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ANTARCTICA
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Antarctica as a whole is the coldest continent on the Earth. The continent covers over 14 million sq km making it 1.5 times the size of the USA. Antartica occupies approximately 9% of the world's land surface. It is divided into two large regions called Greater Antarctica to the east and Lesser Antarctica to the west, although every direction leading from the south pole is actually north. See the South African Antarctic Pages.
Antarctica contains over 70% of the world's water and 90% of the world's
ice, within itself. In some places the ice is over 4000 metres deep. The
ice flows continuously from the high elevations to the sea, breaking off
to form massive icebergs. The amount of precipitation in Antarctica is
so small that it is classed as a desert region (polar desert). The landmass
of Antarctica beneath the ice has a relatively high elevation, on average
about twice as high as that of Europe. Antarctica contains many buried,
or sub-glacial, freshwater lakes that are connected by a network of rivers
which move water far beneath the surface of the continent. These lakes
have been sealed for millions of years.
Antarctica is surrounded by a number of islands called the sub-Antarctic
islands, which are grouped, along with Antarctica, into the sub-Antarctic
circle. These include the South Orkney Islands, the South Georgia Islands,
Elephant Island, Campbell Island, Macquarie Island, and many others.
Antarctica has six months of daylight and
six months of darkness. In mid-summer, near the south pole, there is 24
hours of sunlight every day. In winter, six months of darkness ensue,
and the continent triples in size by converting the surrounding sea into
ice.
Wildlife is prevelant around the coast of Antarctica but is quite rare
near the centre of the continent. The mixing of warmer waters from the
northerly latitudes and the icy currents of Antarctica thrusts plankton,
algae and other micro-organisms from below the ocean to the surface, feeding
billions of Antarctic krill which, in turn, feed and support 65 million
penguins, 35 million seals, and more than 125 different species of fish
and whale.
Wild Life
Antarctica is characterised by gusting winds, known as katabatics,
which may last for a few minutes, or for a few days, and can reach up
to 200 mph in velocity. Flat stretches of terrain are often covered by
rolling, wind-driven waves of frozen snow and ice called sastrugi. Blizzards
can cause visibility on the ground to drop to zero, known as a "whiteout",
and explorers have been known to get lost and freeze to death while only
meters away from their tents.
The landscape can produce strange lighting effects owing to the prismatic
and refractive qualities of ice crystals, making for extraordinarily beautiful
dawns and sunsets near the mountain ranges, of which there are many. In
West Antartica is the Ellesworth Mountain range where Vinson Massif, the
highest peak, rises to a height of 16,066 feet. West Antactica also contains
a trio of peaks named Faith, Hope and Charity, called the Eternity Range,
while the Transantarctic Mountain range traverses the continent from top
to bottom.
The South Pole is one of the coldest places on Earth. It is over 1200
km via the shortest route to the coast of Antarctica. The ice at the South
Pole is 3 km in thickness, with the Antarctic landmass lying beneath it.
The average summer season temperature is -40°C,
and temperatures as low as -80°C have been recorded
in the winter months. Winds can lower the temperature by as much as 10°C.
The geographic South Pole is
resurveyed every year. Each year its position is marked by a (rather disappointing!)
piece of copper pipe with an engraved brass head-piece. The position of
the South Pole appears to shift by 8m each year due to the movement of
the huge icemass on which it is situated. In the picture above the previous
year's "old" South Pole position can be seen to the left of the flag mast.
There is also a "Ceremonial South
Pole" which is marked by a bright red and white striped pole with a shiny
silver dome on top of it. Flags of all the nations which have reached
the South Pole are displayed around it. This is normally used by VIP visitors
as a photographic back-drop. It is situated 100m from the real South Pole
and is not moved every year!
The base is characterised by its silver aluminium dome, built in 1975,
which houses the main buildings. The population of the base varies from
up to 120 men and women in the Austral summer season, to around 20 people
in the winter season. Diverse studies are conducted at the base, including
the monitoring of seismic activity around the world and the tracking of
satellites in polar orbit. The only means of transportation to the base
at the moment is via specially adapted C120 Hercules planes. The "runway"
at the South Pole is reconstructed at the start of each summer season
by tightly packing a 2km strip of snow and using black flags to mark the
edges of the airstrip. Flights are only made during the summer (daylight)
months from September to March each year. The United States also maintains a base at McMurdo Station, on the Hut Point peninsula, at the southern point of Ross Island. New Zealand also maintains a base here called Scott Base.
South Africa has a meteorological base at Vesleskarvet in Queen Maud Land called SANAE IV. The base is constructed on a rocky outcrop, called a nunatak.
Russia maintains a base, which was built in 1957, at Lake Vostok, which is located at the center of the continent. The lowest temperatures on earth have been recorded near here. Lake Vostok is a frozen fresh-water lake said to be millions of years old. The lake is approximately 150 miles long and 25 miles wide, and is estimated to be about 1 mile deep. Soviet scientists are currently attempting to drill the ice to obtain a sample of the sub-glacial lake water going back 400,000 years, and to search for signs of life in the ancient water. Lake Vostok is also at the very center of the earth's geomagnetic field. Russia maintains another base on the north coast of Antartica called Mirnyy.
A Japanese scientific research station called Syowa was established in 1957 on East Ongul Island, Lutzow-Holme Bay, East Antarctica. Another station called Asuka, was established in 1984 on the ice shelf north of the Sor-Rondane mountains, where experiments in geomorphology, glaciology, geology and biology are carried out. See JARE.
