Scientists have uncovered why Antarctica became engulfed by ice millions of years before the Arctic.
Scientists have uncovered why Antarctica became engulfed by ice millions of years before the Arctic.
The international research, published in Science , helps to solve one of climate science’s longest-standing puzzles: how a vast ice sheet could form when Earth was around 5ºC warmer than today.
The study shows that the formation of an escarpment, plateau, and mountain region in East Antarctica created the high ground needed for snow and ice to accumulate.
Triggered when Antarctica and Africa began to break apart during the Jurassic Period 201-143 million years ago, powerful processes deep within the Earth drove much of East Antarctica’s land surface to be uplifted over 100 million years, initiating ice sheet formation 34 million years ago.
Read More: University of Southampton
Image: Antarctic ice meets the rocky coastline. Researchers traced landscape features from the two-kilometre-high coastal escarpment of Dronning Maud Land to the subglacial Gamburtsev Mountains, buried beneath 1–3 km of ice (Credit: Matt Palmer)
