Here at Tek-Bull, we have spent a lot of time writing about and contemplating the mysteries of space and of our universe. And who wouldn’t? Astrophysics is an amazing field that pushes the boundaries of what we think we know with every discovery made and with every new theory to be tested. But what about our own home, the earth? There are a lot of people who think space is important because there is nothing left to contemplate, nothing new to discover, or uncover. And the fact is, they’re wrong. There is a world within our world that we don’t know a thing about. A pre-history to history. And from now on, we here at Tek-Bull are going to be devoting a lot more time to discussing the mysteries and fascinations that the earth has to offer.
And we’re going to start this new project off by introducing the Ghost Mountains of Antarctica.
These mountains are given their ghosty name for the fact that they are completely covered by the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. How crazy is that? An entire mountain range 100% hidden from view by ice. Buried under about three miles and properly named the Gamburtsev Mountains, their existence might have never been revealed if not for a team of Russian explorers were perplexed by odd gravity fluctuations within the ice sheet that shrouds the mountains in the mid 1900’s.
The Ghost Mountains are believed to have been formed by the breakup of the supercontinent Gonwana, which include our east Antarctica, India, Africa, and Australia about 250 million years ago and rival the European Alps in size, with the highest peaks rising nearly 15,000 feet.
After basically having their MRI taken, it has been determined that these mountains sit atop an even old mountain range, probably dating from about 1.1 to 1.8 billion years ago, just when East Antarctica was being fragmented into smaller bits.
What’s especially so special and interesting about these Ghost Mountains is the fact that they are completely encased and preserved in ice. They are the least understood mountain range on earth and their geological composition and history could potentially provide more information on that era of the earth’s history than we could have ever hoped for.
The one other thing that helps make this range special is the small fact that until relatively recently, we had no idea they even existed, and with their discovery, it’s another piece of evidence pointing us to the realization that we do not in fact know everything there is to know about the earth, and that’s one heck of an exciting idea.
