Antarctic Geography and the super continent

Antarctica used to be part of the super-continent called Godwana, which was made up of present day South America, Africa, India and Australia. After Godwana began to break up and, as it did so, continents, subcontinents and islands were formed.

About 120 million years ago the pole moved on to the continent of Antarctica. This event was followed by the northward movement of the surrounding continent.

Ice Sheets

The cooling that led to the first ice sheets 34 million years ago, began just a few million years earlier. The ice cap, which now envelops the Antarctic continent, covers two distinct geological areas.

East Antarctica is a large landmass with a crustal thickness of between 30 and 40 km. West Antarctica, however, is an archipelago of islands with a crustal thickness of only 10 km in some places.

The junction between East Antarctica and West Antarctica lies hidden beneath the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf. Due to the weight of the ice cover, most of the rock surface of Antarctica is now depressed below sea level.