Deep beneath nearly 2 miles of Antarctic ice, scientists have discovered a giant fan-shaped geological structure that may rewrite the story of how Earth’s ancient supercontinent Gondwana broke apart. The hidden formation, known as the East Antarctic Fan-Shaped Basin Province, connects several massive underground basins once believed to be separate.
This buried Antarctic structure is more than an ancient rock formation. It is a geological time capsule that preserves clues about continental movement, tectonic forces, and the changing future of the Antarctic ice sheet. The discovery shows that Antarctica’s frozen surface hides a far more complex world beneath.
