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Article: A forest grows in Antarctica. (an extensive forest may have flourished about 3 million years ago)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- March 8, 1986
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1986 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A Forest Grows in Antarctica
Antarctica, for the most part, is a lifeless continent of rock and ice. Over the last 15 years, scientists have come to believe that the stark and frigid landscape we see today has existed for a very long time; the climatic message embedded in sea sediments is that once an ice sheet enveloped East Antarctica 15 million years ago, it never let go.
Now, however, scientists working on the continent itself have uncovered the wooden remains of what they believe was an extensive forest that flourished only 400 miles from the South Pole about 3 million years ago.
"This is sure evidence that the ice sheet went through a very ...