2020-04-11

Today we know Antarctica as an extreme enviroment containing ice and snow. But new research provides evidence that the area was very different in the past. The evidence was found inside a piece of Earch sediment collected by researchers from under the seafloor of the coast of Antarctica.  In the sediment ,they found forest soil estimated to be about 90 million years old.This would have been in the Cretaceous Period ,.when dinosaurs were the main land animals.The researchers estimate that the area -about 900 kilometers from the South Pole-had average yearly temperatures of about 12 to 13 degrees Celsius.During the warmest summer months ,average temperatures likely reached between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius.The average yearly temperature(currently) in that area is about 40 degrees below zero Celsius.