This vast "fossil lake bed" is a phenomenon that scientists have never seen before in this part of the world. It is surprising, even knowing that Greenland's massive glaciers potentially hold many such secrets, according to the "Science Alert" website.

Last year, scientists reported that they had discovered 50 subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland ice sheet - bodies of water located between the land and the ice cover.

A new study, published in the scientific journal "Earth and Planetary Science Letters", describes a slightly different type of discovery - an ancient lake basin, long dried up and now filled with sediment. Scientists have determined that this area was once not covered by an ice sheet – instead, there was a lake covering 7,100 square kilometres containing 580 cubic kilometres of water.