00:00The South Pole is more than penguins and endless snow, there's a hidden ghost world within
00:05it.
00:06Look, it's right here on the globe.
00:09Don't confuse Antarctica with the Arctic, which is at the top of our maps, much smaller
00:13in size and, let's face it, way less mysterious.
00:18The ice sheet covering Antarctica is about 1 to 3 miles thick, which is up to 16 Eiffel
00:24Towers stacked on each other.
00:27This massive blanket hides the true features and contours of Antarctica's land.
00:32We still don't know much about this mysterious continent, and it is ice and snow that are
00:37to blame.
00:38We still don't even know the true shape and size of this continent.
00:42Mapping Antarctica without some huge shovels is an incredibly hard task, but satellites
00:48learn to penetrate the ice with their cameras, and now we know there's actually an enormous,
00:54dramatic ancient landscape beneath the snow.
00:58The ghost of the past.
01:01About 90 million years ago, Antarctica was a much warmer place.
01:06It was actually a lush rainforest with tons of plants and probably teeming with life.
01:11It even had rivers flowing through it.
01:14Then the ice came.
01:15This happened about 34 million years ago, during the transition from the Eocene to the
01:20Oligocene, when our planet cooled significantly.
01:24It was the beginning of one of our several ice ages.
01:28The land remained, but now was hidden under ice and snow that got thicker and thicker.
01:34To a regular eye, Antarctica turned into a white desert, vast, flat, and featureless.
01:42Time went on.
01:44This massive ice sheet moved around, smoothing and shifting the ground beneath it.
01:49Over the millions of years, it changed what the land looked like.
01:53Now if we looked under the ice, it wouldn't hold any signs of the original South Pole.
01:58Except for one place.
02:01In areas where the ice is especially thick and doesn't move much, like in East Antarctica,
02:06it has actually worked the other way around.
02:09It became like a super-thick blanket that protects the land.
02:14Normally things like wind or rain slowly wear away the ground over time, changing its shape.
02:20But since we have this protective ice blanket, it prevents these natural processes from reaching
02:25the stuff underneath.
02:27So the ground stayed almost the same for millions of years, like it's been frozen in time.
02:34This special area near the Aurora and Schmidt subglacial basins has become the ghost of
02:39Antarctica's landscape.
02:41This place was barely touched even since it was first covered in snow 34 million years
02:46ago.
02:48This is a historical footprint, a place that can tell us what Antarctica's ground looked
02:52like before it became a freezing nightmare.
02:56As scientists peered under East Antarctica, they saw an amazing ghost, the traces of the
03:02rivers that were flowing there millions of years ago, various valleys, and some weird
03:08little islands, as well as three big chunks of land shaped like the letter U.
03:13Hey, what's that all about?
03:17You see, the continents on our planet are moving constantly, sliding along the red-hot
03:22lava mantle like cereal on milk.
03:26Over history, they came together and broke apart several times.
03:31Hundreds of millions of years ago, several continents were a part of one enormous Gondwana.
03:37Antarctica was one of them.
03:38It used to be one huge landmass.
03:42But when Gondwana broke apart, the poor continent got stretched by tectonic forces.
03:48Parts of land were pulled away from each other, whoosh, and they got torn apart.
03:53And that's how we got these big chunks or blocks of land under thick layers of ice.
03:59In any case, scientists now want to explore this ghost a bit more.
04:04But to study it deeply, they need to actually drill down through the ice, like using a straw
04:08to get to the bottom of a thick shake.
04:11This will help them pick up some rocks and dirt from way below to learn more about the
04:16Earth's history and climate.
04:19Antarctica is the 5th largest continent in the world, approximately bigger than the entirety
04:24of Europe or Australia, competing with the entire South America in size.
04:29Aside from East Antarctica, we discussed, there are several more regions, Antarctica
04:35Peninsula, South Pole, West Antarctica, and the Ross Sea.
