Whats under Antarcticas ice

The fifth biggest continent in the world also happens to be the most mysterious, with not a single person ever seeing in person the land that lies below the ice. The best estimates that people can come up with, claim that Antarctica was ice-free for around 100 million years, giving it plenty of time to produce a huge amount of plants and animals. This all ended around 36 million years ago when a huge shift in the world climate changed the poles to the frozen wastelands they are today, and Antarctica was covered with a thick layer of water and ice, forever sealing its contents away from the rest of the world.

(A top-down image of the giant block of ice known as Antarctica)

When Antarctica was ice-free, its climate would have been similar to a sub-tropical region, where the tropical plants fade back to those of a more temperate zone, such as modern-day Argentina or southern Australia. Because no one has been able to reach the land of the continent, we can only guess at the huge variation in the things that lived there, from dinosaurs to giant birds.

How thick is the ice?

There are two main ice sheets that cover the continent, with the thickest reading ever taken measuring 4,776 meters. The average thickness of the ice is 2,160 meters, or 1.34 miles if you prefer. The continent covers around 14 million square kilometers of land, but we can only see about 2.4% of the actual land itself, with the rest being covered in countless glaciers, ice sheets, and show fields stretching for hundreds of miles.

What we know so far about what’s under Antarctica’s ice.

The tiny amount of exposed land we can see are the tops of mountain ranges, which would be the tallest on Earth if their bases weren’t under so much water. Out of the tiny 2.4% of exposed land, we have only set foot on less than 0.5% of that, with most of it being made up of huge mountain ranges that are too dangerous for anyone to scale.

The Above map shows the most commonly accepted layout of what the continent would look like without ice. This map has been put together from hundreds of scans and readings conducted by the various countries stationed on the continent and appears to be the most accurate idea of what’s down there. This image is all we have been able to discover about the lower-laying regions of Antarctica, but not a single person has ever gone down there to see the land for themselves.

Why haven’t we dived to the land in Antarctica?

The two biggest factors are cost and safety, as the land in some parts is under 3.5km of ice and water. This would require something much more advanced than the standard submersible exploration vehicles, and it would also have to be able to withstand the freezing temperatures combined with the massive amount of pressure. The coast is normally surrounded by thick sheets of ice, which in some parts would require many miles of traveling underwater before you even came close to the actual land mass.

One of the other reasons is that there simply isn’t much point. All of the land surface has been underwater for over 30 million years and anything that was on the surface would have long decomposed. If we could see the land it would appear the same as anything else on the sea bed, with all surface mineral deposits long since rusted into nothing. All of the countries that operate in Antarctica would love to be the first to find some kind of fossil or artifact from what “might” have been there, but the cost and difficulty of finding a submarine capable of digging into the ground that far underwater is just not possible.

What we know about Antarcticas land

The continent was ice-free for around 100 million years, and when the climate shift happened it was plunged into the frozen wasteland we know it as today. This shift is believed to have happened so quickly that anything that was down there would be frozen in time, and will likely remain in excellent condition, for 36 million-year-old fossils that is.

The land itself contains huge mountain ranges that stretch for hundreds of miles, enormous plains covered in thick forest, and thousands of streams and rivers carving valleys and lakes into the landscape. All of this should have remained untouched but everything on the surface that had contact with salt water would have decomposed. The higher regions that are covered with ice would be the best-preserved, and if that ice has remained in place since the initial freezing, there could be intact plants and the frozen remains of ancient creatures just waiting to be found.

Theories about what’s under Antarcticas ice

There are rumors about everything from secret Axis World War Two bases to the location of the lost city of Atlantis. Alien bases are another common suggestion from certain groups of people, but none of these claims have come up with a shred of evidence and remain nothing more than wishful thinking. The only major finds that have been confirmed are the discovery of Lake Vostok, the largest of Antarctica’s 675 known subglacial lakes, and a massive reserve of oil, though because of the Antarctica treaty, no one is allowed to mine it.