Antarctic mountains hidden beneath thousands of metres of ice have been mapped in detail for the first time.

One of Antarctica’s highest mountain ranges, located in the centre of the continent, shows remarkable similarities to the Alps, with steep cliffs, valley steps and flat tributary valleys.

The study, published today in the journal Nature, mapped the Gamburtsev mountains by bouncing radar signals off their hidden surface and observing how long they took to return. The highest peak was found to be 2,434m (7,985ft) above sea level, about twice the height of Ben Nevis.

“When you look at the map you can actually imagine walking in the mountains. It’s like Snowdonia,” said Professor Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Edinburgh and an author of the paper.

The surface of Antarctica rises up in a smooth dome shape over the Gamburtsev region, which suggested a mountain range lay beneath. But until now, scientists had only the vaguest idea of how high the mountains were or what they looked like.

The only previous surface maps of the region were obtained during a single radar flight in the 1970s. “The morphology of these mountains was less well known than the surface of Mars,” Professor Siegert. said

The new maps are based on two gruelling surveys, carried out between 2004 and 2008. An expedition of scientists and explorers traversed an area of 30km square (19 miles square) in a snow tractor, taking continual radar measurements along a web-like trajectory. The data was converted into a map with 140m resolution.

The resultant map revealed a very different landscape to other Antarctic regions that have been investigated. A study of the surface below another raised dome in East Antarctica, for instance, revealed much gentler, low-lying topography.

The sharp peaks and jagged ridges came as a surprise, as it had previously been assumed the land would have been eroded by the slowly shifting ice that had covered it for millions of years. “The preservation is incredible,” Professor Siegert said.

Scientists believe that the ice sheet, which covers the whole of Antarctica, orginated in the Gamburtsev range, making the mapping of the region particularly significant.

The shape of the mountains indicates that they were formed in a much warmer climate than that today, more than 34 million years ago.

As the Earth’s temperature dropped over the next 20 million years, ice would have been present at lower and lower altitudes. About 14 million years ago, the valleys ceased to thaw in the summer and the whole continent remained covered in a single ice sheet. Since then ice has slowly accumulated over Antarctica and is now more than 3,000m thick in places.

Antarctic temperatures reach a minimum of between minus 80C and minus 90C in winter and up to 15C near the coast in summer. Projected increases in the Earth’s temperature over the next century have led to fears that parts of the Antarctic ice sheet could melt, bringing a devastating rise in ocean levels.

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