04:41The continent is basically a frozen sandbox, and all its hidden, mysterious landscape is
04:46actually less explored than Mars' terrain.
04:50We only know for sure that without ice, it wouldn't just be flat and empty, but an entire
04:55world full of big mountains, huge canyons, and even fiery volcanoes.
05:03Some of these volcanoes are so huge that they peak above the layers of snow.
05:07In West Antarctica alone, there are at least 138 volcanoes, though only about 8 or 9 are
05:15active today.
05:16One of the craziest ones is Mount Erebus, the southernmost volcano and the tallest one
05:21on the continent, about 12,500 feet high.
05:26And deep beneath the ice sheet, this guy hosts incredible beautiful sub-volcanic caves.
05:32The temperatures there are warm enough for t-shirts!
05:36The Antarctic Peninsula, or Lesser Antarctica, looks like a bunch of mountainous islands
05:41deeply underground.
05:43It has newer volcanic rocks that are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is like
05:48a giant circle of volcanoes and earthquake zones around the Pacific Ocean.
05:54The Greater Antarctica is a huge part, almost as big as Australia.
05:59It consists of East Antarctica and the South Pole.
06:03Beneath the ice, it's a place of rocks that have been around for a very, very long time,
06:09including the special zone we mentioned.
06:12You probably know that Antarctica is nearly devoid of humans.
06:16No wonder, with a mean temperature of about minus 46 degrees Fahrenheit!
06:22But even though this place is horrifyingly cold and deserted, life still clings on.
06:27You guessed it, in the underworld!
06:30In 2017, scientists found DNA traces of algae, moss, and even possibly unknown small animals
06:37in the deep caves.
06:39That means that even in such crazy conditions, there are still unique ecosystems thriving
06:44in little isolated worm pockets beneath the snow.
06:48There was another incredible find beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf, a lively ecosystem
06:55vibing within an underground river.
06:58Scientists have long suspected that Antarctica's underworld should have some freshwater lakes
07:03and rivers.
07:04One day, a satellite spotted a groove there.
07:08They decided to explore it, and used a hot water drill to melt their way through the ice.
07:14As they reached the underworld, they dropped a camera into one of those hidden fresh rivers.
07:19And at first, they thought they'd find just some rocks or something.
07:23But instead, they stumbled upon hundreds of amphipods, tiny shrimp-like creatures.
07:30Little ones instantly swarmed around the lens.
07:33Shrimps blocked the camera and scientists couldn't check out what they wanted to.
07:37Pretty funny, but at least that means that there really is an important ecosystem deep
07:42within Antarctica.
07:44Now they're gonna explore it!
07:47And all this is just the beginning of the mysterious underworld.
07:51Antarctica's snow also hides the deepest canyon on Earth under the Denman Glacier.
07:56Well, Mariana Trench is still the deepest point on Earth, but it's a part of the oceanic
08:01crust, geologically speaking.
08:05Also in 1958, explorers found a huge mountain range under the ice, as big and tall as the
08:12famous Alps Mountains.
08:14The range stretched for about 745 miles with peaks as high as 1.7 miles.
08:21And all this magnificence is buried under tons of ice.
08:25Who knows what else we might find there?
08:28Antarctica holds about 60% of our entire planet's freshwater, which means it would be pretty
08:34bad if it melted.
08:36For example, there's this doomsday glacier, officially known as Thwaites Glacier.
08:42It's a huge ice formation, about the size of Florida, and it's melting right now.
08:48Every year, the sea levels rise by 4% because of it.
08:52If this guy melts away completely, the sea levels all around the world will increase
08:56by 2 feet, which might not sound like a lot, but it would be catastrophic for coastal areas.
09:03Luckily, researchers have found that even if its ice shelf were to collapse in the next
09:0750 years, the glacier itself wouldn't retreat as quickly as they feared.
09:12It's still losing ice rapidly, but it would be quite a slow process.
09:18That's it for today!
09:19So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
09:23friends!
09:24Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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