Antarctica – The countdown has begun for the geological research of the University of Siena at the South Pole, part of the 13th Italian National Research Program Shipping in Antarctica. The research aims to reconstruct the key events of the geological history that took place in Antarctica, using the most “recent” landscape modeling, linked to the erosion and transport and accumulation of ice and the lifting of the mountains (of the past 60 million years). These processes formed the rocks, rivers and lakes that today hold abundant fossils of reptiles, fish and forests from the Trias period (about 200 million years ago). The work will also look into the oldest processes of the Transantarctic Mountains, ancient mountain ranges like the Himalayas, created between 550 million years ago and more than 1.7 billion years ago. The conclusion of the expedition is scheduled for February 5, 2015. (9Colonne)
