Before man landed on this continent, geologists thought there should be rich mineral resources under it. It is estimated that many people will agree with this view now, but in that era when human activities were limited to Asia, Africa and Europe, people would only think that this view was simply whimsical. So where does this view come from? Some people think that the view that Antarctica is rich in mineral resources stems from the prehistoric continental plate theory, and that the current continental plate has formed the current pattern after a long period of drift. Before the great drift, all the continental plates came together to form a complete continental plate, which geologists call? Gondwana? .
According to this theory, Antarctica at that time could not be called Antarctica, because it was a continent closely connected with South America, Africa and other continents, and its position at that time was not in the current Antarctic region, but in a temperate region with a warmer and wetter climate. Paleontologists have discovered through archaeology that most animals on prehistoric earth are distributed in subtropical and temperate zones, which also means that once the natural environment changes dramatically, these species may be buried underground, and then form fossil energy after hundreds of millions of years of geological processes.
In addition, there are abundant mineral resources on the continent where human beings live. If Antarctica was a part of Gondwana in the past, there should be rich mineral resources under the land of this continent. As for where they all exist, it remains to be explored by the research team. According to this logical reasoning, Antarctica should be the last continent on earth that has not been vigorously developed by human beings, and it is rich in mineral resources, which is not a small temptation for many countries. If any country can take the lead in discovering mineral resources in the Antarctic continent, then it has the ownership of the mineral.
The development of any country needs mineral resources, and the higher the level of development, the higher the demand in this respect, which has caused many countries to send scientific research teams to Antarctica regardless of difficulties and hardships. Judging from the current situation, most Antarctic scientific research stations are built in coastal areas, not only because the environmental conditions in coastal areas are relatively safe, but also because it is convenient for travel and material supply. However, the distribution of minerals in Antarctica is still unclear. They may be distributed in the center of the Antarctic continent, where the climatic conditions are extremely harsh. Therefore, it is estimated that it will take some time for humans to develop the Antarctic continent on a large scale.