In one of the most important discoveries of the century, a team of American and European scientists discovered three ancient pyramid-like structures in Antarctica. Two of the pyramids were about 10 miles inland, while the third was very close to the coast. The first reports about the pyramids appeared in the Western media last year.
Very little is currently known about the pyramids and the team of scientists remains silent about the discovery. The only reliable information provided by the scientists so far was that they were planning an expedition to the pyramids to investigate them further and determine for sure whether the structures were man-made or natural.
This discovery has given rise to many speculations and theories about the origin of the structures. The internet is abuzz with many stories about strange structures, some of which are briefly discussed below.
Theory of the existence of an ancient civilization
Antarctica has been one of the most mysterious continents for decades. Many researchers suggest that there is more to Antarctica than snow and ice. About 170 million years ago, the continent that is now here was part of a supercontinent called Gondwana. And about 45 million years ago, Antarctica is said to have broken apart.
During the long history of Antarctica, the continent was said to be located further north with a rich tropical climate. What we now see as ice and snow were in the distant past lush green forests inhabited by various ancient life forms.
Jane Francis, from the University of Leeds, told the BBC in an interview that “I still find absolutely mind blowing the idea that Antarctica was once covered in forests”, we take for granted that Antarctica has always been a frozen desert, but ice sheets only appeared relatively recently in geological history”.
So if Antarctica was this utterly ‘beautiful’ continent in the distant past, with massive jungles and ancient life forms, is there a chance that human civilization may have flourished there? That is an extremely difficult thing to investigate as Antarctic expeditions are extremely difficult and usually involve a great deal of money. The terrain is such that without the proper equipment, humans would not last long on the continent and that makes it a great challenge for researchers to study the continent.
So far experts have discovered pollen in samples taken from Antarctica. This means that at some point in history, the temperature there was around 20 degrees Celsius. In 2012, experts from the Nevada Desert Research Institute found 32 species of bacteria from Lake Vida in East Antarctica. These finds prove that in the distant past, the climate in Antarctica was very different and probably habitable.
This has led to the theory that just as there were ancient civilizations in Asia, Europe and Africa, a similar human civilization may have advanced in Antarctica, creating fascinating structures and apparently even pyramids.
Geological Theory
Some geologists are of the opinion that the steep, pyramid-shaped sides are probably the result of hundreds of millions of years of erosion.
“This is just a mountain that looks like a pyramid,” Eric Rignot, a professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, told Live Science in an email. “The shapes of the pyramids are not impossible: many peaks look like part pyramids, but only have one or two such faces, rarely four.”
Freeze-thaw erosion likely led to its pyramidal shape, Pelto said. This happens when snow or water fills the cracks inside a mountain during the day when the ice melts. When temperatures drop at night, the snow freezes and expands, turning into ice. Expanding ice causes cracks to grow, Pelto said.
This freeze-thaw erosion occurs countless times, creating larger cracks that can eventually cause entire sections of rock to break off, he said. These forces probably formed pyramidal mountains, she said.
Three of the four sides of the mountain appear to have eroded at roughly the same rate. “It suggests, since it came out so evenly, that the rock type is pretty uniform,” Pelto said. “You don’t have any layer of rock that is harder to erode.”
In other words, the unnamed mountain is probably “all in one layer of rock,” Pelto said. “It’s not a very big mountain, so it’s not that surprising.”
However, the eastern ridge of the mountain, instead of sloping downward like the other ridges, extends east, rising toward even higher ground, Pelto said.
“Erosion probably wasn’t as uniform [on the eastern side],” he said.
Pelto added that although some media outlets say that the mountain was only recently discovered, that is highly unlikely to be the case. There is a research base for climate scientists south of the mountain in an area known as Patriot Hills.
“You can probably see this mountain from up there in Patriot Hills,” Pelto said.
Alien presence theory
Some conspiracy theorists who believe in the existence of aliens or extraterrestrials and have claimed that the pyramids prove that aliens have visited or inhabited earth at some point. The pyramids are of great interest to conspiracy theorists who associate them with the alien presence and related mystery.
UFO Investigations Handbook author Nigel Watson feels that photos of pyramidal structures are usually photoshopped, where the actual image is often cropped to make the mountains resemble pyramids.
