The Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, known as "Alps under the ice, are the least understood tectonic feature on Earth, because they are completely hidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. But scientists have finally discovered how the mountains, which are buried three km below the East Antartic Ice Sheet, were formed 250 million years ago.

In a Reuters report, researchers said that discovery of Gamburtsev's origins is significant because it can help map the effects of climate change. Studies have shown that if Antartica ice melts, it can raise world sea levels by about 57 meters or 187 feet.

Fausto Ferraccioli, lead author of the report and geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey told Reuters that an abrupt decline in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere occurred around 34 million years ago that caused the glaciation of Antarctica. This process began over the Gamburtsev mountains, he said.

There is the possibility of finding the oldest ice on the planet on top of the mountain range, which could be 1.2 million years old or more, according to Ferraccioli but until now scientists have only been able to study ice from up to 800,000 years ago.

Using radar, gravity and magnetic data, the scientists found a tectonic process called rifting was the trigger that lifted up the Gamburtsev mountains. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which covers 10 million sq km, protected the mountains from erosion.

"In particular, the fluvial and glacial valleys were responsible for uplifting the peaks and making the mountains look like the Alps. Their present day aspect is strongly influenced by climate and ice sheet evolution," said Ferraccioli.

He added that understanding long-term ice sheet evolution is critical in order to develop more realistic models of variations of the ice sheet to climate change.

"The ice sheet and climate models would suggest you can still maintain an ice sheet in the interior of East Antartica over the mountains even if the temperature rise were 10 degrees (Celsius) above the present day -- perhaps even as much as 15 degrees," said Ferraccioli in the study which was published in the journal Nature.