Antarctica has long been viewed as the remotest of continents, buried beneath millions of tons of snow and ice, miles from its nearest neighbor, and "doomed by nature . . . never once to feel the warmth of the sun's rays," in the words of 18th century explorer Captain James Cook. Even scientists studying the way the earth looked hundreds of millions of years ago have tended to ignore this solitary landmass. So it came as a surprise to many researchers last week when a pair of American geologists reported that Antarctica may not always have been so distant. In fact,...
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