Africa was under glaciers 300 million ago, just as the supercontinent was just breaking up. Scientists have found traces of glaciers from that time.
It’s hard to look at the Twyfelfontein volcanic desert in northern Namibia and believe that the region was once under glaciers. Scientists managed to trace the traces of that period.
Geologists Graham Andrews and Sarah Brown were the first scientists to research soil layers in Namibia. The results of the work done by geologists have been quite surprising.
While the region turned out to be home to the main glacial currents for a while, the glacial movements in the region were equivalent to the glacial movements seen in Antarctica today.
In a field study they conducted in Namibia, the hills in the region caught the attention of these two geologists at West Virginia University. Namibia’s hills are known for being straight and tall.
Andrews said, “We immediately knew what we were dealing with because we both grew up in parts of the world that were previously under glaciers. I grew up in Northern Ireland and Sarah in Illionis. ” says.
According to Andrews, although the history of the region is clear, there is no study on the subject. Finding this quite surprising, geologists decided to carry out studies on the subject themselves. Using Google Earth images, Andrews and his team decided whether the Namibian hills were formed by glaciers in the past.
As a result of the research, large, wide grooves were found between the rocks of the region. The reason for these rifts, which can reach 800 meters deep in the volcanic ground, is shown by the large ice masses moving rapidly in the region.
The results show the first evidence of massive glacial movement in the region. Glacial movements here, the glaciers that surrounded Africa at the end of the Paleozoic Age, melted due to this flow. Melting glaciers mingled into the ocean off today’s Brazilian coast.
With the research, the results of some old studies have also been approved. It was said that Africa and South America were side by side in ancient times and were located in the polar region of Africa.
The research özgü been published in PLOS One.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/a-desert-in-africa-is-telling-us-secrets-about-the-gondwana-ice-age
