Hundreds of millions of years ago, the Earth looked very different. The continents we know today were joined into two supercontinents called Laurasia and Gondwana. From the picture, you can see that Laurasia accounted for many of the countries now found in the Northern Hemisphere, while Gondwana held those in the Southern Hemisphere. Over millions of years, they drifted apart to form the world we recognise today. However, it should be remembered that this extremely slow movement is still active today, but you probably will not notice the difference.
Besides the obvious changes in the landmasses, this movement also meant that the conditions within the different continents and countries varied enormously regarding their environment. For example, fossils of animals which do not exist in certain countries today ran wild many thousands of years ago. The same is true of natural structures such as mountains and rivers. One of those lost rivers was a great river which flowed across Antarctica. In those times, Antarctica was not covered in ice as it is today.
This particular river was in full flow around eighty million years ago. It is believed these rivers were formed as Gondwana split apart. Rivers affect the shape of the land through erosion. This particular river made its mark up to about thirty million years ago. This may be interesting from an ancient natural history, but does it have relevance today? The answer is yes. These features still exist under the ice, and by using instruments to scan them, it can give guidance as to how the continent might be affected in the future. For example, global warming is already having a big effect on the continent with the loss of ice.
The interesting aspect is that it has been discovered that the main feature beneath the ice is that the river appears to have flattened the landscape. It has been reported that by studying how these surfaces were formed in the distant past, it may help scientists to analyse how ice flows today are affected by the problems of climate change. And anything that helps us to do this is a good thing.
John Pullen 