In a 2022 study, scientists suggested that there could be enormous mountain ranges — on the scale of the Himalayas — formed roughly half a billion years ago as the supercontinent Gondwana formed in the Earth’s southern hemisphere. The giant mass once made up modern-day Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, the Indian subcontinent, and more.
Researchers proposed that the supercontinent may have helped kickstart life on Earth by affecting global dynamics, including the climate and related biological processes, a case explored in detail in a new paper.
Now, as detailed in a separate study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, two geologists from Australian National University say they’ve found evidence of fragments of this supercontinent lurking deep beneath Antarctica’s ice shell — a discovery that could have major implications for how we understand the proliferation of life many millions of years ago.
Finding evidence of an enormous supercontinent isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Many of Gondwana’s mountain ranges have likely eroded over the last 500 million years or so. But by searching for zircons — natural minerals that contain trace amounts of uranium and thorium, which allow scientists to date them — the team created a map of the rough outlines of Gondwana underneath Antarctica.
