The story of this ancient Antarctic rainforest is written in sediments buried under the sea floor of Pine Island Glacier, according to a study published in Nature magazine. Pine Island Glacier is known as a huge ice flow and the fastest melting glacier on the continent, responsible for about 25 percent of ice loss in Antarctica. Ice currents flow across the southern edge of the Hudson Mountains and along the west-northwest to Pine Island Bay, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica. Study stating that Antarctica was once a forest: Geologist Johann Klages, author of the study from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Polar and Marine Research Center in Germany, said, “This is definitely evidence of the Cretaceous. In this environment, we were the first to pierce it. ” The Cretaceous geological period is the last of the three subdivisions of the Mesozoic Time, and it is considered that the period started 142 million years ago and ended 65 million years ago. Cretaceous is also known as the Chalk Period. Klages and his team stated that they decided to buy a three-meter core during drilling, suggesting that the core has a dark structure and rich in organic substances, unlike light colored sandstone. “We have seen these magnificent intact full dense fossil root nets attached to the core base of the nucleus,” said Klages. The team meticulously studied the core over the past three years and resolved incredibly new details about the rainforest that once covered Antarctica. The pristine condition of plant fossils shows that this is the marsh ecosystem of conifers, similar to the rainforests of modern New Zealand. The annual average air temperature in the rainforests, which are reported to cover Antarctica in the past, is estimated to be 12 degrees, and in the summer season it is estimated to be 19 degrees. The researches also gave information about the level of carbon dioxide in the rain forest. He revealed that the CO2 levels in the age in question were higher than previously assumed, probably reaching 1680 parts per million (ppm). This data is a sign that the Cretaceous is warmer than expected.
