ABOARD XUELONG, Antarctica, Jan. 19 -- China's 32nd Antarctic expedition team on Monday confirmed an earlier speculation in the South Pole of the world's largest canyon.

The canyon, more than 1000 kilometers' long, 1500 meters deep, and 26.5 kilometers wide at the top, is larger than the Grand Canyon in the U.S. and dubbed the largest canyon discovered on earth, according to Chinese scientists.

China's expedition team, who launched the search last November around the Princess Elizabeth Area of the South Pole, has also found many subglacial lakes and currents connected to the canyon, forming a giant "wetland" beneath the Antarctic ice.

They also detected large-scale "warm ice" under the sheet along with a number of lakes. Warm ice can easily be melted into water.

"It is very exciting that Chinese scientists led the survey and made the findings," said Sun Bo, vice leader of the expedition team. He said the achievements would help significantly with research in the area.

In recent years, science circles speculated through satellite remote sensing measures that there should be a giant canyon or lake covered by ice in the Princess Elizabeth Area.

The Chinese expedition team had surveyed an area of 866,000 kilometers, with the aid of China's first fixed-wing aircraft, carrying an ice radar, high-precision differential GPS system.

China launched its 32nd Antarctic expedition with the research vessel and icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon) on Nov. 7.