Photo of the day 227

Snow and Mountains, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, 1998

Photograph by Gordon Wiltsie

Jagged peaks pierce the icy expanse of Antarctica's Queen Maud Land. These stark granite formations are the visible tips of mountains that lie buried beneath an ice sheet some 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) thick.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "On the Edge of Antarctica: Queen Maud Land," February 1998, National Geographic magazine)