Very unusual holes/openings/entrances found in Antartica

Originally posted by tauristercus
[Hmmmm ... a crevasse, you say ? Possibly ....

First, a definition: "A crevasse is a crack in an ice sheet or glacier."
No mention of rocks or mountains.

Lets take a look at some representative crevasses, shall we ?

Hmmmm, yes you are probably correct....well know you are definenlty correct, I guess I was a bit hasty

Oh also, I didnt say it wasnt interesting, I said it wasnt unusual

Im wondering now if it may be attributed to subglacial melt?

reply to post by tauristercus


maybe now the openings are exposed because of global warming...looks like good ole al gore is right after all, huh

I think you guys need to do some reading about this particular mystery. The Piri Reis map, Phoenicians etc etc.

www.world-mysteries.com...

Secondly, as a geologist - I can tell you that Antarctica is not volcanically active. Yes, it's plate boundaries are (of course), but the main section of it is not.

Antarctica is what we in the trade call a 'shield' continent. The crustal plate that forms it is very thick, and not subject to 'active' intrusion by magmatic forces. Yes, there may be Batholiths and other old intrusions from previous geological epochs, but currently, it is a shield and resists mantle interference.

We have no evidence that these holes are anything other than holes. Yes they are unusual, and the fact that the area has been specifically re-surveyed indicates to me that we are not the only ones who have noticed them. But we should cap our speculation, and go hunting for facts in the finest tradition of ATS.

We should check all surveying sources, and government departments. These could be exploration shafts dug into the ice to search for oil etc. Bear these things in mind.

The Para.

Nice, odd thing for me was the first thing that sprang to mind was hmm that looks like its been superimposed, the 'hole' and the rest of the image just didnt gel. Which wold mean to me its either fake or in no way natural.

But looking at that second up close one it sure reminds me of a large metal entrance to a bunker viewed from almost side on and about 45 degrees up. Where i used to live we had some old WW2 coastal bunkers for gun emplacements in the cliffs and they looked an awe full lot like that second picture at 66 36' 12.58"S 99 43' 12.72"E , although alot smaller.

Are the pics taken from the vertical or angled? (I know its google earths so its satellite data), its just that the 'hole in those two shots looks like its been photo'd from a more horizontal view point than what a satellite would get. If its vertical then thats one oddly aligned object (if it is one, say a bunker).

Either way nice.

[edit on 26-8-2009 by BigfootNZ]

Great post! best one in three months,antartica is like another planet here on earth. with all the sat,s that nasa has on a pole to pole trajectory you would think they would show us what we payed for,great find star and flag for you.

Originally posted by exile1981
The first one looks weird, that is a huge opening and the surface of the ice looks really smooth. I wonder if there is a volcano in antartica near there that is going hot so to speak.

Mount Erebus

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by tauristercus


S and F

intriquing find! I think Antartica is a central area, for lots of strange and secret things going on.

reply to post by Phage

Are we looking at a hole or are we looking at an ice pond, before and after the summer melt?

I've just taken a look at that rocky area you mentioned and I totally understand your point regarding potential holes containing melt water.
I checked that entire area trying to find a resemblance to the 1st opening and failed. There's no question that that entire rocky area is full of such melt water holes, and even ice floes BUT none of them had structural similarities to the 1st opening.

To illustrate my point, take a look at the following annotated images highlighting what I consider to be unique peculiarities.


In this 1st image (rotated to highlight), it's immediately apparent that the ice sheet has an unusual edge (A) where the ice precipitously changes direction by 90 degrees and yet on the opposite side (B) we see a slope.

