Antarctica Rainforest Mystery Solved

on July 1, 2021

When marine geologists recently extracted buried sediment off Antarctica’s seafloor, they discovered ancient pollen, fossilized roots, and chemical evidence that a diverse rainforest might have once flourished on the now frozen continent.

If you’re wondering how a rainforest, known for heat and humidity, could thrive at the South Pole, so are scientists. In an attempt to solve the mystery, scientists dated the samples and concluded these fossilized roots and pollen were buried during the Cretaceous period. They have investigated different plate tectonic configurations that would have existed millions of years ago (based on evolutionary presuppositions) and determined that during the Cretaceous period, Antarctica would have been close to the South Pole. So if this rainforest grew on Antarctica, how could these tropical plants have grown in the cold and darkness?

The mystery is solved with a look at Genesis. According to their pre-flood models, creation geologists agree that Antarctica didn’t always rest at the bottommost point of the earth. Rather, Antarctica was positioned near the same latitude as modern New Zealand. Just 4,500 years ago, the catastrophic worldwide flood moved it from its original location and buried the remains of this rainforest debris in sediments and eventually under ice in the ice age that resulted after the floodwaters receded.

Article was taken from Answers magazine, October–December, 2020, 27.