No evidence of ‘giant stump’ in helicopter footage from Antarctica, just a normal rock outcrop

A video was posted to Threads on 17 February 2025 showing a helicopter landing on a helipad atop a rock outcrop in a snowy landscape. The video has been shared over 350 times and gathered over 3,200 likes in one week after claiming that a rock outcrop in the video is a ‘giant tree stump’ in Antarctica that grew when Earth’s climate was ‘different’. 

In past reviews, we’ve covered claims that Antarctica doesn’t exist and is just an ‘ice wall’ and claims that acknowledge the continent exists but that there are ‘pyramids from ancient civilizations’ there. We have also covered a claim about ‘giant ancient trees’ (found to be incorrect) – but never in Antarctica. 

In this review we will investigate the footage to identify where it was taken and what evidence there is for the composition of the rock outcrop. 

Helicopter footage shows a rock outcrop of dolerite/diabase – a type of rock that forms when magma cools – not a ‘giant tree stump’

To start the investigation, Science Feedback first had to identify where and what was shown in the video. Although the footage is quite blurry, a few clear details made it possible to identify what we were looking at. Using a reverse image search with Google Lens, we were able to find other copies of the footage, but none that identified where it was captured. 

However, after searching ‘helicopter landing antarctica’ on YouTube, we found videos on the first page with different footage of the same location, clearly showing the same rock outcrop and elongated orange-topped building with a helipad. The building is indeed located in Antarctica and is called SANAE IV – an acronym for ‘South African National Antarctic Expedition’ – a South African research base in Antarctica. 

Although footage from the Threads post is blurry (Figure 1), it clearly matches the SANAE IV location shown in Figure 2. Several characteristics allowed Science Feedback to confirm this is the same location: the trace of the cliff’s edge, the orientation of the building with respect to the cliffs, the rock outcrops in the distance, and the long vertical ice strip in the lower left of both figures that nearly intersects a shallower rocky slope of talus. 

SANAE IV sits atop Vesleskarvet Cliff, which was researched in 2018 as part of a study on rock erosion. The 2018 study, published in Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, collected rock samples and identified them as dolerite (also known as diabase)^[1] – a dark rock which is rich in iron and magnesium and forms when magma cools and solidifies underground. In geology terms, the description above makes dolerite/diabase a type of igneous mafic rock. The rock samples collected during this research (shown in Figure 3) show a matrix of fine-grained (but visible) minerals, which is a characteristic of dolerite/diabase.

As explained on a geological map of Antarctica published in 1969 by the American Geographical Society (Figure 4), the dolerite formed as sills – flat sheets of magma intrude and solidify between sedimentary layers. This rock composition and the way it deposited conform with the regional geology because dolerite is a mafic igneous rock – the same as others in the area which deposited as sills when magma intruded and solidified around 1.1 billion years ago^[2]. 

But could this rock type and its mineral composition be mistaken for petrified wood/old tree material? Not at all. In fact, the typical mafic minerals that make up a dolerite/diabase rock are not found in petrified wood. In fact, the way that these mafic minerals form is markedly different – and incompatible – with the way petrified wood forms. 

Petrified wood forms when wood is quickly buried by fine-grained sediments (like mud) and dissolved minerals – mostly silica (SiO₂) – in groundwater slowly replace organic material in the wood and crystallize. In contrast, mafic minerals – such as pyroxene and olivine – found in dolerite/diabase form as very hot magma (over 1000 degrees Celsius) cools and minerals start to crystallize out of the magma. 

Given that wood already becomes a charred residue at 450 degrees C, the excessive 1000 degree Celsius temperatures would fully destroy any remnants of petrified wood’s characteristic ‘wood appearance’. 

As we covered in a past review, just because something has the appearance of a tree doesn’t mean it is or ever was one. In fact, there are other rock formations of dolerite/diabase that have a ‘tree stump’ appearance. For example, the rocky cliffs of Fairhead, Ireland, are made of dolerite and, with a little imagination, can also look similar to a tree trunk (Figure 5). 

But it is important to remember that humans have a tendency to find ‘likeness’ in random patterns – a phenomenon called ‘pareidolia’. And without evidence and deeper observations, our brains can deceive us about the true nature of what we see. 

References

• 1 – Hedding et al. (2018). Rock Mass Loss on a Nunatak in Western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research.
• 2 – Grosch et al. (2007) Geochemistry and tectonic setting of mafic rocks in Western Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica: implications for the geodynamic evolution of the Proterozoic Maud Belt. Journal of the Geological Society, London.