Students: William Watson, Christie Rosenzweig
General:
Fifth-largest continent
Surrounded by the southern seas
5.4 million square miles
The coldest and windiest continent in the world.
The average annual precipitation Antarctica receives is the lowest of any continent.
The Antarctic Peninsula rises 5440 feet above the ice.
The Southern Seas and the Coastline:
The majority of the Antarctic coastline, which is over 17,968 miles long, is easily recognizable due to the presence of ice formations like ice shelves, ice walls, and ice bergs.
Mountains and Ice Sheets:
The continent is split in two by a large mountain range known as the Transantarctic mountains
Ice thickness averages around one mile.
Highest point in Antarctica is Vinson Massif, which is 16,050 feet high.
Temperature and Climate Change
The average temperature goes up 1.22 degrees Celsius every decade.
Some species living in Antarctica are on the verge of extinction. Others have been killed, and are in danger because there have been hundreds of expeditions down there, leaving behind: contaminated soil, new organisms, nonbiodegradable materials, and pollution in the ocean.
With the Ozone layer hole widening, there is an increase in UV rays, which may cause a rise in the phytoplankton population (this may affect the food chain).
Global warming may cause the ice-shelves that some species depend upon to break and leave those animals helpless.
According to a BBC News article from 13 Jan 2002, the Antarctic is getting mysteriously colder rather than warmer, and the animal life is decreasing at about 10% each year.
There are toxic chemicals drifting from thousands of miles away into Antarctic ocean, and polar bears are just one of the species being affected by this.
Wasn’t Discovered until 1820
No one lived in Antarctica until 1897
Has the world’s largest glacier, Lambert Glacier
Only 5% of Antarctica is not covered in ice
If all the ice in Antarctica were to melt, the sea level worldwide would rise 200 feet
There are active volcanoes in Antarctica
70% of the world’s fresh water is in Antarctic ice.
There are no polar bears in Antarctica
Main landforms include Glaciers, desert, mountain, plains, plateaus, and valleys
To keep it clean, there are protective areas in Antarctica which sometimes are banned from human areas
The cold and dry parts of the “Dry Valley” regions of Antarctica are so close to that of Mars that NASA did testing there for the Viking mission
Antarctica’s fish have survived in water ranging from +2 degrees and -2 degrees(freezing point of water)
Antarctica is the best place to find meteorites
The largest land animal in Antarctica is a wingless midge (and insect), which is less than 1.3 cm long
Due to the vast dryness, it rarely rains or snows in Antarctica
Antarctica is known as an area of peace; no war has been thought there, no sovereignty rules.
The continent is divided into the east and west side
Antarctica has no trees or bushes but it does have algae
1 comment:
People: Although scientific expeditions visit Antarctica, there are no permanent human residents (because of the extreme weather, which includes freezing temperatures, strong winds, and blizzards). There are about 4,000 seasonal visitors to Antarctica.
Location: Antarctica hasn't always been located at the South Pole. It has drifted, like the other continents, and has ranged from the equator (during the Cambrian period, about 500 million years ago) to the South Pole. During the time of the dinosaurs (the Mesozoic Era, about 65 million to 248 million years ago), Antarctica was more temperate and housed dinosaurs and many other life forms. Now, there is very little indigenous life.
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