West Antarctica has been subject to glaciation since the Oligocene, where a perhaps local ice cap or snow deposit existed at Mount Petras. Volcanoes erupting through ice leave specific geologic structures which can be used to reconstruct the timing and extent of past glaciations. Geologic evidence at the Crary Mountains implies that a substantial West Antarctic Ice Sheet existed during the Miocene, and that fluctuations in its size may have stressed the crust and modulated the activity of volcanoes in its area. Before its formation the Crary Mountains might have been islands. In the Crary Mountains, ice occurred either in the form of slope ice when the mountains were erupting or as a thick continental ice sheet. The glaciers were cold-based and thus did not produce tillites or glacial surfaces. Glacial erosion took place mainly between 8.55 and 4.17 million years ago and formed the cirques in Mount Rees and Mount Steere.