I'm lost for an explanation as to how an ice sheet can melt in such a manner that it melts STRAIGHT DOWN leaving an ice wall behind ... and a wall with such sharply defined edges.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2e60b9e44f9e.jpg[/atsimg]


It's not overly obvious in this next image (also rotated to highlight) but at the two circled locations, there appears to be some kind of shadow effect at opposite ends of the ice wall ... whether this is a mark in the actual ice itself, I'm not sure ... but quite a coincidence as there are no other obvious markings on the ice wall itself.
The markings are much more obvious if you use GE to examine them.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/882c144b6df5.jpg[/atsimg]

Originally posted by SpaceGoatsFarts

Originally posted by exile1981
The first one looks weird, that is a huge opening and the surface of the ice looks really smooth. I wonder if there is a volcano in antartica near there that is going hot so to speak.

Mount Erebus

en.wikipedia.org...

Mount Erebus is 2,500 kms away from this location. No other volcanos in this vicinity.

I'm thinking this is what is called a "cwm". Its a deep hole that can eventually turn into a gulley or valley if the geological conditions and the weather are right.

Its a very cool find

reply to post by tauristercus


I think you saw way too far into this one. We'll start with the first picture, and if you need more, I'll look at the other ones too.

I'm a Geology student in Canada, just to give you a little background on where I'm coming from.

The ground at the first picture is higher up, which means when the wind blows, sediment and snow end up on the bottom. hence no snow around hole.

Ice is smooth for one of two reasons, either it froze super fast, in near wind-less conditions, or, it was bumpy originally, and wind blowing sediment and snow made it smooth.

The "tracks" you see look to be the signs of water flow. The beginning of the trail starts within the ice, and the impression continues when the water flows from the hole to the surface.

The water is pretty high there. That could be and island or part of the actual landmass, regardless, it's 100% surrounded by ocean, the water table is bound to be at a decent height here.

This could be and aquifer on the final part of it's journey.

This could be a volcanic vent, or it could be on a fault line. Any number of reasons could contribute to liquid water. Geothermal heat, or heat through friction are quite common.

I didn't check the coordinates, but if this in an area that is not ridiculously cold year round, then this is totally possible through surface heat (heat from the sun).

Any questions, does anyone think I'm wrong? right?

let me know

-Milton


p.s.

we have to think of the scale here.. on one of the images you state 90 meters wide for the ice and that was at the mouth, in reality, it's closer to 95-100 meters wide. Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is the "vehicle" tracks you are talking about are just under a quarter (1/4) the size of the ice in width. Which means they (whoever) have a vehicle around twenty meters wide... who has this technology?? and if so, who brought it there, because if the vehicle is 20 meters wide, then the vehicle carrying it would have to be bigger. I don't think it's possible.



[edit on 26-8-2009 by awmilton]

[edit on 26-8-2009 by awmilton]

To me it looks exactly like a Lava-Tube.

en.wikipedia.org...

nothing unusual about it, cool find though.

What do you think is in there? I expect it's something good

I managed to make it so you can see in the caves:





I did nothing more than run the dodge brush over the opening- no other enhancements. (except on cave 1- I kinda botched it a little). No sharpening, pixilating, turning it 90 degrees to starboard, enlarging, or crazy labels pointing out the 'ALEIN BASE??????!!!!!!!!!' (Sorry, shades of some of the those wacky Mars pics come to mind ANY time I enhance a pic for any reason.... hehehehe)
Anyways, now that you can see down the mouth of those things- enjoy.

to me it look like a lava tube.......
en.wikipedia.org...
sorry if it has been mentioned already but i couldnt be arsed to read all posts

reply to post by Jim Scott


Just remember that Antarctica is geologically stable. Basically that is little to no movement, or tectonic activity, and there are no more than about two active volcanoes on the entire continent. One isn't even on the main land mass.

Could someone run that initial picture's blowup through a photo filter, it looks faint, but I could swear there are chambers in that hole.

Well, that was fast. You had it done before I even posted!

[edit on 26-8-2009 by GideonHM]

Originally posted by Parallex
I think you guys need to do some reading about this particular mystery. The Piri Reis map, Phoenicians etc etc.

www.world-mysteries.com...

Secondly, as a geologist - I can tell you that Antarctica is not volcanically active. Yes, it's plate boundaries are (of course), but the main section of it is not.

