{"id":3238,"date":"2021-11-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3238"},"modified":"2021-11-10T03:04:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T03:04:22","slug":"fiery-antarctica-seemed-to-be-the-case-75-million-years-ago-says-a-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/fiery-antarctica-seemed-to-be-the-case-75-million-years-ago-says-a-new-study\/","title":{"rendered":"“Fiery” Antarctica? Seemed to Be the Case 75 Million Years Ago, Says a New Study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The otherworldly continent of Antarctica<\/em> down south\u2014way down south\u2014has been known as \u201cthe final frontier\u201d for decades, and has captured the fascination and imagination of peoples since it was first spotted by explorers back in 1820. And while the detrimental effects of human-induced climate change is causing the emergence of huge concern over the future of Antarctica\u2014like how losing its surface ice may be causing the Earth\u2019s crust to \u201cwarp\u201d<\/a>\u2014it nevertheless has remained an ice-capped landmass since humans had first laid eyes on its shores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a name that quite literally means \u201copposite the Arctic\u201d in Romanized Greek, Antarctica is actually the fifth largest continent, sitting at nearly double the size of Australia. Some 98% of its surface area is covered by ice that averages at about 1.9 km thick\u2014which also makes Antarctica the continent with the highest average elevation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mt. Herschel is a mountain whose peak sits at about 3,335 m above sea level. It sits in an area in Antarctica known as Victoria Land. It was named after English astronomer John F. W. Herschel, whom the mountain\u2019s discoverer, English polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross, named the mountain after in Herschel\u2019s honor. (Mandemaker\/Wikimedia Commons, 2006) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Now, most of you surely must have heard of the concept of plate tectonics<\/em>, which is a theory that explains how Earth\u2019s surface features\u2014like continents\u2014are shaped by our planet\u2019s subterranean movements. It may not come as a surprise to most of you, then, that Antarctica wasn\u2019t always down south. In fact, Antarctica used to be part of the supercontinent Gondwana<\/em>, a giant landmass that existed since the Neoproterozoic<\/em> Era; this supercontinent eventually broke away from the supercontinent Pangaea<\/em> during the Cretaceous <\/em>Period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rtecent models and geological studies have shown that Antarctica started freezing over some 40 million years ago after it broke apart from what was to become Australia and New Guinea. From there, Antarctica encountered changes in surrounding ocean currents accompanied by its slow downward drift away from the Equator, the effects of which grew the ice over its once-lush lands. The Pleistocene<\/em> Ice Age finally covered the entirety of Antarctica with ice; the continent has remained a polar desert<\/em> ever since. (Subsequent ice ages would end up hitting human populations then, too; read more about your ancestors\u2019 fate here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Antarctica now plays home to the emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri<\/em>, pictured), who together with the Ad\u00e9lie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae<\/em>), remain as the penguins who breed the furthest down south compared to any other penguin. (Michel\/Wikimedia Commons, 2013) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s obvious, then, that Antarctica then would have been incomparable to the features\u2014or lack thereof\u2014seen in Antarctica today. This statement may have never been more applicable than it is now, with new research led by Federal University of Pernambuco paleobiologist Flaviana Jorge de Lima and published in the journal Polar Research<\/em>. In fact, it couldn\u2019t be further from its current state; apparently, 75 million years ago, Antarctica was on fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time frame of 75 million years ago places Antarctica in its state some 10 million years before the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, somewhere in the Cretaceous Period. Back then, Antarctica was still covered in lush jungles, and was still part of the supercontinent Gondwana. It would have been home to several plants and trees, as well as dinosaurs and mammals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Lima and team actually found evidence for this \u201cfiery\u201d Antarctic landscape on James Ross Island, an island near the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. There, they obtained fragments of fossilized plants that suspiciously looked like charcoal residue back during a 2015-2016 expedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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James Ross Island was captured in a photo above, which was coincidentally taken by NASA photographer James Ross back in 2004. Ross snapped a photo of the island during an AirSAR 2004 mission over the Antarctic peninsula. (Ross\/Wikimedia Commons, 2004) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

These charcoal fossil fragments were very small, with some barely reaching sizes of 38 mm (1.5 in) on one side. Once examined under a scanning electron microscope, experts now believe the fossilized plant to be a member of the plant family Araucariaceae<\/em>, and were burned gymnosperm <\/em>plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This discovery expands the knowledge about the occurrence of vegetation fires during the Cretaceous, showing that such episodes were more common than previously imagined,” de Lima said in a statement to news source LiveScience<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the study itself wrote out: “Antarctica had intense volcanic activity caused by tectonics during the Cretaceous, as suggested by the presence of fossil remains in strata related to ash falls. It is plausible that volcanic activity ignited the paleo-wildfire<\/em> that created the charcoal reported here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the fossil fragments involved was small enough to be comparable to a minted coin. Many more were obtained by de Lima and the team prior to proper investigation. (De Lima et al, 2021) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first time a discovery of this kind was documented; several signs of ancient life, including dinosaurs and flowering plants, had been found there before. What stands out for this research, however, is how the evidence of 75-million-year-old fires appeared in the last place you\u2019d expect fires to take place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, de Lima and team are busy looking for geological traces of other ancient fires in locations across Antarctica. In doing so, the team hopes to gain a better understanding of all the events that came before that shaped the mysterious ice-enveloped continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n