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Credit: NASA / National Science Foundation / James Yungel (Usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) |
All continents display large, flat erosional surfaces called planation surfaces. Indeed, planation surfaces are especially widespread on the continents of Africa and Australia. The prevalence of the water-rounded rocks that commonly cap their surfaces suggest these surfaces were formed by a heavy sediment-filled flow of water. Antarctica is no exception to planation features. Nunataks are mountains that stick up above the ice and planation surfaces have been carved on some of these mountains.To read the entire article, click on "Planation surfaces below the Antarctic Ice Sheet".