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Hypothesized drawdown of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet through the bottleneck zone between East and West Antarctica would have significant impacts for a large proportion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Earth observation satellite orbits and a sparseness of radio echo sounding data have restricted investigations of basal boundary controls on ice flow in this region until now. New airborne radio echo sounding surveys reveal complex topography of high relief beneath the southernmost Weddell/Ross ice divide, with three subglacial troughs connecting interior Antarctica to the Foundation and Patuxent Ice Streams and Siple Coast ice streams. These troughs route enhanced ice flow through the interior of Antarctica but limit potential drawdown of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet through the bottleneck zone. In a thinning or retreating scenario, these topographically controlled corridors of enhanced flow could however drive ice divide migration and increase mass discharge from interior West Antarctica to the Southern Ocean.

Plain Language Summary The East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets meet at the inland termination of the Transantarctic Mountains. The ice sheets coalesce at a major ice divide, which could migrate and impact ice flow across large parts of Antarctica. A lack of satellite observations of ice flow and ice thickness has previously restricted characterization of this region, its glaciology, and its subglacial landscape. Our ice-penetrating radar surveys reveal three deep subglacial valleys and mountainous subglacial topography beneath the ice divide. New measurements of ice flow evidence faster ice flow within these troughs than in the surrounding thinner ice. Were the ice sheet to shrink in size, an increase in the speed at which ice flows through these troughs could lead to the ice divide moving and increase the rate at which ice flows out from the center of Antarctica to its edges.