Researchers identify vast geological structure hidden beneath Antarctic ice
In the extreme south of the planet, an extensive layer of ice thousands of meters thick covers the Earth’s surface. Millions of years have hidden an ancient landscape beneath this cover, revealing a landscape with imposing mountains and deep abysses, lost beneath a frozen sea.
Decades of radar surveys and other geophysical analyzes have allowed scientists to piece together evidence of an underground structure of extraordinary proportions. In East Antarctica, a team led by geophysicist Egidio Armadillo, from the University of Genoa, identified a gigantic, fan-shaped province made up of around 30 interconnected basins.
This formation expands toward the coast, suggesting that a portion of the continent was pulled from a central point inland. The researchers named the discovery the East Antarctic Fan-Shaped Basin Province (EAFBP) and suggest it formed before the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. This structure would have created an area of fragility that later influenced the separation of Antarctica and Australia.
More on this story: Scientists identify vast province of fan-shaped basins beneath East Antarctic ice
Furthermore, the province may continue to influence the formation of Antarctica until the present day. According to the authors’ scientific article, “because they are under approximately half of the East Antarctic ice sheet, these basins must exert a great influence on both the ice flow and the evolution of the landscape, being crucial for Antarctic glacial and hydrological processes.”
Research into the configuration of the land under Antarctica is not just academic in nature. This is due, in part, to the constant movement of glacial ice, which is directed by the contours of the underlying rock. Detailed knowledge of these forms allows us to more accurately predict the speed and trajectory of glacial flow, impacting studies on climate change.
Another important factor is that this discovery represents a significant part of our planet’s terrestrial history. Antarctica accounts for around 10% of the global land mass, and several questions about Gondwana, continental fragmentation, the formation of ancient mountains and the evolution of the crust remain open, precisely because of the difficulty of directly observing most of the continent.
Interestingly, the research team did not initially aim to find a fan-shaped geological structure that covered such a vast area of Antarctica. Instead, the focus was to simulate the appearance of East Antarctica without the ice sheet, which differs from radar images taken under the ice.
An estimated 27 million cubic kilometers of ice cover Antarctica, putting significant pressure on the underlying rock. If this mass of ice were to disappear, the land would rise by up to a kilometer in altitude. Scientists combined data from reconstructed rebound topography with information from radar, gravity, seismology and magnetism to explore the hidden landscape.
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When analyzing the reconstructed topography, the researchers noticed a peculiar feature. Most of the region’s main subglacial basins had the same fundamental geometry: not random depressions, but a fan-shaped pattern that expanded from a central point near the South Pole, described as a “coherent continental-scale radial pattern.”
This geometry is remarkably similar to a tectonic feature called sphenochasm, a 1955 term that describes “a triangular gap in the oceanic crust that separates two cratonic blocks with fault margins converging at a point, interpreted as originating by the rotation of one of the blocks relative to the other.”
The researchers listed processes that could have shaped the EAFBP in the Antarctic rock. Several mechanisms can generate large basins, such as inherited structures, rifting, glacial erosion, and crustal stretching. However, the radial organization of Antarctic basins, combined with patterns of crustal thickness and topography, aligns more directly with a process of rotational extension. In it, the crust expands outward from a central point, like a hand fan being opened.
Understanding this phenomenon is facilitated by viewing it on maps, where mountain ranges radiate like the branches of a fan, extending for around 2,000 kilometers from the coast. If the interpretation of the structure is correct, it could preserve evidence of tectonic activity prior to the breakup of Gondwana and offer clues about the future separation of Antarctica from Australia.
The discovery could also help explain other Antarctic features, such as the imposing Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains and the Transantarctic Mountains, which border the EAFBP. As the fan expanded, scientists suggest that the movement may have intensified uplift in these areas, giving rise to mountain ranges that today are among Antarctica’s most notable hidden features.
The explanation is not definitive. The exact timing of the process is challenging to determine, and the feature may result from multiple overlapping extension episodes. Future investigations will seek to improve this point. Antarctica remains a difficult frontier to access. However, little by little, scientists unravel its mysteries, opening a window into an ancient and long-lost world.
