Portal:Antarctica
Portal maintenance status: (September 2018)
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Introduction
Antarctica (UK: /ænˈtɑːrktɪkə/ or /ænˈtɑːrtɪkə/, US: /æntˈɑːrktɪkə/ (
listen)) is Earth's southernmost continent. It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres (5,400,000 square miles), it is the fifth-largest continent. For comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km (1.2 mi; 6,200 ft) in thickness, which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with annual precipitation of only 200 mm (8 in) along the coast and far less inland. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) (or even −94.7 °C (−135.8 °F) as measured from space), though the average for the third quarter (the coldest part of the year) is −63 °C (−81 °F). Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, and certain animals, such as mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. Vegetation, where it occurs, is tundra.
Selected general articles
Antarctica sits on every line of longitude, due to the South Pole being situated near the middle of the continent. Theoretically Antarctica would be located in all time zones; however, areas south of the Antarctic Circle experience extreme day-night cycles near the times of the June and December solstices, making it difficult to determine which time zone would be appropriate. For practical purposes time zones are usually based on territorial claims; however, many stations use the time of the country they are owned by or the time zone of their supply base (e.g. McMurdo Station and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station use New Zealand time due to their main supply base being Christchurch, New Zealand). Nearby stations can have different time zones, due to their belonging to different countries. Many areas have no time zone since nothing is decided and there are not even any temporary settlements that have any clocks. They are simply labeled with UTC time. Read more...- Lake CECs is a subglacial lake in Antarctica at approximately latitude 80° S. It has an estimated area of 18 km². The territory where the lake is located, some 160 km from Union Glacier, is claimed only by Chile.
The lake is located in a buffer zone of three major West Antarctic glaciers. The movement of the ice is almost nonexistent and the area is in a situation of low disturbance. This allows the body of water to be extremely stable, with minimal mass exchanges with its environment. This favors the hypothesis that the lake could support endemic life, which would have developed in extreme isolation. Read more...
This is a list of rivers of Antarctica. Although they are variously named river, creek or stream, those listed are technically all meltwater streams. Read more...
East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains. It lies almost entirely within the Eastern Hemisphere and its name has been accepted for more than a century. It is generally higher than West Antarctica and includes the Gamburtsev Mountain Range in the centre.
Apart from small areas of the coast, East Antarctica is permanently covered by ice. The only terrestrial plant life is lichens, mosses and algae clinging to rocks, and there are a limited range of invertebrates including nematodes, springtails, mites and midges. The coasts are the breeding ground for various seabirds and penguins, and the leopard seal, Weddell seal, elephant seal, crabeater seal and Ross seal breed on the surrounding pack ice in summer. Read more...
Tourism in Antarctica started by the sea in the 1960s. Air overflights of Antarctica started in the 1970s with sightseeing flights by airliners from Australia and New Zealand, and were resumed in the 1990s. The (summer) tour season lasts from November to March. Most of the estimated 14,762 visitors to Antarctica in 1999-2000 were on sea cruises. During the 2009 to 2010 tourist season, over 37,000 people visited Antarctica. Read more...
A satellite composite image of Antarctica.
The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty entered into force in 1961 and currently has 53 parties. The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation, and bans military activity on the continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. Since September 2004, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters has been located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1, 1959, and officially entered into force on June 23, 1961. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–58. The twelve countries that had significant interests in Antarctica at the time were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries had established over 55 Antarctic stations for the IGY. The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific co-operation that had been achieved "on the ice". Read more...
Post office Tangra 1091 Antarctic postal services of the Bulgarian scientific station
There is no economic activity in Antarctica at present, except for fishing off the coast and small-scale tourism, both based outside Antarctica.
Although coal, hydrocarbons, iron ore, platinum, copper, chromium, nickel, gold and other minerals have been found, they have 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 economic activity is the capture and offshore trading of fish. Antarctic fisheries in 2000–01 reported landing 112,934 tonnes. Read more...- This is a list of the native wild mammal species recorded in Antarctica. There are 23 mammal species in Antarctica, all of which are marine. Three of these species are considered to be endangered, one to be vulnerable, eight are listed as data deficient and one has not yet been evaluated. Domesticated species, such as the dogs formerly present, are not included.
The following tags are used to highlight each species' conservation status as assessed by the IUCN; those on the left are used here, those in the second column in some other articles: Read more... - Many Antarctic research stations support satellite field camps which are, in general, seasonal camps. The type of field camp can vary – some are permanent structures used during the annual Antarctic summer, whereas others are little more than tents used to support short term activities. Field camps are used for many things, from logistics (Sky Blu) to dedicated scientific research (WAIS Divide Field Camp). Read more...
