Everything about Antarctic totally explained
Antarctica is
Earth's southernmost
continent, overlying the
South Pole. It is situated in the
southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the
Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the
Southern Ocean. At 14.4 million km² (5.4 million sq mi), it's the fifth-largest continent in area after
Asia,
Africa,
North America, and
South America. Some 98% of Antarctica is covered by
ice, which averages at least 1.6 kilometres (1.0
mi) in thickness.
On average, Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent, and has the highest average
elevation of all the continents. Since there's little
precipitation, except at the coasts, the interior of the continent is technically the largest
desert in the world. There are no permanent human residents and there's no evidence of any existing or pre-historic indigenous population. Only cold-adapted plants and animals survive there, including
penguins,
fur seals,
mosses,
lichen, and many types of
algae.
The name
Antarctica is a
romanized version of the
Greek compound word
Αntarktiké (
Aνταρκτική), meaning "Opposite of the
Arctic". Although myths and speculation about a
Terra Australis ("Southern Land") date back to antiquity, the first confirmed sighting of the continent is commonly accepted to have occurred in 1820 by the
Russian expedition of
Mikhail Lazarev and
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. However, the continent remained largely neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of resources, and isolation.
The
Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by twelve countries; to date, forty-five countries have signed the treaty. The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's
ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists of many nationalities and with different research interests.
History
See also: List of Antarctic expeditionsTerra Australis—a vast continent in the far south of the globe to "balance" the northern lands of
Europe,
Asia and
north Africa—had existed since the times of
Ptolemy (1st century AD), who suggested the idea to preserve the
symmetry of all known
landmasses in the world. Depictions of a large southern landmass were common in maps such as the early 16th century
Turkish Piri Reis map. Even in the late 17th century, after explorers had found that
South America and
Australia were not part of the fabled "Antarctica", geographers believed that the continent was much larger than its actual size.
European maps continued to show this hypothetical land until Captain
James Cook's ships,
HMS Resolution and
Adventure, crossed the
Antarctic Circle on
January 17,
1773, in December 1773 and again in January 1774. Cook in fact came within about of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of field ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals. According to various organizations (the
National Science Foundation,
NASA, the
University of California, San Diego, and other sources), ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica in 1820:
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (a captain in the
Russian Imperial Navy),
Edward Bransfield (a captain in the
Royal Navy), and
Nathaniel Palmer (an American
sealer out of
Stonington, Connecticut). Von Bellingshausen saw Antarctica on
January 27,
1820, three days before Bransfield sighted land, and ten months before Palmer did so in November 1820. On that day the two-ship expedition led by Von Bellingshausen and
Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev reached a point within 32 kilometers (20 mi) of the Antarctic mainland and saw ice fields there. The first documented landing on mainland Antarctica was by the American sealer
John Davis in
Western Antarctica on
February 7,
1821, although some historians dispute this claim.
In December 1839, as part of the
United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–42 conducted by the
United States Navy (sometimes called the "Ex. Ex.", or "the Wilkes Expedition"), an expedition sailed from
Sydney,
Australia, into the
Antarctic Ocean, as it was then known, and reported the discovery "of an Antarctic continent west of the
Balleny Islands". That part of Antarctica was later named "
Wilkes Land", a name it maintains to this day.
In 1841, explorer
James Clark Ross passed through what is now known as the
Ross Sea and discovered
Ross Island (both of which were named for him). He sailed along a huge wall of ice that was later named the
Ross Ice Shelf (also named for him).
Mount Erebus and
Mount Terror are named after two ships from his expedition:
HMS Erebus and
Terror.
Mercator Cooper landed in
Eastern Antarctica on
January 26,
1853.
During an
expedition led by
Ernest Shackleton in 1907, parties led by
T. W. Edgeworth David became the first to climb
Mount Erebus and to reach the
South Magnetic Pole.