Antarctica is what we in the trade call a 'shield' continent. The crustal plate that forms it is very thick, and not subject to 'active' intrusion by magmatic forces. Yes, there may be Batholiths and other old intrusions from previous geological epochs, but currently, it is a shield and resists mantle interference.

We have no evidence that these holes are anything other than holes. Yes they are unusual, and the fact that the area has been specifically re-surveyed indicates to me that we are not the only ones who have noticed them. But we should cap our speculation, and go hunting for facts in the finest tradition of ATS.

We should check all surveying sources, and government departments. These could be exploration shafts dug into the ice to search for oil etc. Bear these things in mind.

The Para.

Hey, I'm a Geologist too. Not not volcanically active you say ? then check the last papers.

Also, even if we don't have volcanos in the continent, this doesn't mean that you can't have a heat source below the continent.




For me it doesn't seems to be natural, and I wouldn't be surprise, ever checked the number of scientific base on Antartica ?

This really reminds me of the hollow earth theory laid out in a very interesting thread by a member named infinite. I read through that thread for some ideas on a story I was creating and I must tell you, this is the first thing I thought of. Not to side track this thread or anything, but really, consider the whole hollow earth theory when viewing these openings. It is kind of creepy and intriguing.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by tauristercus
Very interesting stuff indeed. The first example of an opening certainly appears artificial, it's possible to interpret the grey material as concrete. The semi-circular shape is persuasive too. I read the thread and links with interest for someone to explain it satisfactorily. I think Red_Fox' link to Wiki Lava Tubes is the most useful contribution for trying to work out what they are. Nobody's suggested good old fashioned caves! It's likely that Antarctica has a cave or two. Before I started to look into it and think about it, I was fully taken by the artificial appearance.

The first example is the best. It looks artificially formed. It also looks like the lava tubes in the Wiki link and very similar to the Valentine Cave. What stops me from thinking 'artificial' is that the gradient up the peak is far too steep for plant machinery. There are no tracks, no signs that man or machine have tunneled, excavated or blasted the entrance. IMO it's hard to favor an artificial explanation.

A member insisted that there's no volcanic activity on Antarctica...Could Volcanic Activity In West Antarctic Rift Destabilize Ice Sheet? There also a story about volcanic activity here...NASA Spacecraft Detects Volcanic Activity In Antarctica. A couple of images to illustrate the point....

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/90f84e87636b.jpg[/atsimg] West Antarctic Ice Sheet Volcano

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3f7d69454e4d.jpg[/atsimg] Penguins make me smile (plus volcano background)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d6e2101e0aef.jpg[/atsimg] Valentine Cave USA

I can't check GE and can only assume that at least some other member has. The 90-100 meter wide entrance I'll also assume is accurate.

If the openings are located on the West Antarctic Rift, it's plausible to suspect some process similar to lava tubes. It's possible they are straightforward cave openings, again if they're in W Antarctica maybe warmth in the cave from fissures has created the frozen meltwater around the entrance? Whatever, they are IMO they aren't man made. Nothing more than the appearance suggests artificial construction. The first one is larger than other cave entrances and lava tubes, but shares features with both.

If it could be explained how they've been made without leaving traces, I could be persuaded. As it is, I'm going for natural formations. Still, great work for finding the images

I could give you some other maybe interesting to you information about that part of Antarctica.

That caves are about 50km from one of Polish Antarctic bases called Dobrowolski Station which is officially not functioning and was leaved in 70th. That base is located in quite strange part of Antarctica called “Bunger oasis” not covered by ice with few lakes which are malting in summer and even with some plant activity. There are places in that oasis wit average year temperature is about 1 degree of Celsius which is quite warm and unique for Antarctica. Officially it is still Polish base waiting for better times but access to that base is extremely difficult because of rock surface and lack of possibility of plane landing in nearby. Last time it was visited by Australian expedition witch placed there device to track GPS satellites and measure their precision.


[edit on 26-8-2009 by odyseusz]