The glacier, Goodge said, likely carried the eroded material from central East Antarctica toward the margin of the continent.
The scientists found the rock in a moraine that backed up to the Transantarctic Mountains. Not an easy feat, considering that granite is prevalent throughout the mountains, though most of it is generally only 500 million years old. Other interesting, and as yet “undiscovered,” rocks are buried several kilometers below the ice.
“There are not many places that we can go to see what the old continental interior looked like,” Goodge said, though he added, “We can see some ancient rocks exposed in the Miller Range and the Geologists Range. … So we have some idea of what the old basement geology [looks like].
“The further back in geologic time you go, the more fragmentary everything becomes, so the evidence is very sketchy,” Goodge said. “One of the reasons I care about [projects like these] is that I like to tell geologic stories.”
But the reconstruction of Rodinia is more than an interesting intellectual exercise. The formation and eventual break up of the supercontinent occurred during a period of significant geological and biological evolution, according to Goodge.
“It was taking place at exactly the same time when there were huge changes in ocean seawater chemistry,” he said. “It’s when macroscopic life really starts to take off.” The first multicellular organisms, such as jellyfish and sponges, begin appearing on the biological stage.
Studying supercontinents is also important for determining where oil, gas, coal and metal deposits might be found, as well as determining major events in the earth’s history, according to Wagner.