Douglas Mawson, who assumed the leadership of the Magnetic Pole party on their perilous return, went on to lead several expeditions until retiring in 1931. In addition, Shackleton himself and three other members of his expedition made several firsts in December 1908 – February 1909: they were the first humans to traverse the
Ross Ice Shelf, the first to traverse the Transantarctic Mountain Range (via the
Beardmore Glacier), and the first to set foot on the South Polar Plateau. On
December 14,
1911, an
expedition led by Norwegian polar explorer
Roald Amundsen from the ship
Fram became the first to reach the geographic
South Pole, using a route from the
Bay of Whales and up the
Axel Heiberg Glacier. One month later, the ill-fated
Scott Expedition reached the pole.
Richard Evelyn Byrd led several voyages to the Antarctic by plane in the 1930s and 1940s. He is credited with implementing mechanized land transport on the continent and conducting extensive geological and biological research. However, it wasn't until
October 31,
1956 that anyone set foot on the South Pole again; on that day a U.S. Navy group led by Rear Admiral
George J. Dufek successfully landed an aircraft there.
Geography
South Pole and largely south of the
Antarctic Circle, Antarctica is the southernmost continent and is surrounded by the
Southern Ocean; alternatively, it may be considered to be surrounded by the southern
Pacific,
Atlantic, and
Indian Oceans, or by the southern waters of the
World Ocean. It covers more than 14 million km² (5.4 million sq mi), making it the fifth-largest continent, about 1.3 times larger than
Europe. The coastline measures 17,968 kilometers (11,160 mi) and is mostly characterized by
ice formations, as the following table shows:
Coastal types around Antarctica (Drewry, 1983)>
| Type |
Frequency |
| Ice shelf (floating ice front) |
44% |
| Ice walls (resting on ground) |
38% |
| Ice stream/outlet glacier (ice front or ice wall) |
13% |
| Rock |
4% |
| Total | 100%
|
Antarctica is divided in two by the
Transantarctic Mountains close to the neck between the
Ross Sea and the
Weddell Sea. The portion west of the Weddell Sea and east of the Ross Sea is called
Western Antarctica and the remainder
Eastern Antarctica, because they roughly correspond to the Western and Eastern Hemispheres relative to the
Greenwich meridian.
About 98% of Antarctica is covered by the
Antarctic ice sheet, a
sheet of ice averaging at least 1.6 kilometers (1.0 mi) thick. The continent has about 90% of the world's ice (and thereby about 70% of the world's
fresh water). If all of this ice were melted, sea levels would rise about 60 meters (200 ft). In most of the interior of the continent,
precipitation is very low, down to per year; in a few "
blue ice" areas precipitation is lower than mass loss by
sublimation and so the local mass balance is negative. In the
dry valleys the same effect occurs over a rock base, leading to a desiccated landscape.
Western Antarctica is covered by the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The sheet has been of recent concern because of the real, if small, possibility of its collapse. If the sheet were to break down,
ocean levels would rise by several meters in a relatively
geologically short period of time, perhaps a matter of centuries. Several Antarctic
ice streams, which account for about 10% of the ice sheet,
flow to one of the many
Antarctic ice shelves.
Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antarctica at 4,892 meters (16,050 ft), is located in the
Ellsworth Mountains. Although Antarctica is home to many volcanoes, only
Mount Erebus is known to be active. Located on
Ross Island, Erebus is the southernmost active volcano. There is another famous volcano called
Deception Island, which is famous for its giant eruption in 1970. Minor eruptions are frequent and lava flow has been observed in recent years. Other dormant volcanoes may potentially be active. In 2004, an underwater volcano was found in the
Antarctic Peninsula by American and Canadian researchers. Recent evidence shows this unnamed volcano may be active.
Antarctica is home to more than 70
lakes that lie thousands of meters under the surface of the continental ice sheet.
