Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains
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The Gamburtsev Mountain Range (also known as the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains) is a subglacial
mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...
located in
East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying primarily in the Eastern Hemisphere south of the Indian Ocean, and separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic ...
, just underneath the lofty
Dome A Dome A or Dome Argus is the highest ice dome on the Antarctic Plateau, located inland. It is thought to be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth, with temperatures believed to reach . It is the highest ice feature in Antarctica, consi ...
, near the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility. The range was discovered by the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1958 and is named for
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct investigations acros ...
Grigoriy A. Gamburtsev. It is approximately long, and the mountains are believed to be about high, although they are completely covered by over of ice and snow. The Gamburtsev Mountain Range is about the same size as the European
Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...
. As of 2008, it was unknown how the mountains were formed due to the lack of data. Studies conducted during the International Polar year demonstrated that ancient plate collisions produced a core that was rejuvenated in the early to mid-Mesozoi

The main features of the range formed before 34 million years ago, when the area was covered by the present ice sheet.The Gamburtsev mountains and the origin and early evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
Sun Bo, Martin J. Siegert, Simon M. Mudd, David Sugden, Shuji Fujita, Cui Xiangbin, Jiang Yunyun, Tang Xueyuan & Li Yuansheng;
Nature magazine ''Nature'' is a British weekly scientific journal founded and based in London, England. As a multidisciplinary publication, ''Nature'' features Peer review, peer-reviewed research from a variety of academic disciplines, mainly in science and t ...
459, 690–693 (2009-06-04), accessed 2009-06-09
Current models suggest that the
East Antarctic ice sheet The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) lies between 45th meridian west, 45° west and 168th meridian east, 168° east longitudinally. It was first formed around 34 million years ago, and it is the largest ice sheet on the entire planet, with far gre ...
was formed from the glaciers that began sliding down the Gamburtsev range at the end of the
Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...
. Vostok Subglacial Highlands form an east extension of Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains. As part of the 2007–09
International Polar Year The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred ...
, so called, the AGAP project was a multinational effort to gather information about the Gamburtsev mountain chain.


Completion

Scientists announced the completion of their mission on 25 February 2009. Modern-day remote-sensing technology revealed a very jagged landscape. The gathered data will be analysed by researchers in the following months. Dr Fausto Ferraccioli from the British Antarctic Survey said: "We can confirm they are there; we've seen them under the ice. Not only are they similar in dimension to the European Alps, but they are also similar in aspect: we see very sharp peaks and valleys which are remarkably similar to the Alps themselves. It all adds to the mystery – from the tectonic perspective of how these mountains were created; and from the glacial history perspective of how the East Antarctic ice sheet was formed and didn't erode these peaks." The AGAP project comprised scientists, engineers, pilots and support staff from
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Two field camps were established deep within the Antarctic interior and aircraft flew across the ice, mapping the shape of the sub-glacials using an ice-penetrating radar. The local gravitational and magnetic fields were also measured. 120,000 km were flown, with over 20% of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet being explored during the course of the mission. Information was recorded on a network of
seismometer A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground displacement and shaking such as caused by quakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The out ...
s that picked up earthquake signals passing through the rock from the opposite side of the planet. Despite the extreme temperatures — around −30 °C at the two base camps as reported by AGAP US co-leader Dr Robin Bell — liquid water was detected in the valleys three kilometres beneath the team. Ferraccioli added: "Up until now we just had an ambitious plan. Now we have all this remarkable data to pore over." By December, 2009, data analyzed so far from the AGAP project indicate the mountain range is generally oriented southwest to northeast, and arose from
tectonic plate Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...
activity. The team's next goal is to drill through the ice and collect the first Gamburtsev rock samples. "Amazingly, we have samples of the moon but none of the Gamburtsevs," said Robin Bell, a geophysicist at Columbia University's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. "With these rock samples we will be able to constrain when this ancient piece of crust was rejuvenated and grew to a magnificent mountain range."


Origin

The result of the 2007–2009 study has found that the Gamburtsev are very old, first forming around a billion years ago when continental drift pushed two plates together to form the super-continent of
Rodinia Rodinia (from the Russian родина, ''rodina'', meaning "motherland, birthplace") was a Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic supercontinent that assembled 1.26–0.90 billion years ago (Ga) and broke up 750–633 million years ago (Ma). wer ...
. This early range was eroded above the surface but left a deep cold root, which is visible today in seismic images, reaching down into the Earth's mantle. About 250-100 million years ago, the crust started to pull apart in a series of rifting events close to the east of this old root. A forked
rift valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges produced by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear ...
runs along the northern side of the mountains containing lakes Sovetskaya and 90East within it. This rifting warmed and rejuvenated the root, giving it the buoyancy to be lifted up to re-establish the mountains as an 800 km long
massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...
. Further uplift still was achieved as deep valleys were later cut erosion lightening the overall mass of the system. Around 35 million years ago, the glaciers merged to form the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, burying the Gamburtsev Range in the process.


References


External links


British Antarctic Survey

National Science Foundation

Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory

Australian Antarctic Division

Map of Antarctica, showing Dome A and the Gamburtsev Mountain Range A BBC article about the mountain range A SciencePoles.org interview of Dr Robin Bell

BBC article on recent results
{{Antarctica Mountain ranges of Antarctica East Antarctica