Antarctic Granite Giant Revealed Beneath Pine Island Glacier
Researchers traced pink granite boulders on the Hudson Mountains to a hidden, roughly 100 km-wide and 7 km-thick granite body beneath Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. U-Pb zircon dating suggests the granite formed about 175 million years ago in the Jurassic, and airborne gravity surveys show a buried-granite density signature supporting the link. The discovery helps explain the past movement of the glacier and will improve models of West Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution and sea‑level rise.
