00:00The South Pole is not limited to mangroves and an infinite extension of snow.
00:04A ghostly world is buried there.
00:06Observe, it is located precisely here on the Earth's globe.
00:10Do not confuse Antarctica with the Arctic, which is at the top of our maps,
00:14and much smaller and, let's be honest, much less enigmatic.
00:18The Antarctic ice cap measures 2 to 5 km in thickness,
00:22the equivalent of 16 Eiffel Towers stacked on top of each other.
00:26This immense layer of ice masks the real reliefs and contours of the Antarctic soil.
00:31Our knowledge of this mysterious continent remains limited,
00:35largely due to the omnipresence of ice and snow.
00:38We still do not know the exact shape and precise dimensions of this land.
00:43Mapping the Antarctic without titanic tools is a task of extreme complexity.
00:48However, satellites have learned to penetrate the ice thanks to their point cameras.
00:53Today, we know that an ancient, colossal and spectacular landscape
00:57rests under this snow, a kind of ghost of the past.
01:02About 90 million years ago, Antarctica was a much warmer place.
01:07This territory housed a luxurious tropical forest, rich in plant and life-eating species.
01:13Rivers flowed there, drawing an amazing landscape.
01:17Then the ice covered everything.
01:19This upheaval took place about 34 million years ago.
01:22During the transition from the Eocene to the Oligocene,
01:25a period marked by a significant cooling of our planet.
01:29It was the beginning of one of the many glacial eras.
01:32The earth subsisted, but was engulfed under an increasingly thick layer of ice and snow.
01:38To the naked eye, Antarctica has become a vast, uniform and devoid of relief white desert.
01:44The millennia passed, and the thick ice cap continued to move, polishing and transforming the soil.
01:51Over millions of years, it changed the appearance of the continent.
01:55Today, if we examined the subsurface,
01:57there would be virtually no remains of the original South Pole, with one exception.
02:04In regions where the ice is exceptionally thick and almost immobile,
02:08like in East Antarctica, it plays a reverse role.
02:12It acts as a particularly dense cover that protects the soil.
02:16In normal times, factors such as wind or rain progressively erode the soil,
02:21thus changing its shape over the centuries.
02:24However, thanks to this protective layer of ice,
02:27these natural processes fail to reach the underlying layers.
02:32Thus, the soil has remained almost intact for millions of years,
02:36as if it had been frozen over time.
02:38This specific area, located near the subglacial basins of Aurora and Schmidt,
02:43is now nicknamed the Spectre of the Antarctic Landscape.
02:47This place has remained almost intact since it was covered with snow.
02:5134 million years ago, it constitutes a unique historical trace,
02:56capable of revealing the appearance of the Antarctic soil before it becomes this frozen desert.
03:01When scientists explored East Antarctica, they highlighted a fascinating phantom.
03:07Traces of ancient rivers, various valleys, enigmatic small islands,
03:11as well as three vast U-shaped terrestrial formations.
03:15But what exactly do they mean?
03:19As you know, the continents of our planet are in constant motion,
03:23sliding on a lava mantle in fusion, like cereals in a bowl of milk.
03:27Over the geological eras, they have gathered and separated many times.
03:31Several hundred million years ago, a supercontinent named Gondwana
03:36brought together several lands, including Antarctica, which then formed a single mass.
03:41However, when Gondwana broke, Antarctica was subjected to powerful tectonic forces.
03:47Fragments of its territory were torn from each other and dispersed.
03:51This is how these large blocks of earth formed, hidden under the thick layer of ice.
03:56Today, scientists want to deepen the study of this phantom.
04:01To do this, they plan to drill the ice,
04:03a bit like using a straw to reach the bottom of a thick milkshake.
04:07This method will allow them to take samples of rocks and sediment in depth,
04:12in order to learn more about the history and climate of our planet.
04:18Antarctica would be the 5th largest continent in the world,
04:21surpassing the whole of Europe or Australia in size,
04:23and rivaling all of South America.
04:26In addition to the already mentioned Eastern Antarctic,
04:29it houses other emblematic regions,
04:31such as the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Pole, the Western Antarctic and the Sea of Ross.
