Mysterious ‘pyramid’ under Antarctic ice drives conspiracy theorists wild
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Mysterious ‘pyramid’ under Antarctic ice drives conspiracy theorists wild
- The huge pyramid-shaped mass was spotted over the Elsworth Mountains
- Social media users are baffled by the structure, with some blaming aliens
- But the mysterious object has a logical explanation. Read on for more information
Conspiracy theorists have a new focus: a “pyramid” in Antarctica.
Despite the continent being covered in snow and ice and with no permanent human population, social media users are convinced that satellite imagery shows a mysterious triangular structure.
But where did this alleged ‘pyramid’ come from? That’s a question that currently baffles social media users everywhere.
The huge pyramid-shaped mass was seen on satellite images taken over the southern part of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountains.
A huge pyramid-shaped mass was seen in satellite images taken over the southern part of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountains — the object has baffled social media users
A number of odd-looking peaks were found in the area, one of which measured two kilometers in each direction from the square base – a design similar to the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt.
But after images of the “pyramids” resurfaced this week, people began sharing theories about how the massive structure might have formed.
One user said on Twitter, “Wait how they moved the pyramids from Egypt to Antarctica?”
Some have suggested artificial life or the legendary secret society “the Illuminati” are behind the apparent structure, while others attribute the design to humans.
Others have suggested even more bizarre ideas, one user wrote: “This structure belongs to the civilization that existed before the flood. About 10,000 years ago, Antarctica was warm.’
But before you get too carried away with the theory, the “pyramid” in question is really just a mountain.
The enigmatic structure is a feature of glacial areas known as “pyramidal peak mountain.”
The Ellsworth Mountain Range was discovered in 1935, is over 400 km long and consists of peaks made of rocks
The mountain range is located in Antarctica on the western edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land
“The pyramid-shaped structures are located in the Ellsworth Mountains, a mountain range over 400 km long, so it is no surprise that there are rocky pinnacles rising above the ice. The peaks are clearly composed of rock and it is a coincidence that this particular peak has that shape,” said Dr. Mitch Darcy, a geologist at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam, told IFLScience.
‘It’s not a complicated shape, so it’s not a particular coincidence. It is, by definition, a nunatak, which is simply a point of rock that rises above a glacier or an ice cap. This one has the shape of a pyramid, but that doesn’t make it a human construction.’
The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain range in Antarctica, forming a 350 km long and 48 km wide mountain range in a north-south configuration on the western edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land.
The mountains are within the Chilean Antarctic territorial claim and were discovered in 1935 by Lincoln Ellsworth on a trans-Antarctic flight from Dundee Island to the Ross Ice Shelf.
The temperature in the Ellsworth Mountains averages around the icy -30C, and the area has only a short window of time to visit, with the best time for expeditions being November to January.