‘Fossil’ mountains entombed by ice

Cold temperatures have preserved rugged Antarctic range

Buried deep beneath East Antarctica’s ice sheet, the Gamburtsev Mountains are the world’s most invisible range. New research suggests that overlying ice like that hiding them from view today could have preserved their rugged topography for the past 300 million years.

UNDER ICE Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Mountains may have been protected from erosion by the ice sheet that covers them, preserving jagged peaks for the past 300 million years.