Scientists Find Remnants of Huge Life-Giving Continent Beneath Antarctica

Geologists from Australian National University mapped fragments of the Gondwana supercontinent beneath Antarctica using zircons from ocean sediments. The study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters found that 46% of zircons from the critical period and 55% of high-pressure grains originated from Antarctica.

• 46% of zircons from the Cambrian explosion period came from Antarctica
• 55% of high-pressure grains from that period also originated there
• Gondwana formed between 650 and 450 million years ago
• Researchers analyzed zircons in ocean sediments, not the ice sheet