00:00Welcome to one of the most mysterious and unexplored places on Earth.
00:04Um, but what's so special about that?
00:08It's just some icy peaks and the endless snowy expanse of Antarctica.
00:12Yeah, that's right, but there's still a planetary scale mystery here.
00:17No matter how hard you try, you won't see a hidden mountain range,
00:21giant, unexplored land where no human has ever set foot,
00:24and it lies under another layer of mountains.
00:28It's like a nesting doll, but the size of a continent.
00:33These mountains hide Antarctica secrets,
00:35and these secrets can tell us something awesome about the ancient history of our planet.
00:42This gigantic unexplored territory in Antarctica is called the Gambritsev Subglacial Mountains,
00:49and the layer of ice above keeps this place untouched by nature and people.
00:55It's like a land inside another land, and it hides more than just mountains.
01:00There are valleys, hills, and plains.
01:03The whole area is similar to the European Alps, but unfortunately, we can't enjoy the view.
01:10Those mountains were first discovered in 1958 using seismological instruments.
01:16More than half a century has passed since then,
01:18and this place still remains one of the most poorly studied tectonic objects on Earth.
01:23Why? Because it's ice. A lot of ice.
01:29Who knows? Maybe there are some unknown ancient artifacts lying there.
01:33What if they're hiding a secret city or spaceships?
01:36It's unlikely, of course, but it would still be interesting to look there.
01:40Think about it.
01:41Hundreds or even thousands of miles of land that have remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.
01:48Even if no new species of animals or remains of an ancient civilization are there,
01:54this place still has a history.
01:57The history of the formation of continents on our planet.
02:01And scientists have already figured out some of this story.
02:05The mountains buried in Antarctica were originally like ordinary mountains,
02:10but as a result of a planetary-scale event, they just...
02:14Wait a minute.
02:15Have you ever wondered how mountain ranges are formed?
02:18We see them in real life.
02:20In movies.
02:21In photos on the internet.
02:22We climb them.
02:23But how did they appear?
02:25Mountains have not always existed on the planet in this form.
02:29They appeared as a result of a large-scale collision of tectonic plates.
02:34Two giant solid chunks of ground are moving toward each other, then crash, and boom!
02:40Millions of tons of the Earth's crust pile on top of each other, mix, and form ledges and gorges.
02:48And all this can last for millions of years.
02:52Yes, it's a disaster, but it's very slow.
02:56Some tectonic plates are still colliding.
02:58For example, the Himalayas continue to grow because the Indian and Eurasian plates are still ramming into each other.
03:05And this process began about 50 million years ago.
03:10The Gambertsev Mountains under ice experienced a similar event, only much earlier.
03:15An article in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters says that they appeared during the formation of the supercontinent Gondwana.
03:23Two giant pieces of land were separated by a boundless ocean.
03:29But then, about 700 million years ago, they collided and formed Gondwana.
03:34This supercontinent included the territories of modern Africa, South America, Australia, India, and Antarctica.
03:43The giant pieces crashed into each other and released a stream of hot, partially molten rock.
03:49This mess grew bigger and bigger, forming mountains.
03:53The temperature of those mountains grew.
03:55Their mass increased.
03:57And at some point, Gondwana became unstable.
04:00The supercontinent began to collapse under its own weight.
04:03The hot rocks below the surface began to flow sideways as a result of a process called gravitational spreading.
04:12Take toothpaste and start squeezing it out of the tube.
04:15Approximately the same thing happened with billions of tons of red hot rock.
04:21Ancient mountains in Antarctica appeared right during this catastrophic event.
04:25You've just watched a visual simulation of global events that took place hundreds of millions of years ago.
04:32It looks cool, but how did scientists figure it out?
04:36How did they see this planetary scale destruction?
04:40If the Gambertsev Mountains under ice is one of the most unexplored places in the world,
04:45then how could people find out its origin?
04:48The answer is simple.
