TitleOrigins of Antarctic soilsAbstractAntarctica has a long geological history that dates back to some of the oldest rocks known on planet Earth. The continent is divided physiographically by the high Transantarctic Mountains into the old East Antarctic basement domain with rocks up to 3.9 billion years old and a younger West Antarctic domain where rocks are mostly less than 500 million years old. Today, the continent is sitting largely within the Antarctic plate where it is covered by large ice sheets. The geological evolution of Antarctica including its subsequent glacial history, which is reviewed in this chapter, has been an important contributor to the formation of Antarctic soils in ice free regions.Copyright 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. All rights reserved.AcknowledgementsN/A