In addition to these nations, bases are also maintained on Antarctica by Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Norway, and there are about sixty-five research stations on the continent, not all of them permanently manned.
Natural resource exploitation is not allowed
in the Antarctic, according to a treaty signed by 12 nations in 1959,
although the continent is said to contain vast amounts of minerals, including
gold, nickel, platinum, uranium and chromium, as well as huge oil and
gas reserves. The dense sheet of ice covering the continent also precludes
mining and other such operations. Although meteorology and scientific
research is permitted, the continent is protected by the Antarctica International
Treaty from commercial exploitation of it's resources. There are currently
42 signatories to the Antarctica treaty.
History and Expeditions
James Cook discovered the Antarctic islands of South Georgia and the South
Sandwich Islands in 1775. He was already famous for the discovery of New
Zealand and Australia in 1770 on behalf of the British Empire. In 1819,
Alexander I, the Czar of Russia, authorised Fabien Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
to lead an expedition to the Antartic region with two ships. The Vostok
was a 600 ton corvette and the Mirnyi was a supply ship. A total of 117
men, sailed on the two ships. The Vostok came within twenty miles of the
Antarctic mainland and Bellingshausen went on to circumnavigate the continenent
in a voyage lasting two years and 21 days.
James Clark Ross led another expedition in 1841 on two specially constructed
ships named Erebus and Terror. After forcing their ships through the ice-pack,
they reached the Ross sea, and a two day voyage brought them to the mainland,
where they encountered an 8000 foot high mountain range, which Ross christened
the Admiralty range. He was then within 500 miles of the magnetic south
pole. Ross discovered and named an active volcano,
Mt
Erebus, and it's smaller, extinct, companion Mt Terror, situated in
the centre of Ross Island.
Mt Erebus is one of the few volcanoes on earth that has a lava lake that
has endured for several decades. It erupts quite frequently, spewing lava
and ash, the last eruption occurred in 2004. Another volcano exists at
crescent-shaped Deception Island, the shape having been caused by the
collapse of the volcano's caldera. Ross also went on to discover the huge
ice formation known as the the Ross Ice Shelf.
Mt Erebus was climbed in 1908 by members of Ernest
Shackleton's first expedition to Antarctica.
Nobu Shirase was a Japanese lieutenant who reached the coast of Antarctica
in 1911, but bad weather made a landing impossible. He tried again in
1912 and disembarked on the Ross Ice Shelf. His expedition also reached
the foot of the Alexandra mountain range in King Edward VII Land.
Shackleton returned in 1914 in an ambitious attempt to cross the continent.
See the account of Ernest Shackleton's 2nd expedition.
Adrien de Gerlache, a Belgian, reached the coast of Graham Land in 1898,
naming the Belgica strait after his ship. This was later renamed Gerlach
Strait in his honor. One of the men who sailed with de Gerlache was a
Norwegian volunteer called Roald Amundsen.
In 1909 the news around the world was that the North Pole had been reached.
The race was on to be the first to reach the geographical South Pole.
Amundsen secretly arranged an expedition to reach the South Pole with
his ship Fram. After four months they reached the Ross Ice Shelf and from
there struck inland. Amundsen encountered a high mountain range, just
340 miles from the pole, which he named the Queen Maud Range, after the
Queen of Norway. On December 14, 1911 the South Pole was reached where
Amundsen erected a tent which flew the Norwegian flag. He had beaten the
explorer Robert Scott to the pole by just one month.
In 1928, an American, Richard E. Byrd, established his camp, Little America,
on the ice off of Antartica's shoreline, and flew over the south pole
by aeroplane. He was later made an Admiral by an Act of Congress for his
efforts, and Admiral Byrd spent many years mapping the continent of Antarctica.
In 1934 he spent several months alone on the continent, flying geographical
reconnaisance missions. His fifth and last expedition took place in 1955
when Byrd was in his late sixties. No one man ever did more to map the
vast expanses of Antarctica.
In 1990, a six-man international team completed the crossing of the Antartica
continent on foot, from King George Island past the South Pole to the
coastal Russian base of Mirnyy in only 220 days, using dogs, sleds and
ski's, a distance of over 3,700 miles. See the Map
of the Trans-Antartica Expedition.
About 60,000 tourists have visited Antarctica since 1957. Tourism
has increased from 800 per year in 1985 to about 10,000 per year in 2004.
Visitors travelling from ports in Tierra del Fuego, South America, reach
the Antarctic Peninsula region in about two days.
The large Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets cover 10% of the Earth's land area, and Antarctica
plays an important role in the weather patterns of the earth. Sunlight is reflected by the shiny
ice-sheet of the continent back into space, while a large bank of cold air lies above the continent,
influencing wind and climactic conditions for thousands of miles. See the National
Snow and Ice Data Center for current information about Antarctica icebergs and ice shelfs.
A US space agency (Nasa) satellite, ICESat, launched in 2003, has the
primary mission goal of measuring the continental ice sheets of Antarctica
and Greenland using a laser altimeter.
Ancient stories abound with tales of lost continent's such as Atlantis,
and many people speculate about what may lie undiscovered beneath the
deep ice mantle of Antarctica. How did 15th century cartographers manage
to map the actual coastline of Antarctica which exists beneath the ice,
when 20th century cartographers could only achieve this thirty years ago
by seismographic means? What other secrets could Antarctica hold ?
