The 3.000-kilometer-long Transantarctic Mountains are a dominant feature of the Antarctic continent, yet up to now scientists have been unable to adequately explain how they formed. In a new study, geologists led by Michael Studinger from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory report that the mountains appear to be the remnant edge of a gigantic high plateau that began stretching and thinning some 105 million years ago, leaving the peaks curving along the edge of a great plain.
Michael Studinger’s Homepage on the Transantarctic Mountains