United States Polar Rock Repository

When you think of Antarctica, do the South Pole, glaciers and penguins come to mind? How about rocks? Rocks?! Yes, rocks. Antarctica, like all continents, is made of rocks. Glaciers up to 4000 meters (2 1/2 miles) thick cover most of the continent, but you can find rocks outcropping along some of the coasts and where glaciers haven’t completely covered the mountains.

Why are geologists interested in rocks? Geologists try to figure out what Earth was like in the past - they are like detectives and rocks are the clues. The type of rock and the minerals it contains can indicate how the rock formed. Fossils suggest past environments and climates and are used by geologists to figure out the age of the rock.

What happens to the rocks once the geologists have finished studying them? Geologists can now give their rocks a new home at the U.S. Polar Rock Repository so other researchers can study them. The repository is part of the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University.