04:50Tiny particles of rock have told us about the changing landscape of the planet.
04:55These are zircons, but scientists also call them time capsules.
05:01This mineral is very handy and resistant to mechanical and chemical influences.
05:06It's difficult to crush.
05:07It doesn't get affected by erosion.
05:09And it doesn't dissolve in water.
05:12And there's uranium inside it.
05:15This chemical element shows scientists the age of the rock.
05:19The fact is that uranium always decays into lead at the same rate.
05:23Scientists look at the ratio of uranium and lead and determine the age of minerals with great accuracy.
05:31Okay, this sounds a bit complicated.
05:34Here's a simple example.
05:35Imagine that each mountain belt is a clock that starts ticking at the moment of its formation.
05:40That is, after the collision of tectonic plates.
05:43After the rock forms, uranium begins its slow decay.
05:48The more time passes, the more uranium turns into lead.
05:53The rate of this decay is always the same.
05:56This decay can last for billions of years.
05:59The less uranium is in zircons and the more lead, the older the rock is.
06:04And this is how it happens in practice.
06:07Geologists take several rock samples.
06:10In a lab, they crush it to extract crystalline zircons.
06:15Geologists then dissolve the particles in acid to separate uranium from lead.
06:20Then they use a special device.
06:22A mass spectrometer that accelerates atoms and sorts them by mass.
06:26This is a rather complicated process, but the bottom line is that this device shows scientists the amount of uranium and lead.
06:35They look at the ratios of these two elements and calculate the age of the rock.
06:41Geologists took zircons from sandstones near the Gambertsev Mountains, studied those particles,
06:47looked at the level of uranium, and calculated the chronology of mountain formation.
06:51Then they compared the data obtained with the history of our planet and realized that the mountains buried in Antarctica
06:58appeared during the formation of the supercontinent Gondwana.
07:03But how did they find out that the supercontinent included Australia, India, and Africa?
07:09Zirconia from those Antarctic rocks turned out to be very similar to zirconium from those countries.
07:15That is, a long time ago, these three continents were together.
07:19So, the Gambertsev Mountains began to grow about 650 million years ago.
07:26About 580 million years ago, they reached the height of the Himalayas.
07:30And 80 million years later, they experienced the melting of the Earth's crust.
07:35And while most of the mountain ranges on the planet were changing and collapsing,
07:40the Gambertsev Mountains under ice remained untouched.
07:43Water, soil, wind, earthquakes, gravity, and other natural forces destroy mountain belts.
07:52This process is called erosion.
07:54But mountains buried in Antarctica haven't experienced anything like this.
07:58The cold temperature and the ice sheet around them kept this range unchanged.
08:03It's one of the best-preserved ancient mountain belts on the planet.
08:06Okay, but why do we need to explore these mountains?
08:10What difference does it make that the supercontinent Gondwana collapsed in the past?
08:15It's possible that plants, frozen bodies of insects, or ancient bacteria have remained preserved under thick layers of ice.
08:23What about ancient animals?
08:25Many species could have lived on Gondwana.
08:27Studying ancient mountains in Antarctica can show us what the planet looked like about a half a billion years ago.
08:35When Antarctica was a green continent, what lived on it?
08:38What happened to this life?
08:40Is it possible to revive those ancient creatures after so many years?
08:44If scientists were able to calculate the date of the supercontinent's appearance using tiny particles,
08:50then imagine what they could find after examining this hidden mountain range.
08:55It all sounds very interesting.
08:57But there's one problem.
09:00To take a small piece of this unknown world, you need to drill through a lot of ice.
09:05You need to deliver heavy equipment to one of the most inaccessible continents in the world,
09:09build stations, obtain an energy source, and conduct large-scale research.
09:15It sounds incredibly expensive, so this hidden territory will probably remain a mystery for a long time.
09:22Let's just hope that some billionaire will want to find out Antarctica's secrets and arrange a large-scale expedition there.
09:30That's it for today.
09:31So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:37Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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