(no subject)

[anthonybaxter]

It is perhaps the last great Antarctic expedition - to find an explanation for why there is a great mountain range buried under the White Continent.

The Gamburtsevs match the Alps in scale but no-one has ever seen them because they are covered by up to 4km of ice.

Geologists struggle to understand how such a massif could have formed and persisted in the middle of Antarctica.

Now, an international team is setting out on a deep-field survey to try to get some answers.

...

"This region is a complete enigma. It's in the middle of the continent. Most mountain ranges are on the edges of continents, and we really can't understand what these mountains are doing in the centre."
BBC News

I'm sure this will go well

Comments

[sgtbiffo.livejournal.com]

Its also one of the last places on earth when its still really _really_ dangerous to try and live... which is why nothing lives there.

[aeduna.livejournal.com]

'ware the penguins. Ti k'li.. ti k'li....

[drbunsen.livejournal.com]

Is 4,000 meters high enough for altitude sickness to be a problem, I wonder? You know, on top of the nad-freezing cold and the hurricane winds.

And incidentally, that's a buttload of ice.

ISTR some conjecture that Antarctica, without the ice, was more than one landmass. I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean more than one continental mass, but if it did, it could account for the mountains.

Me, I'm waiting for the first manned expedition to Lake Vostok.

Lovecraft. Heee.