Lake Vostok, discovered beneath
Russia's
Vostok Station in 1996, is the largest of these
subglacial lakes. It is believed that the lake has been sealed off for 500,000 to one million years. There is some evidence, in the form of
ice cores drilled to about above the water line, that Vostok's waters may contain
microbial life. The sealed, frozen surface of the lake shares similarities with
Jupiter's moon
Europa. If life is discovered in Lake Vostok, this would strengthen the argument for the possibility of life on Europa. On
February 7,
2008, a NASA team embarked on a mission to
Lake Untersee, searching for
extremophiles in its highly-alkaline waters. If found, these resilient creatures could further bolster the argument for extraterrestrial life in extremely cold, methane-rich environments.
Geology
Geological history and paleontology
More than 170 million years ago, Antarctica was part of the
supercontinent Gondwana. Over time, Gondwana gradually broke apart and Antarctica as we know it today was formed around 25 million years ago.
Paleozoic era (540–250 mya)
During the
Cambrian period, Gondwana had a mild climate. West Antarctica was partially in the
Northern Hemisphere, and during this period large amounts of
sandstones,
limestones and
shales were deposited. East Antarctica was at the equator, where sea floor
invertebrates and
trilobites flourished in the tropical seas. By the start of the
Devonian period (416
mya), Gondwana was in more southern latitudes and the climate was cooler, though fossils of land plants are known from this time.
Sand and
silts were laid down in what is now the
Ellsworth,
Horlick and
Pensacola Mountains.
Glaciation began at the end of the Devonian period (360 mya), as Gondwana became centered around the
South Pole and the climate cooled, though
flora remained. During the
Permian period, the plant life became dominated by
fern-like plants such as
Glossopteris, which grew in swamps. Over time these swamps became deposits of coal in the
Transantarctic Mountains. Towards the end of the Permian period, continued warming led to a dry, hot climate over much of Gondwana.
Mesozoic era (250–65 mya)
As a result of continued warming, the polar ice caps melted and much of Gondwana became a desert. In East Antarctica, the
seed fern became established, and large amounts of sandstone and shale were laid down at this time. The Antarctic Peninsula began to form during the
Jurassic period (206–146 mya), and islands gradually rose out of the ocean.
Ginkgo trees and
cycads were plentiful during this period, as were reptiles such as
Lystrosaurus. In West Antarctica,
coniferous
forests dominated through the entire
Cretaceous period (146–65 mya), though
Southern beech began to take over at the end of this period.
Ammonites were common in the seas around Antarctica, and dinosaurs were also present, though only two Antarctic dinosaur
genera (
Cryolophosaurus, from the
Hanson Formation, and
Antarctopelta) have been described to date. It was during this period that Gondwana began to break up.
Gondwana breakup (160–23 mya)
The cooling of Antarctica occurred stepwise by the continental spread changing the oceanic currents from longitudinal equator-to-pole temperature-equalizing currents to latitudinal currents that preserved and accentuated latitude temperature differences.
Africa separated from Antarctica around 160 mya, followed by the
Indian subcontinent, in the early Cretaceous (about 125 mya). About 65 mya, Antarctica (then connected to
Australia) still had a tropical to subtropical climate, complete with a
marsupial fauna. About 40 mya
Australia-
New Guinea separated from Antarctica, so that latitudinal current could isolate Antarctica from Australia, and so the first ice began to appear. Around 23 mya, the
Drake Passage opened between Antarctica and
South America, which resulted in the
Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The ice spread, replacing the forests that then covered the continent. Since about 15 mya, the continent has been mostly covered with ice, with the Antarctic ice cap reaching its present extension around 6 mya.
Geology of present-day Antarctica
The geological study of Antarctica has been greatly hindered by the fact that nearly all of the continent is permanently covered with a thick layer of ice. However, new techniques such as
remote sensing,
ground-penetrating radar and
satellite imagery have begun to reveal the structures beneath the ice.
Geologically, West Antarctica closely resembles the
Andes mountain range of South America. For comparison, this is 11 degrees colder than sublimating
dry ice. Antarctica is a frozen desert with little
precipitation; the South Pole itself receives less than 10 centimeters (4 in) per year, on average. Temperatures reach a minimum of between and and in the interior in winter and reach a maximum of between and and near the coast in summer. Sunburn is often a health issue as the snow surface reflects almost all of the ultraviolet light falling on it. Eastern Antarctica is colder than its western counterpart because of its higher elevation.
Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent, leaving the center cold and dry. Despite the lack of precipitation over the central portion of the continent,
ice there lasts for extended time periods. Heavy snowfalls are not uncommon on the coastal portion of the continent, where snowfalls of up to 1.22 meters (48 in) in 48 hours have been recorded. At the edge of the continent, strong
katabatic winds off the polar plateau often blow at storm force. In the interior, however, wind speeds are typically moderate. During summer, more
solar radiation reaches the surface during clear days at the South Pole than at the
equator because of the 24 hours of sunlight each day at the Pole.
Emilio Marcos Palma was the first person born on the Antarctic mainland, at
Base Esperanza in 1978; his parents were sent there along with seven other families by the
Argentinean government to determine if family life was suitable on the continent. In 1984, Juan Pablo Camacho was born at the
Frei Montalva Station, becoming the first Chilean born in Antarctica. Several bases are now home to families with children attending schools at the station.
Flora and fauna
Flora
The climate of Antarctica doesn't allow extensive vegetation. A combination of freezing temperatures, poor
soil quality, lack of moisture, and lack of sunlight inhibit the flourishing of plants. As a result, plant life is limited to mostly
mosses and
liverworts. The
autotrophic community is made up of mostly
protists. The
flora of the continent largely consists of
lichens,
bryophytes,
algae, and
fungi. Growth generally occurs in the summer, and only for a few weeks at most.
There are more than 200 species of lichens and about 50 species of bryophytes, such as mosses. Seven hundred species of algae exist, most of which are
phytoplankton. Multicolored
snow algae and
diatoms are especially abundant in the coastal regions during the summer. There are two species of flowering plants found in the Antarctic Peninsula:
Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass) and
Colobanthus quitensis (Antarctic pearlwort).
Fauna
Land
fauna is nearly completely
invertebrate. Invertebrate life includes
microscopic mites,
lice,
nematodes,
tardigrades,
rotifers,
krill and
springtails. The flightless
midge Belgica antarctica, just in size, is the largest purely terrestrial animal in Antarctica. The
Snow Petrel is one of only three birds that breed exclusively in Antarctica. They have been seen at the
South Pole.
Due to the extreme cold, the body fluids of tiny mites and midges in Antarctica contain
glycerol, an antifreeze liquid that protects them from solidifying when temperatures plummet to as low as .
The passing of the
Antarctic Conservation Act in the U.S. brought several restrictions to U.S. activity on the continent. The introduction of alien plants or animals can bring a criminal penalty, as can the extraction of any indigenous species. The
overfishing of krill, which plays a large role in the Antarctic ecosystem, led officials to enact regulations on
fishing. The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), a treaty that came into force in 1980, requires that regulations managing all Southern Ocean fisheries consider potential effects on the entire Antarctic ecosystem.
Politics
Antarctica has no government and belongs to no country. Various countries claim areas of it, but while some have mutually recognized each other's claims, no other countries recognize such claims. The area between 90° W and 150° W is the only part of Antarctica not claimed by any country as of yet. A coalition of international organisations launched a public pressure campaign to prevent any minerals development in the region, led largely by
Greenpeace International which established its own scientific station –
World Park Base - in the Ross Sea region and conducted annual expeditions to document environmental impacts from human activities on the continent. In 1988, the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resources (CRAMRA) was adopted. The following year, however, Australia and France announced that they wouldn't ratify the convention, rendering it dead for all intents and purposes. Instead, they proposed that a comprehensive regime to protect the Antarctic environment be negotiated in its place. As other countries followed suit, the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (the ‘Madrid Protocol’) was negotiated and on January 14, 1998 it entered into force. The Madrid Protocol bans all mining activities in Antarctica, designating the continent as a ‘natural reserve devoted to peace and science’.
