The stretch of Gamburtsev mountain ranges have long amazed scientists who single out the East Antarctica icy rock formations for their apparent youthfulness that surprisingly defied million-years of natural onslaught by elements.

Measuring at 1200 kilometres long and peaking to as high as 8900 feet, according to Agence France Presse (AFP), a joint expedition by international geologists has suggested on Wednesday the likely origin of what they called 'The Great White Continent'.

According to the findings issued this week by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the Gamburtsevs trace its origin to a series of tectonic disturbances that altered Earth's geological make up billions of years ago.

BAS, along with experts from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), have suggested that the Gamburtsev was a by-product of Gondwana, which scientists said was formed through collisions of smaller continents as Earth's present land forms take shape.

Eventually, scientists mapped the breaking away of Gondwana, happening in two instalments some 250 million years ago and followed by another rifting 100 million years after, that resulted into a long fissure spanning from India to East Antarctica and measuring some 3000 kilometres.

All that geological movement forced the rugged formation of Gamburtsev, that according to BAS lead researcher Fausto Ferraccioli "resembles one of the geological wonders of the world, the East African rift system."

That East Antarctic rift system, which comprises of rivers, valleys and glaciers, was then blanketed by three-kilometre thick of ice sheet some 34 million years ago, effectively preserving the icy continent's virginal state until a Russian geophysicist, AFP said, discovered the mountain ranges in 1958.

Gamburtsev was then christened after the scientist who introduced the icy rock formation to the world, spurring of series of polar expeditions and the last of which apparently shedding light its mysteries pondered by geologists for decades.

"It provides the missing piece of the puzzle that helps explain the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains. The rift system was also found to contain the largest subglacial lakes in Antarctica," Ferraccioli was quoted by AFP as saying in explaining the significance of his group's findings.

The details of BAS-USGS East Antarctic exploration was published by Nature Journal this week, according to AFP.