Surface temperature of Antarctica in winter and summer from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Antarctica has the coldest climate on Earth. Antarctica's lowest air temperature recorded by a weather station was set on 21 July 1983, with a temperature of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station. But the coldest sites on the East Antarctic Plateau have actually reached −98 °C (−144.4 °F) making this location the "Coldest Place on Earth".
It is also extremely dry (technically a desert), averaging 166 mm (6.5 in) of precipitation per year. On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet. Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent, because of the katabatic winds. Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate (Köppen EF) with very cold, generally extremely dry weather. Read more...
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO, RN (6 June 1868 – 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904) and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. On the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, less than five weeks after Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott's party discovered plant fossils, proving Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents. A planned meeting with supporting dog teams from the base camp failed, despite Scott's written instructions, and at a distance of 150 miles from their base camp and 11 miles from the next depot, Scott and his companions died.
Before his appointment to lead the Discovery Expedition, Scott had followed the career of a naval officer in the Royal Navy. In 1899, he had a chance encounter with Sir Clements Markham, the president of the Royal Geographical Society, and thus learned of a planned Antarctic expedition, which he soon volunteered to lead. Having taken this step, his name became inseparably associated with the Antarctic, the field of work to which he remained committed during the final 12 years of his life. Read more...- This is a list of countries by southernmost point on land. Where borders are contested, the southernmost point under the control of a nation is listed, excluding points within Antarctica and its outlying islands south of 60°S. A selection of dependent territories is listed, but not ranked. Read more...
Weddell Sea as part of the Southern Ocean
The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha Coast, Queen Maud Land. To the east of Cape Norvegia is the King Haakon VII Sea. Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent, massive ice shelf field, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf (not pack ice). The sea is contained within the two overlapping Antarctic territorial claims of Argentina, (Argentine Antarctica) and Britain (British Antarctic Territory), and also resides partially within the territorial claim of Chile (Antarctic Chilean Territory). At its widest the sea is around 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) across, and its area is around 2.8 million square kilometres (1.1×10^6 sq mi).
Various ice shelves, including the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, fringe the Weddell sea. Some of the ice shelves on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which formerly covered roughly 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) of the Weddell Sea, had completely disappeared by 2002. Whilst a dramatic event, the area that disappeared was far smaller than the total area of ice shelf that remains. Read more...- While crime in Antarctica is relatively rare, isolation and boredom affect certain people there negatively and may lead to crime. Alcoholism is a known problem on the continent, and has led to fights and indecent exposure. Other types of crimes that have occurred in Antarctica include illicit drug use, torturing and killing wildlife, racing motorbikes through environmentally sensitive areas, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, and arson. There have also been reports of sexual harassment.
Robberies are highly unusual in Antarctica because the people can't bring very much onto the continent. There is also very little use for money in Antarctica. Read more... - This is a list of all the Ultra prominent peaks (with topographic prominence greater than 1,500 metres) in Antarctica. Some islands in the South Atlantic have also been included and can be found at the end of the list. Read more...
The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and, thus, by ice. The Antarctic continent, located in the Earth's southern hemisphere, is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle. It is washed by the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean or, depending on definition, the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. It has an area of more than 14 million km².
Some 98% of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, the world's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water. Averaging at least 1.6 km thick, the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur (e.g., Lake Vostok). Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery. Read more...
Lake Vostok (Russian: Озеро Восток, Ozero Vostok, lit. "Lake East") is the largest of Antarctica's almost 400 known subglacial lakes.
Lake Vostok is located at the southern Pole of Cold, beneath Russia's Vostok Station under the surface of the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is at 3,488 m (11,444 ft) above mean sea level. The surface of this fresh water lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level.
Measuring 250 km (160 mi) long by 50 km (30 mi) wide at its widest point, it covers an area of 12,500 km2 (4,830 sq mi) making it the 16th largest lake by surface area. With an average depth of 432 m (1,417 ft), it has an estimated volume of 5,400 km3 (1,300 cu mi). making it the 6th largest lake by volume. Read more...
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica, located at the base of the Southern Hemisphere.
At the surface, it is the biggest, most prominent peninsula in Antarctica as it extends 1,300 km (810 miles) from a line between Cape Adams (Weddell Sea) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands. Beneath the ice sheet which covers it, the Antarctic Peninsula consists of a string of bedrock islands; these are separated by deep channels whose bottoms lie at depths considerably below current sea level. They are joined together by a grounded ice sheet. Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, lies only about 1,000 km (620 miles) away across the Drake Passage. Read more...