The Antarctic Treaty prohibits any
military activity in Antarctica, such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military manoeuvers, or the testing of any type of weapon. Military personnel or equipment are permitted only for scientific research or for other peaceful purposes. The only documented land military manoeuvre was
Operation NINETY, undertaken by the
Argentine military.
The
United States military issues the
Antarctica Service Medal to military members or civilians who perform research duty in Antarctica. The medal includes a "wintered over" bar issued to those who remain on the continent for two complete six-month seasons.
Antarctic territories
The Argentine, British and Chilean claims all overlap, and have caused friction.
Australia has the greatest claim of Antarctic territory.
Countries interested in participating in a future territorial division of Antarctica
This group of countries participating as members of advisory Antarctica Treaty, have an interest in the territorial Antarctic continent but Antarctica provisions of the Treaty itself can not make their claims while the period of validity.
Similarly Russia and the United States, original signatories of the Treaty reserved their right to claim at any time if other countries enforce their own.
Germany also maintained a claim to Antarctica, known as
New Swabia, between 1939 and 1945. It was situated from to, overlapping Norway's claim. The claim was abandoned after the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Economy
Although
coal,
hydrocarbons,
iron ore,
platinum,
copper,
chromium,
nickel,
gold and other minerals have been found, they've not been in large enough quantities to exploit. The 1991
Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty also restricts a struggle for resources. In 1998, a compromise agreement was reached to place an indefinite ban on mining, to be reviewed in 2048, further limiting economic development and exploitation. The primary agricultural activity is the capture and offshore trading of fish. Antarctic fisheries in 2000–01 reported landing 112,934 tonnes.
Small-scale "expedition
tourism" has existed since 1957 and is currently subject to Antarctic Treaty and Environmental Protocol provisions, but in effect self-regulated by the
International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). Not all vessels associated with Antarctic tourism are members of IAATO, but IAATO members account for 95% of the tourist activity. Travel is largely by small or medium
ship, focusing on specific scenic locations with accessible concentrations of iconic wildlife. A total of 37,506 tourists visited during the 2006–07
Austral summer with nearly all of them coming from commercial ships. The number is predicted to increase to over 80,000 by 2010. There has been some recent concern over the potential adverse environmental and ecosystem effects caused by the influx of visitors. A call for stricter regulations for ships and a tourism quota have been made by some environmentalists and scientists. The primary response by Antarctic Treaty Parties has been to develop, through their Committee for Environmental Protection and in partnership with IAATO, "site use guidelines" setting landing limits and closed or restricted zones on the more frequently visited sites. Antarctic sight seeing flights (which didn't land) operated out of Australia and New Zealand until the fatal crash of
Air New Zealand Flight 901 in 1979 on
Mount Erebus, which killed all 257 aboard.
Qantas resumed commercial overflights to Antarctica from Australia in the mid-1990s.
Transport
Transport on the continent has transformed from explorers crossing the isolated remote area of Antarctica on foot to a more open area due to human technologies enabling more convenient and faster transport by land and predominantly air and water. Recently, using dogs to pull researchers and sledges have been banned. Because they're aliens to Antarctica, there have been objections. Now being used are new electric buggies, but these have a down side. The dogs were excellent for sensing crevices and thin ice, but these new buggies cannot.
Research
experiments not reproducible in any other place in the world. In the summer more than 4,000 scientists operate
research stations; this number decreases to nearly 1,000 in the winter.
Since the 1970s, an important focus of study has been the
ozone layer in the
atmosphere above Antarctica. In 1985, three British Scientists working on data they'd gathered at
Halley Station on the
Brunt Ice Shelf discovered the existence of a hole in this layer. In 1998,
NASA satellite data showed that the Antarctic
ozone hole was the largest on record, covering 27 million km² (10 million sq mi). It was eventually determined that the destruction of the ozone was caused by
chlorofluorocarbons emitted by human products. With the ban of CFCs in the
Montreal Protocol of 1989, it's believed that the ozone hole will close up over the next fifty years.
