Mystery ‘pyramid’ beneath Antarctic ice sends conspiracy theorists wild

Conspiracy theorists have a new focus for their attention – a ‘pyramid’ in Antarctica.

Despite the continent being covered in snow and ice, and having no permanent human population, social media users are convinced a mysterious triagular structure can be seen from satelitte images. 

But where has this supposed ‘pyramid’ come from? That’s a question which is currently baffling social media users everywhere. 

The huge pyramid-shaped mass was spotted in satellite images taken over the southern part of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountain range. 

A huge pyramid-shaped mass was spotted in satellite images taken over the southern part of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountain range – the object has baffled social media users

A number of strange looking peaks were found in the area, with one measuring two kilometers in each direction of its square base – a design similar to the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt. 

But after images of the ‘pyramids’ resurfaced this week, people have begun sharing theories on how the enormous structure could have come to be. 

Taking to Twitter, one user said: ‘Wait how they moved the pyramids from Egypt to Antarctica?’

Some have suggested artificial life or fabled secret society ‘the Illuminati’ are behind the apparent structure, while others attributed the design to humans. 

Others have offered even more outlandish ideas, one user wrote: ‘This structure belongs to the civilization which existed before the flood. Around 10,000 years ago Antarctica was warm.’

However, before you get too sucked in to the theory, the ‘pyramid’ in question is actually just a mountain. 

The puzzling structure is a feature of glaciated areas known as ‘pyramidal peaked mountain’. 

The Ellsworth Mountain Range was discovered in 1935, it is more than 400km long and consists of peaks made out of rock

The mountain range is located in Antarctica on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land

‘The pyramid-shaped structures are located in the Ellsworth Mountains, which is a range more than 400 km long, so it’s no surprise there are rocky peaks cropping out above the ice. The peaks are clearly composed of rock, and it’s a coincidence that this particular peak has that shape,’ Dr Mitch Darcy, geologist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, told IFLScience. 

‘It’s not a complicated shape, so it’s not a special coincidence either. By definition, it is a nunatak, which is simply a peak of rock sticking out above a glacier or an ice sheet. This one has the shape of a pyramid, but that doesn’t make it a human construction.’

The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain ranged in Antarctica, forming a 350km long and 48 km wide chain of mountains in a north to south configuration on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land. 

The mountains are located within the Chilean Antarctic territorial claim and were discovered in 1935 by Lincoln Ellsworth on a trans-Antarctic flight from Dundee Island to the Ross Ice Shelf. 

The temperature in the Ellsworth mountains average around a frosty -30C, and the range only has a short window to visit, with the best time for expeditions being through November to January.