Antarctica's elevation?

Question

Is it just packed snow 10,000 ft thick or is the actual land mass above sea level?

Answer 1

The land mass of Antarctica is compressed by the weight of ice sitting on it - up to 4km thick in parts- but plenty of rocks and mountains stick above the ice. The TransAntarctic Mountins get quite close to the south pole. Other mountain ranges include the Prince Charles Mountains which have been the subject of intense study by Australian scientists based at Davis and Mawson.

Without the ice, the Antarctic continent would be two large islands and many small ones. The Antarctic peninsula was first seen in 1819 and the first landing, by sealers was in 1821. Captain Cook was the first to circumnavigate Antarctica and sailed to 71°S without sighting land. There is no map with any provenance that shows any detail of Antarctica before the 19th century

The Antarctic was once part of Gondwanaland and not at the south pole. This is where the plant fossils and coal were deposited.

Answer 2

its a donut shaped continent with a huge inland sea and has mountains around
Marco polo had a map from PiriReis that show antarctica with out ice ,and all the details are visible
this map fits like a glove over an arial photograph taken by NASA from space

the big question is .who was that high up in the air to take a photo of this world ,before the last ice age or before the south pole existed

fossils of tropical plants have been found there indicating that it used to be in the tropics

the shape of the land is exactly like Atlantis as it was described in the legends
and Many believe ,like myself ,that this was the location of the main colony of Atlantis

and its not snow that is packed there. its ice,and a lot thicker than 10.000
but now one of the ancient ice arms ,that even had a name since it was soi permanent has broken of
maybe global warming will reveal Antarcticas secrets in our life time