Buried Antarctica "Alps" Point to Hyper-Speed Global Warming

An international team of experts have mapped a huge, incredibly old location, mentioned in the notes of a Russian explorer from half a century ago, buried under hundreds of meters of ice.  In an amazing break with tradition this process did not result in the unleashing of ancient horrors, a self-destruct sequence, alien invasion or anyone shooting at Indiana Jones.  They've examined the entire Gamburtsev mountain range, 700 meters tall and buried under a kilometer of Antarctica.

An international team of experts have mapped a huge, incredibly old location, mentioned in the notes of a Russian explorer from half a century ago, buried under hundreds of meters of ice.  In an amazing break with tradition this process did not result in the unleashing of ancient horrors, a self-destruct sequence, alien invasion or anyone shooting at Indiana Jones.  They've examined the entire Gamburtsev mountain range, 700 meters tall and buried under a kilometer of Antarctica.

An international team of experts have mapped a huge, incredibly old location, mentioned in the notes of a Russian explorer from half a century ago, buried under hundreds of meters of ice.  In an amazing break with tradition this process did not result in the unleashing of ancient horrors, a self-destruct sequence, alien invasion or anyone shooting at Indiana Jones.  They've examined the entire Gamburtsev mountain range, 700 meters tall and buried under a kilometer of Antarctica.

The team used an array of tools including seismic wave reflection, radar, and precise gravitational measurements to map the frozen features - there are a lot more differences between ice and rock than "one works in drinks", and they used them all.  If "Sub-Antarctic Mountain Range" isn't good enough for you, the valleys between the peaks come complete with rivers and lakes - yes, lakes.  Under the ice.  At the South Pole.

The mountains are a massive mystery - they seem to be half a billion years old, but on a tectonic scale you can't just say "that's a long time ago so who cares."  There are no other indications of such titanic tectonics in the area at the time, and the range has none of the signs of volcanic formation.  Which is a pity, as volcanoes erupting into thousands of tons of solid ice is probably the only way this incredible landscape could sound any more awesome.

The researchers predicted a flat plateau, but instead found a range similar in height and shape to the Alps - with massive peaks as high as Mount Blanc and deep valleys.

Water, turned to liquid due to the pressure of East Antarctic Ice Sheet above, could be seen in rivers and lakes nestled in valleys. One lake, Vostok, a possible living biological lab of ancient lifeforms, was an incredible 300 kilometers.

Scientists hope the findings will aid predictions about the effects of climate change on ice sheets and challenge long-held views that the ice sheet formed over millions of years.The new research suggests they formed in a fraction of the time and the area could have been ice free at some points in history.

This means any rapid fluctuation in global temperature could have a much faster effect on the formation of ice sheets than previously thought

Posted by Luke McKinney

Related Galaxy posts:

Secrets of Antarctica's 15-Million Year-Old Lake -A Galaxy Classic
World's Oldest Living Microbes May Cast Light on Aging & Life on Mars
Will Jupiter's Moon -Europa- Provide the 1st Proof of Extraterrestrial Life? -A Galaxy Insight
Ancient Antarctic Microbes Revived in Lab
Antarctica -Mapping The White Continent

Links:

Lake Vostok Slide Show

http://www.unspecial.org/UNS633/UNS_633_T13.htm

A PDF on the Vostok drilling 
Wiki to Vostok - 
Wiki on the Antarctic Treaty

The mountains are a massive mystery - they seem to be half a billion years old, but on a tectonic scale you can't just say "that's a long time ago so who cares."  There are no other indications of such titanic tectonics in the area at the time, and the range has none of the signs of volcanic formation.  Which is a pity, as volcanoes erupting into thousands of tons of solid ice is probably the only way this incredible landscape could sound any more awesome.

The researchers predicted a flat plateau, but instead found a range similar in height and shape to the Alps - with massive peaks as high as Mount Blanc and deep valleys.

Water, turned to liquid due to the pressure of East Antarctic Ice Sheet above, could be seen in rivers and lakes nestled in valleys. One lake, Vostok, a possible living biological lab of ancient lifeforms, was an incredible 300 kilometers.

Scientists hope the findings will aid predictions about the effects of climate change on ice sheets and challenge long-held views that the ice sheet formed over millions of years.The new research suggests they formed in a fraction of the time and the area could have been ice free at some points in history.

This means any rapid fluctuation in global temperature could have a much faster effect on the formation of ice sheets than previously thought

Posted by Luke McKinney

Related Galaxy posts:

Secrets of Antarctica's 15-Million Year-Old Lake -A Galaxy Classic
World's Oldest Living Microbes May Cast Light on Aging & Life on Mars
Will Jupiter's Moon -Europa- Provide the 1st Proof of Extraterrestrial Life? -A Galaxy Insight
Ancient Antarctic Microbes Revived in Lab
Antarctica -Mapping The White Continent

Links:

Lake Vostok Slide Show

http://www.unspecial.org/UNS633/UNS_633_T13.htm

A PDF on the Vostok drilling 
Wiki to Vostok - 
Wiki on the Antarctic Treaty

Comments

[richard]

Those damn cavemen were carbon polluters with all their mammoth barbeques!

[Jen]

Excellent!

[Pablo Beeno]

Wow, downright scary when you think about it dude

RT
www.ultimate-privacy.br.tc

[HAVEL Chris]

"They've examined the entire Gamburtsev mountain range, 700 meters tall and buried under a kilometer of Antarctica."

700 meters, huh? Wow. That IS a good-sized ... hill.

I think you meant 2,700 meters, dude.

[Michael]

Yet another awesome article on dailygalaxy .... and I came in thru Digg this time instead of my bookmark, too!

[Logi]

I'm afraid we have a stupendous failure of imagination:

"Which is a pity, as volcanoes erupting into thousands of tons of solid ice is probably the only way this incredible landscape could sound any more awesome."

Thousands of tons? It says "under hundreds of meters", and at a density of over 0.9g/cm³ we'd have over 900kg per cubic meter. If hundreds of meters is, say, 300 meters, there are (over) 240 tons per square meter. So you'd need about 4m² for your thousand tons. A modest 83m² apartment would be under 20000 tons of ice.

A square kilometer under 300 meters of ice would amount to about 250 million tons.

(Since we're working with imprecise numbers, I ignore the rather slight difference in density between ice and liquid water)

I've seen what happens when a volcano erupts under a glacier. You want to be well to the side. In 1996 when Grímsvötn erupted under Vatnajökull in Iceland, 1/3 of a cubic km of ice was melted in 24 hours. That's 1/3 of a billion cubic meters or about 30 million tons in the first day. This water collects under the glacier in the lakes that are already there. At some point, the swelling lakes and the melting glacier cross a critical boundary and the water is no longer contained. That's when your hundreds of millions of tons of newly melted ice comes gushing forth where there were only some minor rivers before. And hopefully no people.

So yes, a failure of imagination. Not in imagining something more awesome, but in realizing just how awesome a thing you've imagined.

[steal]

Noah's Flood ...