04:36This continent is, in a way, a huge frozen land,
04:40whose mysterious and buried landscapes remain less explored than those of Mars.
04:45What we know for sure is that without its ice cover,
04:49it would reveal a world rich in relief,
04:51composed of vast mountains, gigantic canyons and even active volcanoes.
04:56Some of these volcanoes, of a colossal size, emerge above thick layers of snow.
05:01In the Western Antarctic alone, there are at least 138,
05:06although only 8 or 9 are still active today.
05:12One of the most fascinating volcanoes is Mount Erebus,
05:15the southernmost of the continent and also the highest,
05:18culminating at about 4,000 meters.
05:21Under the thick ice cover, this giant houses undervolcanic caves of exceptional beauty,
05:26where the temperatures are soft enough to stay in t-shirts.
05:30The Antarctic Peninsula is like a mountain range of islands,
05:34deeply buried under the surface.
05:36It is composed of relatively recent volcanic rocks,
05:40which are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
05:42A gigantic circle,
05:44grouping volcanoes and seismic zones around the Pacific Ocean.
05:48The Eastern Antarctic, on the other hand,
05:50represents an immense region, almost as vast as Australia.
05:54It extends from the eastern coast of the continent to the South Pole.
05:57Under these glaciers, we find extremely ancient rock formations,
06:01some of which were located in the area mentioned earlier.
06:06You probably know that the Antarctic is almost completely devoid of humans.
06:10Nothing surprising about that,
06:12given the average temperature approaching minus 43 degrees Celsius.
06:16But despite these extreme conditions and the desolation of the place,
06:20life persists, and guess where?
06:22In the depths of the earth.
06:24In 2017, researchers discovered traces of algae DNA,
06:28moss, and even unknown small animals in deep caves.
06:32This proves that, despite such hostile conditions,
06:35unique ecosystems manage to thrive in pockets of isolated heat under the snow.
06:43Another incredible discovery took place under the ice platform of Ross,
06:48a flourishing ecosystem within an underground river.
06:51Scientists suspected for a long time that lakes and freshwater rivers
06:55could exist in the Antarctic subsoil.
06:58One day, a satellite detected a fault,
07:01and after deciding to explore it,
07:03they used a drill fed by hot water to melt the ice and sink into it.
07:08Upon arriving in these depths,
07:10they plunged a camera into one of these hidden rivers.
07:13At first, they thought they were simply discovering rocks or similar formations.
07:18But on the contrary, they came across hundreds of amphipods,
07:22tiny creatures resembling shrimps.
07:25The small creatures immediately grouped around the lens,
07:29obstructing the camera and preventing scientists from carrying out the planned observations.
07:34This may seem funny,
07:36but it confirms that there is indeed an ecosystem in the heart of Antarctica.
07:40Researchers now plan to explore it in depth.
07:44And all this is just the beginning of this mysterious underground world.
07:48Under the snow, this continent also hides the deepest canyon,
07:52located under the Denman Glacier.
07:54Although the Marian Fault remains the deepest point in the globe,
07:58it should be noted that, geologically, it belongs to the oceanic crust.
08:03In 1958,
08:05explorers updated a vast mountain range buried under the ice,
08:09comparable to the Alps in terms of altitude.
08:12This chain extends over nearly 1,200 kilometers,
08:15with peaks culminating at 2,700 meters in altitude.
08:19And this splendor is nestled under tons of ice.
08:22Who knows what else we could discover here.
08:27Antarctica houses about 60% of the planet's fresh water.
08:31This means that a total meltdown of these glaciers would have dramatic consequences.
08:36As an example, there is an apocalyptic glacier,
08:40officially known as Glacier Thwaites.
08:43This gigantic block of ice, the size of Florida,
08:46is currently melting.
08:48Each year, this contributes to an elevation of 4% of sea levels.
08:52If this glacier were to melt completely,
08:55the ocean level would increase by 60 centimeters.
08:58A rise that may seem modest,
09:00but would be devastating for the coastal regions of the world.
09:04Fortunately, researchers have found that,
09:06even if its glacial platform disintegrated in the next 50 years,
09:10the glacier itself would not disappear as quickly as it was feared.
09:14Although it is still losing ice at a sustained rate,
09:17this process would remain rather slow.
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