The Southern Ocean, as delineated by the draft 4th edition of the International Hydrographic Organization's Limits of Oceans and Seas (2002).
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean or the Austral Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. As such, it is regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions: smaller than the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans but larger than the Arctic Ocean. This ocean zone is where cold, northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer subantarctic waters.
By way of his voyages in the 1770s, Captain James Cook proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe. Since then, geographers have disagreed on the Southern Ocean's northern boundary or even existence, considering the waters as various parts of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, instead. However, according to Commodore John Leech of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO)[weasel words], recent oceanographic research has discovered the importance of Southern Circulation, and the term Southern Ocean has been used to define the body of water which lies south of the northern limit of that circulation. This remains the current official policy of the IHO, since a 2000 revision of its definitions including the Southern Ocean as the waters south of the 60th parallel has not yet been adopted. Others regard the seasonally-fluctuating Antarctic Convergence as the natural boundary. Read more...
Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The Mawson Station in the Australian Antarctic Territory is named in his honour. Read more...
Antarctica has various places of worship and an increasing demand for religious services and construction of sacred architecture on the continent. In spite of the famous saying "below 40 degrees south there is no law; below 50 degrees south there is no God" the exploration of the continent was in fact closely connected to religious activities with contributions from many adherents (e.g. Jesuit geophysicists). Some of the early religious buildings are now protected as important historical monuments.
Christian buildings are the only religious buildings on the continent. Read more...
The Antarctical realm is one of eight terrestrial biogeographic realms. The ecosystem includes Antarctica and several island groups in the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The continent of Antarctica is so cold and dry that it has supported only 2 vascular plants for millions of years, and its flora presently consists of around 250 lichens, 100 mosses, 25-30 liverworts, and around 700 terrestrial and aquatic algal species, which live on the areas of exposed rock and soil around the shore of the continent. Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis), are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctica is also home to a diversity of animal life, including penguins, seals, and whales.
Several Antarctic island groups are considered part of the Antarctica realm, including South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands, Bouvet Island, the Crozet Islands, Prince Edward Islands, Heard Island, the Kerguelen Islands, and the McDonald Islands. These islands have a somewhat milder climate than Antarctica proper, and support a greater diversity of tundra plants, although they are all too windy and cold to support trees. Read more...- This is a list of volcanoes in Antarctica. Read more...
- Firefighting in Antarctica encompasses various organizations and procedures designed to fight fires on the continent of Antarctica. Firefighting in Antarctica is complicated by the harsh conditions of the continent, the remoteness of the locations to be serviced, and the importance of protecting life-supporting shelter from immolation. Read more...
- Transport in Antarctica has transformed from explorers crossing the isolated remote area of Antarctica by foot to a more open area due to human technologies enabling more convenient and faster transport, predominantly by air and water, as well as land.
Transportation technologies on a remote area like Antarctica need to be able to deal with extremely low temperatures and continuous winds to ensure the travelers' safety. Due to the fragility of the Antarctic environment, only a limited amount of transport movements can take place and sustainable transportation technologies have to be used to reduce the ecological footprint.
The infrastructure of land, water and air transport needs to be safe and sustainable.
Currently thousands of tourists and hundreds of scientists a year depend on the Antarctic transportation system. Read more...
Territorial claims of Antarctica according to the Antarctic Treaty:
Colonization of Antarctica refers to having humans including families living permanently on the continent of Antarctica. Currently, the continent only hosts a temporary transient population of scientists and support staff. Antarctica is the only continent on Earth without indigenous human inhabitants.
At present scientists and staff from 30 countries live on about 70 bases (40 year-round and 30 summer-only), with an approximate population of 4000 in summer and 1000 in winter. There have been at least eleven human births in Antarctica, eight at an Argentine base (including the first one) and three at a Chilean base. Read more...
McMurdo Sound and its ice-clogged waters extends about 55 kilometres (34 mi) long and wide. The sound connects the Ross Sea to the north with the Ross Ice Shelf cavity to the south via Haskell Strait. The strait is largely covered by the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 4,205 metres (13,796 ft) on the western shoreline. Ross Island, an historic jumping-off point for polar explorers, designates the eastern boundary. The active volcano Mount Erebus at 3,794 metres (12,448 ft) dominates Ross Island. Antarctica's largest scientific base, the United States' McMurdo Station, as well as the New Zealand Scott Base are on the southern shore of the island. Less than 10 percent of McMurdo Sound's shoreline is free of ice. It is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world.
