Antarctica

Antarctica is the land of ice, snow, and penguins, but is that all? Of course not! It is a land of extremes, pristine wilderness, unique wildlife, and it holds a record of our geologic past.

The Land

A map of Antarctica

Centered almost completely over the south pole and within the Antarctic circle, Antarctica is the world's fifth largest continent with 14 million square miles of land. Only 280,000 square miles is not covered by ice; the rest is covered with a continental ice sheet. Some of the ice (11%), is in the form of floating ice sheets, mostly in the Ross and Ronne ice shelves. There are also many mountain ranges, the most well known being the Trans-Antarctic mountains that run from east to west and geographically cut the continent in half. Off the coast, on Deception Island, there are volcanos, but the rest of the continent remains relatively geographically stable. Both under the ice and on the surface, many minerals and hydrocarbons have been found or are thought to exist, but they are mostly in quantities that are not suitable for commercial exploitation.

The Weather

Antarctica has the infamous pleasure of being the coldest, windiest, and driest continent in the world. (Even with all of the ice around, it is considered the driest because it has the least precipitation per year.) There are also strong winds that come from many sources: the katabatic winds blow from the center to the coastline driven by gravity, and cyclonic winds blow in off of the ocean and circle the coast in a clock-wise direction. Temperatures rarely make it above freezing, and it was at the Russian station Vostok that the lowest temperature on Earth was recorded at -82 degrees Celsius.

A Natural History Book

Since tempearatures rarely make it above the freezing point, most of the ice on the ice sheets has been there for thousands of years. As it has built up, it has collected bits of information from the atmosphere about the history of the world. By taking ice core samples, we can glimpse a window to the past. Through analysis, the partices from such things as volcanic eruptions or pollution trapped in the ice can be found, giving us hints to the climate during a certain time period.


Evidence for extraterrestrial life?

Meteorites are also an important find. Rocks have a dark contrast on the ice, making it very easy to collect them. Most of the rocks found come from outer space, and are a valuable tool for extrasolar research. Some meteorites found have come from the moon and Mars, one being the infamous "alien" rock (above) that puportedly give evidence for extraterrestrial life.

Flora, Fauna, and Animalia

Emperor Penguinds


Seals near the eastern Weddell Sea

The most famous animals that live in Antarctica are seals and penguins (not polar bears, which live only at the North Pole). There are at least five different breeds of seals that live in Antarctic waters, six breeds of penguins, and also there are flying birds and whales. Most survive with thick layers of fat that keep them insulated from the cold, or migrate between islands off the coast and the mainland. There are also the microscopic and aquatic creatures that live in the sea. Many types of plankton and krill are the main food sources for birds and whales that live in the ocean.


An example of Antarctic Grass
Since there is almost no arable land on the continent, the few plants that exist must be tolerant of cold, dark, and long periods with a lack of nutrients. Along the western part of the Antarctic continent, and on some islands, there are only two types of flowering plants (Antarctic pearlwort and Antarctic hairgrass) that grow, and no species of trees or shrubs. The rest of the vegitation is made up of mosses, algae, lichen, and macrofungi that area adapted to living in harsh environments. Some algae, for instance, have adapted to grow on the ice


Snow Algae

Environmental Problems

A spectrometer image of the ozone hole

Even though the Arctic has been making more headlines when it comes to global warming, there are still many problems that are relevant to the Antarctic as well. Since most of the continent never makes it above freezing at any point of the year, the ice sheets are not melting. On some costal areas where the temperature can make it above freezing, there is evidence for greater ice melt, but this is not rising sea levels (a full glass of ice water does not overflow when the ice melts).

The bigger issue might be the growing ozone hole. As chloroflourocarbons continue to destroy the protective ozone layer around the earth, the hole that develops seasonally above the Antarctic continues to get bigger. Currently, it is as large as the continent itself, and it occurs at the time when life begins to emerge from their dormant winter state. It is too soon to tell if the ultraviolet rays are impacting plant growth, but evidence has shown that they might be naturally immune or adaptive to the UV light.

There is also the problem of human contamination. Antarcica is the last pristine refuge in the world, and many environmentalists and scientists would like to keep it that way. Scientists working at the South Pole do their best to keep a clean environment, but there is still waste generated that cannot be taken away. We have also introduced different species to the environment, such as dogs, which we have begun to remove to restore the natural balance. Also, with a developing need for more natural resources like oil, more people are looking to drill under the ice cap. The Antarctic Treaty and Madrid Protocol protect agains this, but the danger still exists.

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