The mystery of the "Antarctic pyramid" and the half-billion-year-old treasure

(NLDO) - A pyramid-shaped structure standing out in the snowy sea in Antarctica has sparked conspiracy theories about aliens.

According to Live Science, the structure that looks exactly like an ancient Egyptian pyramid when viewed from above is actually a mountain carved out by a series of interesting natural processes. And like the Egyptian pyramid, it hides a treasure trove.

The "Pyramid" of Antarctica is about 1,265 meters high, about one-fifth the height of Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. It has four slopes and is located south of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica.

"Treasure Pyramid" in Antarctica - Photo: GOOGLE MAPS

This "pyramid" is very famous in the paleontological community.

That's where scientists have unearthed fossils up to half a billion years old of strange creatures from the Cambrian period, an important biological explosion on Earth.

Explaining to Live Science, Professor Mauri Pelto from Nichols College (USA) said the mysterious pyramid shape is due to natural processes.

The mountainsides may have been carved and smoothed over hundreds of millions of years of erosion, due to the constant freeze-thaw cycles.

In this area, water and snow often fill small cracks during the day and then freeze at night. The water expands in the cracks as it freezes, causing larger voids under the resulting pressure and eventually causing large blocks of rock to break off the mountain.

Three sides of this pyramidal mountain range appear to have eroded at the same rate, while the fourth side - the Eastern Range - formed independently.

Erosion from freezing and thawing may have also formed other pyramidal mountains, such as the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps.

Many conspiracy theories emerged when images of this mountain were widely shared online in 2016. Some speculated that it was related to a forgotten civilization, others hypothesized that it was about aliens.

Another expert in Earth system science, Professor Eric Rignot from the University of California at Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), also confirmed that this is just a pyramid-shaped mountain.

"The pyramid shape is not impossible. Many mountain peaks look like partial pyramids, but they only have 1-2 sides, rarely 4 sides" - Professor Rignot said.

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