It's buried under a massive continent-wide ice sheet, but the topography of the land in Antarctica might bear some resemblance to parts of modern-day Europe, new research suggests.

According to a paper in the June 4 issue of the scientific journal Nature, the continent might have a similar feel and formation pattern to that found in the European Alps, with river valleys cutting through mountains over the course of millennia, before being widened and deepened by glaciers.

Using new radar data compiled by Chinese researchers between 2004 and 2008, the paper's lead author, Martin Siegert at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, suggests that Antarctica shows signs of detailed river systems that have been around from the time the region had an average summer temperature of roughly 3 degrees Celsius and even supported tree life.

"The landscape has relief similar to the European Alps," he wrote, "[But] the largest valley revealed by our survey is broader than valleys of similar drainage area in the Alps and other glaciated terrains."

Scientists have long theorized that the ice sheet that now covers the continent came about due to sudden, drastic climate change at the end of the Eocene Era roughly 34 million years ago, but the specifics of how it happened remain something of a mystery.

The new research focuses on the Gamburtsev mountain range toward the center of the continent. Ranges like it are where scientists believe the antarctic ice sheet originally formed.

The only previous survey of the Gamburtsev region consisted of radar acquired from a single airplane survey done in the 1970s. Looking at the new Chinese data, Siegert theorizes that the land is covered in river valleys and mountains — some of which are more than 2,400 meters tall but still buried under thousands of meters of ice.

"The topography revealed beneath the ice is striking … [because] ice cannot create such networks alone," he wrote, adding that topography only takes that form when ice takes advantage of pre-existing river systems.

The report's authors conclude that the lay of the land has probably been perfectly preserved beneath the present ice sheet for at least the last 14 million years.