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The landscape remained intact because, in that part of the continent, the type of ice capable of scraping and wearing away the soil never formed. Before turning into a white desert, the region had a climate similar to southern Patagonia, with vegetation that even included palm trees before the ice took over everything.
Under almost 2 kilometers of Antarctic ice, scientists found an ancient landscape sculpted by rivers at least 14 million years ago, and possibly from before the continent froze completely. Approximately the size of Wales, the region was preserved like a time capsule and may help predict how the ice will behave and advance towards the ocean in a global warming scenario.
The discovery was published on October 24, 2023, in the scientific journal Nature Communications, in a study led by geographer Stewart Jamieson from Durham University in the United Kingdom. Although the work is not recent, the topic regained prominence this week with new reports on how this hidden terrain can influence sea level rise projections in the coming decades.
Where this buried landscape is located
The region is about 350 kilometers from the edge of the ice cap and near the Denman and Totten glaciers, which are considered particularly sensitive to climate variations and ocean warming.
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According to the study, the ancient landscape consists of three plateau blocks sculpted by rivers, separated by deep valleys. The set extends about 300 kilometers wide, an area comparable to Wales in the United Kingdom or the mountainous region of Eryri in Welsh, known in English as Snowdonia. All of this has remained practically intact under approximately 2 kilometers of ice.
How to see rivers under 2 km of ice
How to see land buried under a layer of ice so thick that overcoming it with the naked eye is impossible? The answer lies in the combination of satellite data with the so-called ice-penetrating radar, a technique in which aircraft emit radio waves capable of penetrating the ice cap and returning with information about what lies beneath.
With these tools, researchers can detect small undulations on the ice surface that actually reflect the shape of the buried terrain. It’s as if the ancient land casts a subtle shadow on top of the ice, and the scientists’ task is precisely to reconstruct this image using satellites, computer modeling, and comparison with areas already mapped in previous radar overflights.
A very different Antarctica from today
The rivers that sculpted this landscape flowed during a time when Antarctica was a very different place from the vast white desert it is today. Before the great ice cap formed, about 34 million years ago, the continent’s climate resembled the current southern Patagonia in Argentina and Chile, with cold forests and even evidence of tropical vegetation in earlier times, including palm trees.
In this pre-glacial Antarctica, water flowed across the surface towards the coast, which was a few hundred kilometers away, on a continent that had been separating for millions of years from the supercontinent Gondwana. When the global climate cooled, the ice advanced rapidly, covered much of the territory, and froze that fluvial landscape, turning rivers and valleys into geographic fossils preserved through the ages.
Why this terrain escaped glacial erosion
The great mystery of the discovery is to explain why this ancient landscape remained intact under millions of years of ice. In other regions of Antarctica, the advance of glaciers known as warm-based ice, more mobile and capable of dragging pieces of the soil, scraped and eroded much of the original terrain, profoundly altering the face of the continent.
In the case of the Aurora and Schmidt basins, however, there seems never to have been a significant presence of this type of destructive ice. Instead, a cold and more immobile ice prevailed, acting as a kind of protective blanket, leaving the ancient terrain practically as it was. Researchers interpret this scenario as a sign of long-term thermal stability in the region, although limited to the interior of the continent.
What this changes for sea level
More than a geological curiosity, the discovery has practical implications for the present. The buried relief acts as a kind of track, helping to understand how ice moves over Antarctica’s topography. Flatter surfaces, for example, can reduce the speed of ice flow, while deep valleys tend to guide and accelerate the exit of glaciers towards the sea.
This information is crucial for refining climate models that attempt to predict how much Antarctica will contribute to sea level rise in the coming centuries. The more detailed the knowledge of the actual relief beneath the ice cap, the more accurate the projections become, especially in a region neighboring the Denman and Totten glaciers, considered particularly vulnerable to ocean warming in the coming decades.
What is still left to discover
Despite the progress, many questions remain open. To confirm the exact age of the fluvial landscape, it would be necessary to drill almost two kilometers of ice and recover sediment samples from the soil below, a huge logistical challenge but with very high scientific potential. These testimonies would tell, with more precision, when the terrain last froze and under what climatic conditions this occurred.
Scientists also want to understand if the relief continues further inland, forming other preserved and yet unknown areas. Each new piece of this puzzle helps to build a more complete picture of Antarctica’s history, connecting the planet’s deep past to a future where the fate of continental ice will have a direct effect on coastal cities around the world, including Brazil.
The discovery of an ancient fluvial landscape preserved under almost 2 kilometers of ice in Antarctica is one of those findings that mix fascination and scientific utility. On one hand, it fuels the imagination by revealing that, before the continent froze, there were rivers running where there is now only ice. On the other, it offers concrete clues to understand how this ice will behave in the coming decades, in a scenario of global warming that could reshape coastlines around the planet. It is proof that studying the past is, more than ever, a way to try to predict the future.
And you, have you ever imagined that there was an Antarctica with rivers running, cold forests, and even palm trees at some point in the past? What impresses you most about this discovery beneath kilometers of ice? Leave your comment, tell us what you think about the impact of ice melt on sea level, and share the article with those who love science, climate, and the mysteries of the planet.
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