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Published online 24 February 2009 | 457, 1062-1063 (2009) | doi:10.1038/4571062a
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Antarctica's impossible peaks come into view
Major polar project yields panorama of hidden mountains.
A mysteriously rugged mountain range hidden beneath east Antarctica's massive ice sheet has been revealed in all its topographic glory by an international research team. The findings may cause geologists to rethink their ideas about the continent's history.
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Very interesting & intriguing article! Given that the altitude of the mountain range is approx. 3,000 mts. why is that seen as being too high for the age of the Antartic? Or is it just the fact that they are so rugged that is a mystery? This is not a subject I know, so my apologies in advance if this question is too basic for this forum. Claudia Guajardo-Yeo
I think it's conceivable the Gamburtsevs, which are roughly at the geographic center of Antarctica, have been raised by compressive rebound forces generated by repeated cycles of ice deposition and melting over the face of the continent. Essentially, ice loading on Antarctica, very approximately centered as it is on the South Pole of a spinning Earth, would tend to cause the continent to pull apart toward the Equator around its perimeter. Any gaps generated by this stretching process in the relatively brittle and inelastic surface beneath the ice would be filled in, then when the ice melted in part or whole, the compressive forces along the surface pointing inward toward the center due to the rebound from the melting would tend to cause peaks to be pushed up at or near the center. These peaks would tend to accumulate and build with each cycle of deposition and melting. Hence, the Gamburtsevs.