Princess Elisabeth Polar Science Station
On
September 6,
2007,
Belgian-based International Polar Foundation unveiled the
Princess Elisabeth station, the world's first zero-emissions polar science station in Antarctica to
research climate change. Costing $16.3 million, the
prefabricated station, which is part of
International Polar Year will be shipped to the
South Pole from Belgium by the end of 2008 to monitor the
health of the
polar regions. Belgian polar
explorer Alain Hubert has stated: "This base will be the first of its kind to produce zero emissions, making it a unique model of how energy should be used in the Antarctic."
Johan Berte is the leader of the station design team and manager of the project which will conduct research in
climatology,
glaciology and
microbiology.
Meteorites
Meteorites from Antarctica are an important area of study of material formed early in the
solar system; most are thought to come from
asteroids, but some may have originated on larger
planets. The first meteorites were found in 1912. In 1969, a Japanese expedition discovered nine meteorites. Most of these meteorites have fallen onto the
ice sheet in the last million years. Motion of the ice sheet tends to concentrate the meteorites at blocking locations such as mountain ranges, with wind erosion bringing them to the surface after centuries beneath accumulated snowfall. Compared with meteorites collected in more temperate regions on Earth, the Antarctic meteorites are well-preserved.
This large collection of meteorites allows a better understanding of the abundance of meteorite types in the solar system and how meteorites relate to asteroids and comets. New types of meteorites and rare meteorites have been found. Among these are pieces blasted off the Moon, and probably Mars, by impacts. These specimens, particularly
ALH84001 discovered by
ANSMET, are at the center of the controversy about possible evidence of microbial life on Mars. Because meteorites in space absorb and record cosmic radiation, the time elapsed since the meteorite hit the Earth can be determined from laboratory studies. The elapsed time since fall, or terrestrial residence age, of a meteorite represents more information that might be useful in environmental studies of Antarctic ice sheets.
Volcanic eruption
On January, 2008, the
British Antarctic Survey (Bas) scientists led by Hugh Corr and David Vaughan, reported (in the journal
Nature Geoscience) that 2,200 years ago, a
volcano erupted under Antarctica ice sheet (based on
airborne survey with radar images). The biggest eruption in the last 10,000 years, the volcanic ash was found deposited on the ice surface under the
Hudson Mountains, close to
Pine Island Glacier.
Effects of global warming
Most of the continent's icy mass has so far proven largely impervious to
climate change, being situated on solid rock; its deep interior is actually growing in volume. However, Antarctica's periphery has been noticeably affected by
global warming, particularly on the
Antarctic Peninsula and in
Pine Island Bay which together are contributing to a rise in sea levels. According to
NASA, the most significant Antarctic melting in the past 30 years occurred in 2005, when a mass of ice comparable in size to
California briefly melted and refroze; this may have resulted from temperatures rising to as high as .
Also, although having no obvious effect on the continent's environment, there's a large
ozone hole over Antarctica which was detected by scientists in 1973 and continues to grow to this day. The main cause is the
emission of
chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs into the
atmosphere, which decompose the
ozone into other gasses. For more on the ozone hole, see
Ozone depletion.
A bridge made of ice based on the Leonardo da Vinci draft plans for a bridge over the Golden Horn in Istanbul was built in Antarctica in 2007. This project was a plea to the world to stop the causes of global warming in the hope that the "Leonardo Bridge" in Antarctica remains standing forever. (A similar ice bridge had been constructed in the garden of United Nations on 15 December 2007 for the purpose of demonstrating global warming. That bridge melted fully on Christmas Day 2007.)
On
February 28 through
March 8,
2008, about 570 square kilometers of ice from the
Wilkins Ice Shelf in Western Antarctica suddenly collapsed, putting the remaining 15,000 square kilometers of the ice shelf at risk. The ice is being held back by a "thread" of ice about 6 km wide.
Further Information
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