The icy continent is of great interest to scientists as it is a totally unspoilt landscape where they can study the effects of climate change. One US group, led by Dave Marchant, from Boston University, drilled hundreds of feet down into a valley in West Antarctica hoping to get a look into the past rock samples, to find out whether the area had frozen over before. However, they got much more than they expected.
Dr Marchant told Nova’s series “Secrets of Antarctica” in 2015: “This valley holds an incredible record, it is so dry and cold that the landscape is pristine.
“The rocks we see here are millions of years old.
“To me what is exciting is that we’re walking on an ancient landscape.
“Imagine living 10 million years ago in Antarctica – this is what you would see – exactly as it is today.”
However, the narrator explained their shock while carrying out work drilling below the surface.
He said: “But when Marchant’s team drilled beneath the rubble, they found something totally unexpected.
“A hidden glacier that extends hundreds of feet below the surface.”
Dr Marchant explained why the discovery could be monumental for researchers.
He continued: “This is, in my opinion, the oldest dated buried glacier on Earth.
“We’re finding ash deposits dating back as old as eight million years.
“The evidence comes from volcanic ash, the dry valleys are surrounded by extinct volcanos that erupted millions of years ago.”
During the same series, a 15 million-year-old discovery was also uncovered after the Antarctic Drilling Project (ANDRILL) team went 440 metres below the ice.
The documentary explained: “They recover a 12-foot length of core, wrap it in a protective cover before workers carefully carry it back to the lab to be examined.
“When they crack it open, it’s in perfect condition.
“This mud and rock is more valuable than gold because each core is a time machine.
“We’re currently down to the depth of body 440 metres, that’s about a quarter-mile down corresponding to a time at least 15 million years ago when Antarctica was still warm.
“As the cores are recovered, each section is sliced lengthwise, X-rayed and scanned in labs at the drill site and back at McMurdo.”