Journey to the depths of the Antarctic ice: Scientists discover an ancient landscape made up of rivers

the Glaciation in Antarctica It was caused by global climate cooling over a period Cenozoic Era. During the Eocene, glaciation was probably limited to ephemeral glaciers and small mountain glaciers in areas of high relief. However, it was there A dramatic change in the extent and volume of ice In the Eocene-Oligocene metamorphism

Antarctica wasn’t always a wasteland of ice and snow. The southernmost continent on Earth ever It was home to rivers and forests full of life. This image is some of what is now visible to researchers. Using satellite observations and ice-penetrating radar, scientists are now getting a glimpse The Lost World of Antarctica. In fact, a new study reveals that they discovered, buried beneath the continent’s ice sheet, Vast ancient landscape full of valleys and hillsIt appears that the rivers were formed long before they were covered by ice.

This landscape, located in an area Wilkes Land In East Antarctica, bordering the Indian Ocean, covering an area of ​​approx Size of Belgium. The researchers noted that it appears to date back to at least 14 and perhaps more than 34 million years ago, when Antarctica entered a deep freeze.

He added: “What we saw is like a snapshot from the past.” Stuart Jamisonprofessor of glaciology at Durham University in England and co-director of the study just published in the journal Nature Communications-. It’s hard to know what this lost world would have looked like before the appearance of ice, however It was definitely warmer. on time. Depending on how far back you go, there may have been climates ranging from that of present-day Patagonia Even something similar to tropical. He added that pollen was discovered from ancient palm trees in Antarctica, not far from the coast of our study site.

Such an environment It is likely inhabited by wildlife, although the fossil record of the area is too incomplete to indicate which animals may have inhabited it. “The ice in the ancient landscape is between 22 and 30 km thick,” said the study’s co-director. Neil RossProfessor of Polar Sciences and Environmental Geophysics at the University of Newcastle University in England.

Experts reported this The land beneath this ice is less known than the surface of Mars.. One way to unravel its mysteries is to drill into the ice and obtain a core sample of the sediments underneath. This could provide evidence revealing ancient plants and animals, as happened with specimens obtained in Greenland dating back two million years.

The new study used Satellite monitoring of the ice surfacewhich in some places followed the contours of the buried landscape, and Ice penetration radar data For a plane flying overhead, some previous studies have similarly revealed ancient landscapes beneath the Antarctic ice, including mountains and highlands, although the landscapes discovered in the new study were the first of their kind.

“The landscape has been modified by different processes that have influenced me Rivers, tectonics and glaciation “Over a very long period of geologic time,” Ross said. “34 million years ago, the landscape and vegetation of Antarctica may have resembled the cool temperate rainforests of Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Patagonia region of South America.”

Antarctica was once part of Supercontinent Gondwana Which also included what is now Africa, South America, Australia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Arabian Peninsula, but was eventually separated and isolated in a geological process called plate tectonics.

Researchers believe that “when Antarctica’s climate was warmer, rivers flowed across the newly defined landscape toward the continental coastline that was created when other land masses broke off,” Jamieson said. As the climate cooled, some small glaciers formed in the mountain ranges along Rivers and valleys deepened amid glacial erosion The weather has become quite cold And one slept Ice cap That covered the entire continent, drowning the glaciers that had previously existed. When that glacial growth occurred, the conditions between the ice base and the landscape changed and became very cold, thus The landscape can no longer be eroded. Instead, it has been preserved, perhaps for 34 million years.