Secrets of Antarctica's fossilised forests

Secrets of Antarctica's fossilised forests

It may be hard to believe, but Antarctica was once covered in towering forests.

One hundred million years ago, the Earth was in the grip of an extreme Greenhouse Effect.

The polar ice caps had all but melted; in the south, rainforests inhabited by dinosaurs existed in their place.

These Antarctic ecosystems were adapted to the long months of winter darkness that occur at the poles, and were truly bizarre.

But if global warming continues unabated, could these ancient forests be a taste of things to come?

One of the first people to uncover evidence for a once greener Antarctic was none other than the explorer, Robert Falcon Scott.

Toiling back from the South Pole in 1912, he stumbled over fossil plants on the Beardmore Glacier at 82 degrees south. The extra weight of these specimens may have been a factor in his untimely demise.

Yet his fossil discoveries also opened up a whole new window on Antarctica's sub-tropical past.

Forests in the frost

It seems like we are hearing about these types of discoveries almost daily if not hourly now. The Russians have either comer close or actually penetrated the submerged lake. We are finding signs of life under the ice.

Makes one wonder if at some point we will find a pyramid or signs of a lost civilization down there.

At the very least we have a lot of ground to cover with Antartica so it should be in the news for some time to come now.

The Forests..
The Lakes...
Are there signs of inhabitation by humans?
Will we find the secret Nazi base?
Will we find the entrance to the center of the Earth?
Will we unearth pyramids?
Will we find any earth shattering discoveries that landed here from outerspace millions of years ago...

The game is really starting to get intresting sports fans...




Annual rings in fossil wood reveal Antarctica’s subtropical past





Experiments show how Ginkgo survived the polar night




Global warming may signal a greener future for Antarctica



The Northern Hemisphere is starting to freeze.. The Southern Hemisphere is becoming flooded.. Antartica is thawing.. The picture of the Earths magentic field is so screwed up its acting like a ferrit on crack.

Originally posted by Xcathdra
The Northern Hemisphere is starting to freeze.. The Southern Hemisphere is becoming flooded.. Antartica is thawing.. The picture of the Earths magentic field is so screwed up its acting like a ferrit on crack.

Avoiding a certain hotly debated topic on WHY it's happening the Earth actually seems to be warming up. If the scientific evidence is accurate this has happened a few times in Earths history. The ice caps both North and South seem to be receding.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine who takes the opposite view. His argument was that the caps refreeze every winter. I countered by informing him that although that is true each year the ice caps in their warmer months retreats further then later when winter/colder months come around again the ice caps refreeze a bit smaller.

If the Earth is in one of it's cycles and the green house effect takes hold what this means for us humans and for our survival is that areas that are productive now may falter while other areas that are deserts presently may become productive. There just isn't any real way to know how this will effect the ability to grow food/crops etc.

Also as the caps melt the oceans will rise and many coastal locations will be flooded out. We will experience weather pattern changes some areas may see increases in storms while other areas may see a massive decrease in storm activities.

We may be seeing some of that effect already...

reply to post by Xcathdra

Are there signs of inhabitation by humans?

That's where my money has always been , we will eventually confirm that the continent was once inhabited by humans .

I'm betting that once this is proven , we will find evidence that will turn modern archaeology on it's head . I think this is where a lot of answers are hidden , that will connect the dots of ancient artifacts and civilizations . I'm thinking that Antarctica will reveal pre-history that we've never even contemplated .

Or.........................the poles could have shifted since then, and what people mistakenly call ice ages were just the result of the then polar ice cap.

I'm extremely excited about the Antarctic region and it's revealing. There is a chance that the pole shift many people and scientists are predicting will happen, in one extent or another. In this case we'll start to see the land exposed. This land which has been mapped rather accurately long, long ago. Long enough ago that there shouldn't have been any knowledge of the land formations of the continent. That information I read in a Graham Hancock book, it seems he did quite a bit of research on the idea.
blog, worth a read, same info as hancock book
Small excerpt...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/35e335f22e52.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/cdb32e5d7aae.jpg[/atsimg]

Piri Reis map: In 1929 a map was found in a library in Constantinople, Turkey this map was drawn in 1513 by a Turkish admiral, admiral Piri Reis, the strange thing about this map, is that it shows futures of the earth that nobody in 1513 should have been able to know...

I figure we may find quite a bit of thing we can probably attribute to many civilizations. Perhaps egyptians, vikings and whomever else. It's quite exciting indeed. Would probably be one of the better things to come out of a polar shift effecting mass weather pattern change

Where are the pictures of these fossilized forests? I can find pictures of the fossilized forest in Arizona, but none of the supposed forests fossilized in Antarctica. I even found a fossilized tree trunk outside of Canon City, Colorado digging for petrified dinosaur bones one time.

Originally posted by okbmd

That's where my money has always been , we will eventually confirm that the continent was once inhabited by humans .

When?, Why? And how did they get there?

Bearing in mind Antarctic has been ice covered and frigid for 35,000,000 years and the fossils concerned in the OP are of plants that died 100,000,000 years ago, in the early/mid Cretaceous, long before the demise of the dinosaurs.

