When Captain John Banks and his squad are sent to investigate a derelict Nazi base in Antarctica, he expects to find only ice and dead men. But there is something in the domed hangar bay that has been waiting for decades for release.
Posted on 11/13/2018 9:40:34 AM PST by ETL
A new map reveals the remnants of ancient continents that lurk beneath Antarctica's ice.
The map shows that East Antarctica is made up of multiple cratons, which are the cores of continents that came before, according to study leader Jörg Ebbing, a geoscientist at Kiel University in Germany.
"This observation leads back to the break-up of the supercontinent Gondwana and the link of Antarctica to the surrounding continents," Ebbing told Live Science. The findings help reveal fundamental facts about Earth's tectonics and how Antarctica's land and ice sheets interact, he wrote in an email.
Because the continent is so remote and buried in ice, Antarctica is a bit of a blank spot on the geologic map, Ebbing said. The researchers used data from the European Space Agency Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite to fill in the blanks. ..."
They found the evidence of the continent's history as part of Gondwana, a supercontinent made of the modern Southern Hemisphere continents that broke up about 180 million years ago. East Antarctica's crust is thicker than West Antarctica's, at between 25 miles and 37 miles (40 and 60 kilometers) thick, compared with the West's 12 miles and 22 miles (20 and 35 km) thick. The East Antarctic crust is also a mishmash of old cratons, Ebbing said, including the Mawson Craton, which has a matching fragment in southern Australia.
The new data reveal more complexity in East Antarctica's ancient cratons than previously known, Ebbing said. The modern-day continent is also host to regions called orogens, which are crumpled-up regions where ancient continents would have rammed together to build mountains.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
When Captain John Banks and his squad are sent to investigate a derelict Nazi base in Antarctica, he expects to find only ice and dead men. But there is something in the domed hangar bay that has been waiting for decades for release.
I hear the same thing about Global Warming.
ML/NJ
Everyone read about Admiral Byrds experience during operation High Jump. It is fascinating.
Thanks colorado tanker, although, Gondwana check into this later. :^)
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