Antarctica reveals a 30-million-year-old prehistoric panorama

Studies led by Professor Stuart Jamison from the University of Durham, UK, have led to the sensational discovery of an ancient terrain hidden under the ice in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica. It has been established that at a depth of over 1.6 km, there is an area of approximately 31,000 km² - close to the size of the state of Maryland in the USA - which was covered with rivers, valleys and forests, including palm trees, about 30 million years ago.

The discovery has been documented through radar mapping and analysis of sediment samples, which confirm the presence of palm pollen and microorganisms - evidence that this area was inhabited by a biological ecosystem before the first major glaciation of Antarctica 34 million years ago. This information is crucial for understanding the dynamics of the ice and the history of climate change on Earth.

The project team believes that the study of the ancient topography will improve the modeling of ice sheet reactions to global warming and it may be a matter of time before the discovered landscape contributes to predictions of future sea level rise.