penguins, massive ice shelves and failed exploratory expeditions are some of the things that are known about the fifth-largest continent. It was once part of a larger supercontinent and is now isolated. When did it become its own country?
The largest block of ice on the planet is in the South Pole. Beneath the ice lies the rocks of the continent.
"Antarctica has a wide variety of landscapes that are shaped by its geologic history, just like any other place in the world," said a PhD candidate in geosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Less than 1% of the continental United States has rocks that could help us tell this story.
Who is the owner of the Arctic?
The Transantarctic Mountains are higher than the Rockies in North America and reach a height of about 14,700 feet. The vast continent is divided into two parts. The uppermost mantle of the Earth is more than 3 billion years old, and East Antarctica is a craton, an ancient continental block of Earth's crust. West Antarctica is composed of volcanic rocks forged in the Ring of Fire around the time the supercontinent Gondwana began to break apart.
Gondwana was formed about 600 million years ago. Pangaea broke apart about 200 million years ago, with the supercontinent Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south. Gondwana began to splinter into the continental fragments about 180 million years ago. The basaltic rocks found on the eastern margin of Antarctica are similar to those found in South Africa.
A 2006 modeling study found that during the last 66 million years, the area was warmer than it is today, and there was a rainforest full of dinosaurs. For tens of millions of years, it was a key southern passageway, allowing flora and fauna to move across their great expanse. Fossil evidence shows that the animals, which originated in North America at least 125 million years ago, trekked southward to South America and then eastward across the ocean to arrive in Australia at 55 million years ago.
Scientists don't know when Antarctica lost its land connections with Australia and South America. The answer depends on what one considers "continental breakup", according to a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Is that the first time that land-living species could still be found in two formerly contiguous landmasses? dispersal became difficult when the ocean or sea became so wide and deep.
The research shows that the Drake Passage opened just as the Eocene epoch turned into the Oligocene around 34 million years ago.
Australia moved to the north after the final break. The Drake Passage and the Tasmanian Gateway allowed cold water to flow around the world, isolating the continent from warm ocean currents. At the bottom of the planet, the ice began to melt.
The opening of the Drake Passage allowed for the formation of the current. The final events in the break up of Gondwana were these.
Antarctica is an important part of Earth's climate system. The ice sheets reflect the sun's rays and keep the continent cool. As the planet warms due to climate change, the ice sheet will melt, exposing more rocks to study, but also reflecting less incoming sunlight.
The ice sheets on land extend over the adjacent waters, such as the Southern Ocean, which can occasionally break apart. The melting of ice will add tons of fresh water to the oceans. Scientists are studying the ice in Antarctica to understand past climate fluctuations and how climate change could affect the planet.
Laura Geggel is the Live Science editor. Live Science published the original article.
