Case for the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains of East Antarctica originating by Mid-Carboniferous shortening of an intracratonic basin

The present drainage of East Antarctica, with ice radiating from a central dome draped over the thick crust of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, recapitulates the Early Permian scene, including the south polar paleolatiude. The ancestral Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains and a central Australian upland may have formed because of long-distance stress from the Variscan collision acting on zones of weak crust attenuated during prolonged subsidence of intracratonic basins. The mid-Carboniferous inception of widespread glaciation was possibly linked with vast uplands in northern and southern Pangea through the effects of Variscan topography and the removal of atmospheric CO₂ during accelerated erosion and weathering. -from Author