The landscape has likely been buried beneath the ice for up to 34 million years.
Global warming could reveal an ancient river landscape that has been preserved underneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet for million of years, according to a new study.
While ice has been present in Antarctica for about 34 million years, before then the continent it was comparatively warm, with a climate similar to modern-day southern South America, such as the Patagonia region in Argentina and Chile, says Stewart Jamieson, author of the study and who researches ice sheet behavior, long-term and landscape evolution at Durham University in the U.K.
The landscape, estimated to have been buried beneath the ice shelf for between 14 million to 34 million years, was found by using satellites and ice-penetrating radar. As Antarctica began to cool slightly, small glaciers grew in the river valleys, Jamieson said. But then a large cooling event occurred, leading to the expansion of the growth of East Antarctica Ice Sheet, which grew to cover the whole continent, burying the river landscape beneath it, Jamieson said.
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