You comment seems to be have no basis, and no relevance whatsoever to the subject at hand

reply to post by groingrinder


Yes.. good question. I'd like to see that as well.

reply to post by Essan


And what is the age of the antarctic ice sheets, based on?

History - Information about Antarctica - History

Antarctic Picture Galleries


Core samples of the ice taken in Antartica is where they establish timelines.

As far as our history goes, we are seeing then same effect in the Northern Hemisphere with Greeneland. They are finding that Reenland is actually 2 seperate islands covered in ice. As the ice melts, its revealing signs of forests and human habititation.

Ancients forests under Greenland ice sheets

Ice cores drilled from southern Greenland have revealed the first evidence of a surprisingly lush forest that existed in the region within the past million years. The findings from an international study published today in the journal Science suggest that the southern Greenland ice sheet may be much more stable against rising temperatures than previously thought.

Researchers analysed ice cores from a number of locations in Greenland, including Dye 3 in the south of the country. From the base of the 2km deep Dye 3 core, they were able to extract what they believe is likely to be the oldest authenticated DNA obtained to date.

By analysing these DNA samples, the researchers identified a surprising variety of plant and insect life, including species of trees such as alder, spruce, pine and members of the yew family, as well as invertebrates related to beetles, flies, spiders, butterflies and moths. The researchers believe that the samples date back to between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago.

As far as Antartica goes -

Signs of vegitation under Antartic Ice

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8cb22f3b9375.jpg[/atsimg]
Prehistoric Tree Bark




[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4ab71b87e8e7.jpg[/atsimg]
Fossil Stump




[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e4a11e5c1761.jpg[/atsimg]
260-Million-Year-Old Leaf


The bacteria time forgot

Ancient Forest in Antartica - 3 million years ago

Very interesting.

It's a shame the ice is melting but I can't help but be excited about what we may find...

I wonder if all these finds are all part of the end game. Are we really to believe that the rulers of this world that have raped and pilaged the Earth for every resource they can extract, arrived at Antarctica and universal agreed to 'not ruin the planet's last great wilderness'? It seems like just about the most justifiable place you could drill for oil and such, but the mercenary rulers of the planet suddenly developed a conscience when they got there.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I wonder what would happen to the Earth if/when the ice sheets melt and the weight of them is suddenly gone from the south pole?

I remember reading somewhere that the weight of the ice sheets pushes the continent into the mantle - so what happens when they melt? Sounds to me like there would be all sorts of tectonic shifting and earthquake activity on large scales were this to happen.

And if it is cyclical......it could help explain mass extinction events and many of the ancient stories of coming apocalypses..........just saying

Originally posted by Xcathdra
It seems like we are hearing about these types of discoveries almost daily if not hourly now. The Russians have either comer close or actually penetrated the submerged lake. We are finding signs of life under the ice.

Makes one wonder if at some point we will find a pyramid or signs of a lost civilization down there.

At the very least we have a lot of ground to cover with Antartica so it should be in the news for some time to come now.

The Forests..
The Lakes...
Are there signs of inhabitation by humans?
Will we find the secret Nazi base?
Will we find the entrance to the center of the Earth?
Will we unearth pyramids?
Will we find any earth shattering discoveries that landed here from outerspace millions of years ago...

The game is really starting to get intresting sports fans...




Annual rings in fossil wood reveal Antarctica’s subtropical past





Experiments show how Ginkgo survived the polar night




Global warming may signal a greener future for Antarctica



The Northern Hemisphere is starting to freeze.. The Southern Hemisphere is becoming flooded.. Antartica is thawing.. The picture of the Earths magentic field is so screwed up its acting like a ferrit on crack.

edit on 11-2-2011 by Xcathdra because: (no reason given)

I know, that Antartic lake that has had secrecy surround it after researchers went to it is perking my interests. I knew over 15 years ago that Antartica had fossilized plants and trees. You know what, a city or base at the poles would be a good place to put a colony if you wanted to avoid someone or something.

reply to post by Kryties


An apcolyptic ending eons ago doesnt neccisarily mean its going to end the same for us. There is no real defined cycle of magnetic shift, with cycles coming at random intervals in our past.

Maybe this go around we will be able to weather the storm..

Also the Mayan propheices arent neccisailry cataclysmic either. Its the end of one cycle, and the begingin of another. The end they talk about could easily be something other than death and destruction. If in the next year we have alein contact, that would in essence be the end of our way of life and everything we thought we knew.

It would be an end, and at the same time a new begining. The death of preconceived notions about the world we live in, and the birth of a new way of thinking that goes beyond nationalities, and into the realm of galactic neighbors.

reply to post by Xcathdra


Without anything major to indicate a mass shift, who knows.

Although I did see that in another forum on ATS there was discussion of a gas giant 4x jupiter's size cruising in the Oort cloud...

Who knows...

reply to post by JohhnyBGood


Geology. As opposed to wishful thinking.

Try this for starters

Your local library could I'm sure help further. In this day and age, ignorance is no longer an excuse

I found this article while searching for additional info on this topic. The researcher in the article says that Anarctica is closey related to South America because fossil leaves of the forest are very similar to forests in Chile today.
Click Here

very intrsting. thank you