provided by American, European, Japanese and Canadian satellites, which allowed the researchers to get rid of cloud cover, solar glare and land features that mask the glaciers. Technology then allowed them to piece together the shape and velocity of glacial formations and create the map as if it were a giant jigsaw puzzle.

With the map completed, the researchers were taken aback by the subsequent discovery of a new ridge splitting the 5.4 million-square-mile landmass from East to West. They also found previously unnamed formations moving up to 800 feet, which travel annually across large plains to the Antarctic Ocean.

"The map points out something fundamentally new: that ice moves by slipping along the ground it rests upon. That's critical knowledge for predicting future sea level rise. It means that if we lose ice at the coasts from the warming ocean, we open the tap to massive amounts of ice in the interior," said Thomas Wagner, NASA's cryospheric program scientist in Washington.

It is hoped that the data can help track future sea-level increases from climate change, as well as highlighting particular danger areas. Rignot described how: "This is like seeing a map of all the oceans' currents for the first time. It's a game changer for glaciology. We are seeing amazing flows from the heart of the continent that had never been described before."

The full map can be seen below and more information can be found on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.

For other space missions related to ice levels on Earth, why not visit the European Space Agency's CryoSat mission page?

News item originally appeared on the International Business Times website