An international group of researchers presented the first generalized data on a unique mountain range, which no one has ever seen with their own eyes and is unlikely to see it in the foreseeable future
We are talking about the unique and mysterious Gamburtsev Mountains, located at the South Pole of our planet. For the first time, the Soviet polar explorer, academician Grigory Gamburtsev, spoke about these mountains back in the 60s.
Until now, scientists knew that these mountains exist, that they are completely hidden under a 2-kilometer layer of Antarctic ice and that in some regions of the Gamburtsev mountains there are quite interesting mountain ranges. On this, perhaps, everything. Now, as a result of studying the ice cap with the help of a mass of modern technologies, including from satellites, the researchers have established an almost exact topology of the Gamburtsev mountains and looked at them as if there was no ice above them that hid them for at least 35 million years.
The team of geologists presented the results of their research last Friday in the United States. According to scientists, their results combine both modern technology and previous data collected over the past 50 years. “With the complete topographic structure of this massif, we were convinced that it is very similar to the Alps in Europe or the Appalachians in the United States,” says Dr. Michael Stadinger of the Lamotna-Doherty Geological Center in New York.
“These mountains were formed by the collision of tectonic plates. This can be stated quite accurately, although our results are the first of their kind,”he says. Stadinger also noted that their group will continue to engage in scientific analysis of the data over the coming months, so there is a possibility that minor adjustments will be made to the results.
The Gamburtsev Mountains were discovered by Soviet polar explorers in 1957-1958, and this came as a complete surprise to the scientific community of that time, since it was believed that Antarctica was flat and lifeless under a 2.5 km layer of ice. Immediately after the discovery of the mountains, many experts suggested that there might even be volcanoes under the ice of the South Pole. However, nothing of the kind was found there.
These mountains stretch for 1,300 km in the eastern part of Antarctica, and in some places they reach a height (under the ice) of 3-3.5 km. Their existence is a serious geological problem - the fact is that, according to modern concepts, mountains on Earth are formed either as a result of volcanic activity (absent in this part of the continent), or as a result of the interaction of tectonic plates. For example, the Himalayas were formed when the Hindustan plate “crashed” into the Eurasian plate and “squeezed” the rocks to the surface. However, such a mechanism of mountain building for the east of Antarctica is unknown. Almost all the mountains of the ice continent are located on the coast.
“We can confirm that there are mountains there, and they are very similar to the Alps. The Gamburtsev Mountains even outwardly resemble European massifs - the same peaks and large valleys. These results only raise questions for us about how such formations could appear on a continent where there were no large-scale earthquakes,”says Dr. Fausto Ferracioli, representative of the British Society for Antarctic Research.
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One of the biggest difficulties associated with exploring the Gamburtsev Mountains is the weather in the area of the massif. In summer, the temperature here drops to minus 80 Celsius, in winter it is somewhat warmer, but still the conditions remain extremely harsh. Now geologists carried out a significant part of the research using a special scientific light aircraft Twin-Otter, which could fly 800-900 km from the site of the polar station. In total, scientists flew nearly 120,000 km during the study.
They managed to study the features of local gravitational fields, magnetism, ice thickness under each of the regions, conduct a radar study and make a complete airborne geophysical study.
Based on these data, scientists can now accurately state that the thickest layer of ice in the mountain region is 4800 meters thick, while the mountains themselves are at an altitude of 2500 meters above sea level. In addition, it is obvious that before Antarctica finally froze over, the mountains were quite picturesque - frozen valleys, traces of river channels and rather winding landscapes are visible in the images. “Until now, we have assumed that there are valleys below, but have not seen them. Now we see. Much of this data will help us understand what Antarctica was like 40 or 50 million years ago,”says Feraciolli.
In addition, the scientist notes that the preservation of valleys, river beds and many other landscapes in their almost pristine form suggests that icing at the South Pole occurred extremely quickly.
There is one more feature of the mountains and ice above them: in some regions, "pockets" with liquid water, located extremely close to the mountain peaks, have been found. This leads scientists to the idea that near the mountains the temperature is higher than the freezing point of water, in other words, heat probably emanates from the mountains. According to preliminary estimates, the age of most of these "pockets" is 1.2-1.5 million years.
In total, the Gamburtsev Mountains occupy about one-ninth of the Antarctic.