The large glaciated valley of Nant Francon, Snowdonia. This valley is similar in relative dimensions (though smaller in size) to the main glaciated valley beneath the ice in central Antarctica. Credit: Martin SiegertFrom Live Science:
Antarctica is a massive block of ice today, but it used to more simply be a range of glacier-topped mountains like those found in Alaska and the Alps.
The strange continent's thick ice sheets formed tens of millions of years ago against an Alpine-style backbone of mountains during a period of significant climate change, a new study finds.
The Antarctic continent now is covered almost entirely by ice that averages about a mile (1.6 kilometers) thick.
Scientists have known for some time that the Antarctic Ice Sheet formed around 14 million years ago, "but we didn't know how it formed," said study team member Martin Siegert of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
Read more ....
No comments:
Post a Comment