#gamburtsev

[unbfacts]

The Gamburtsev Mountains were first discovered in 1958, but no human has actually seen them directly because they are sealed under the ice. The range is often compared to the European Alps because of its size and rugged shape.

[mirkokosmos]

Ghost Mountains of Antarctica

Stuck in a "deep freeze" for millennia, a mysterious mountain range deep under the Antarctic ice is finally coming to light.

The Gamburtsev Mountains appear to be part of a rift—a series of ridges that form where Earth's tectonic plates separate—that once stretched about 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) long, a new study says.

The rift may have been created about 250 million years ago, during the breakup of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. That landmass included today's East Antarctica, India, Africa, and Australia, said study co-author Fausto Ferraccioli of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/111116-antarctica-mountains-mystery-ice-science-earth