International researchers led by Australian scientists have discovered a 'breathtaking landscape' resting some few kilometres below the seas in east of Antarctica, which they said comprises of stretches of mountains and valleys that were blanketed for millions of years by thick layers of ice.

Lead scientist Dr. Tas van Ommen told The Australian that the incredible find was facilitated though the use of a powerful radar installed on an aircraft that plotted the hidden lands, which essentially covers some 47,000 kilometres of icy coats over them.

Van Ommen said that the newly-surveyed part of the earth has been sitting on the ocean floor for about 14 million years and remained undiscovered due to the thick ice that protected them from possible explorations and exploitation.

The Aussie scientists pointed out that Antarctica itself has been enveloped by ice for the last 34 million years, with about 98 percent of the continent's surface plastered by kilometres and kilometres of ice that nature has deposited through eons of accumulations.

Heading the Australian Antarctic Division, van Ommen declared that this part of the earth will now become an 'open secret, with the globally-published Nature set to carry the story this week laying out his group's spectacular find.

The researcher told The Australian that normally "we knew more about the surface of Mars than about this part of our own planet," but hopefully that will soon change with his groups' breakthrough find.

His assertion was affirmed by glaciologist Roland Warmer, who told ABC that the Antarctic region practically begs for further discovery, and that they did aided by ice-penetrating radar that allowed them to see landscapes that through "our interpretation ... are fjords, although they're now buried underneath the ice sheet."

Putting into perspective the massive discovery of his group, van Ommen said that it's like travelling the distance from Brisbane to Tasmania, which has been hidden by more than four kilometres of ice.

Van Ommen lumped the whole find as nothing short of breathtaking beauty as he recalled that "seeing the endless white surface and then watching the radar and seeing invisible mountains going past beneath you is just a surreal experience."

The group's work, he maintained, should boost efforts in understanding the evolution of ice sheets in Antarctica, which he said has been a witness to at least two episodes of growing and retreating blankets of ice.

Such development, van Ommen added, will provide a clearer picture for researchers through "the way it connects to the ocean," which he told ABC "is really important in building computer models of future changes to ice and sea level."

Furthermore, the Aussie expert said that the result of their works would hopefully create a solid base of better understanding "ice flows and applying that to working out how the present ice sheet will change in a warmer climate."