Antarctica mystery solved after evidence for ancient 'rainforest' found deep within ice
Researchers were amazed to find that while freezing today, temperatures in Antarctica millions of years ago were closer to those experienced in northern Italy today.
08:00, Sun, Dec 10, 2023
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Antarctica is the world's fifth and southernmost continent. For decades it has attracted only the most daring of adventurers, with John Davis, the American Captain, believed to have been the first person to set foot there in 1821.
Since then, an altogether different kind of traveller has frequented Antarctica: the scientist. They make the arduous journey to study the planet and find out things about climate change, microorganisms, endangered animals, and unusual flora.
This latter aspect of Antarctica is today extremely rare — there are only two types of plant — though recent research suggests the continent was once filled with exotic flora and was, in fact, the site of a tropical rainforest.
Antarctica is one of the world's harshest environments, where temperatures plunge below -90C (Image: GETTY)
The Antarctica of today is almost inhabitable, and while between 1,000 and 5,000 people currently live there, they are mostly stuck in their secure outposts studying and researching their findings. And while some 230 native species call Antarctica home, they have spent thousands of years adapting to the harsh climate.
When Dr Johann Klages and his team set out for Antarctica in 2020 they were not looking for the snow, the ice, or the cold. They were searching for an altogether different Antarctica. He and his team, from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, found what they were looking for, something which was explored during the science journal Nature's short documentary, 'An Ancient Antarctic Rainforest'.
Piercing deep beneath the ice's surface, the scientists found evidence for a long-forgotten network of plants — and not just any ordinary plants.
"[Some] 90 million years ago, a temperate rainforest existed in West Antarctica only 900 kilometres away from the South Pole," explained Dr Klages.
A special drill, used to extract a core of material around 30 metres into the sea floor, discovered that the yearly mean temperate of a stretch of western Atlantic coastline was once 12C.
While it may not sound warm, it would have been enough to see the landscape transform into a swampy rainforest.
"When we recovered the core, we could already see what was inside and that it was very unusual," said Dr Klages. "And therefore we decided to scan them in a CT scanner back home."
An artist's impression of what an Antarctic rainforest might have looked like (Image: Youtube/Nature)
Dr Johann Klages and a member of his team analysing the material they found within the ice (Image: Youtube/Nature)
The team created a visualisation of a lengthy green and yellow thread showing the various properties identified within the material pulled from the ice.
They found sandstone and within that a network of fossil roots, and, as Dr Klages noted: "We can nicely see how the roots are connected with each other and are pristinely preserved.
"We have thin roots, we have thick roots, and it's really a network as you would go to the forest near you and drill into the current forest."
Further analysis of fossilised pollen and spores helped to paint an even greater picture of what Antarctica once looked like, revealing "a very warm temperature for this latitude, and annual mean temperatures that are similar to those of Northern Italy".
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Antarctica mystery solved after 'rainforest' found deep within ice | Science | News | Express.co.uk
