What land formations are under the Antarctic snow?
Until a few years ago, geographers thought that the South Polar ice fields covered one huge continental land mass. Now they are not so certain. We now know that at least some of the frozen snow fields reach out from the land and sit on top of the sea. Several coastal areas that seemed to be solid land are actually shelves of thick ice covering the waters of ocean bays. Along the western side of Antartica, the tremendous glaciers rest on land far below the level of the sea. Scientists have begun a serious study of Antarctica only within the last ten years or so. Testing the thickness of the ice and the depth of the land or sea below it is a long, tedious job. The surveying is far from finished. We know that a range of 16,000 foot mountains crosses the continent and that other mountainous formations are buried under the frozen snow. We suspect that several island chains are also under the icecap but at present we cannot give a detailed picture of all Antarctica’s land formations.