Captain James Clark Ross discovered this sound, which is about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the South Pole, in February 1841, and he named it after Lt. Archibald McMurdo of HMS Terror. The sound today serves as a resupply route for cargo ships and for airplanes that land on the floating ice airstrips near the McMurdo Station. However, McMurdo Station's continuous occupation by human beings since 1957/58 has dirtied the harbor of Winter Quarters Bay. Read more...- The Antarctic Floristic Kingdom, also the Holantarctic Kingdom, is a floristic kingdom. It includes most areas of the world south of 40°S latitude. It was first identified by botanist Ronald Good, and later by Armen Takhtajan. The Antarctic Floristic Kingdom is a classification in phytogeography, different from the Antarctic ecozone classification in biogeography, and from Antarctic flora genera/species classifications in botany. Read more...
- The Antarctic flora is a distinct community of vascular plants which evolved millions of years ago on the supercontinent of Gondwana. It is now found on several separate areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including southern South America, southernmost Africa, New Zealand, Australia and New Caledonia. Joseph Dalton Hooker was the first to notice similarities in the flora and speculated that Antarctica had served as either a source or a transitional point, and that land masses now separated may have formerly been adjacent.
Nothofagus fusca, New Zealand
Based on the similarities in their flora, botanist Ronald D'Oyley Good identified a separate Antarctic Floristic Kingdom that included southern South America, New Zealand, and some southern island groups. In addition, Australia was determined to be its own floristic kingdom because of the influx of tropical Eurasian flora that had mostly supplanted the Antarctic flora and included New Guinea and New Caledonia in the Paleotropical floristic kingdom. Read more...
Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) are the only animals to breed on mainland Antarctica during the winter.
The wildlife of Antarctica are extremophiles, having to adapt to the dryness, low temperatures, and high exposure common in Antarctica. The extreme weather of the interior contrasts to the relatively mild conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula and the subantarctic islands, which have warmer temperatures and more liquid water. Much of the ocean around the mainland is covered by sea ice. The oceans themselves are a more stable environment for life, both in the water column and on the seabed.
There is relatively little diversity in Antarctica compared to much of the rest of the world. Terrestrial life is concentrated in areas near the coast. Flying birds nest on the milder shores of the Peninsula and the subantarctic islands. Eight species of penguins inhabit Antarctica and its offshore islands. They share these areas with seven pinniped species. The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is home to 10 cetaceans, many of them migratory. There are very few terrestrial invertebrates on the mainland, although the species that do live there have high population densities. High densities of invertebrates also live in the ocean, with Antarctic krill forming dense and widespread swarms during the summer. Benthic animal communities also exist around the continent. Read more...
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO OBE FRGS (/ˈʃækəltən/; 15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was a British polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, and one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton and his family moved to Sydenham in suburban south London when he was ten. His first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Expedition 1901–1904, from which he was sent home early on health grounds, after he and his companions Scott and Edward Adrian Wilson set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S.
During the second expedition 1907–1909 he and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude at 88°S, only 97 geographical miles (112 statute miles, 180 km) from the South Pole, the largest advance to the pole in exploration history. Also, members of his team climbed Mount Erebus, the most active Antarctic volcano. For these achievements, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home. Read more...
West Antarctica, or Lesser Antarctica, one of the two major regions of Antarctica, is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere, and includes the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It lies between the Ross Sea (partly covered by the Ross Ice Shelf), and the Weddell Sea (largely covered by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf). It may be considered[by whom?] a giant peninsula stretching from the South Pole towards the tip of South America.
West Antarctica is largely covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, but there have been signs that climate change is having some effect and that this ice sheet may have started to shrink slightly. The coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula are the only parts of West Antarctica that become (in summer) ice-free. These constitute the Marielandia Antarctic tundra and have the warmest climate in Antarctica. The rocks are clad in mosses and lichens that can cope with the intense cold of winter and the short growing-season. Read more...
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (/ˈɑːməndsən/; Norwegian: [ˈruːɑl ²ɑːmʉnsn̩]; 16 July 1872 – c. 18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. As the leader of the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12, which was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911, he was a key personage during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. In 1926, he was the first leader for the air expedition to the North Pole, making him the first person, without dispute, to reach both poles. He is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–06) in the Arctic.
In June 1928, while taking part in a rescue mission for the airship Italia, the plane in which he was a passenger disappeared. Read more...
There are many glaciers in the Antarctic. This set of lists does not include ice sheets, ice caps or ice fields, such as the Antarctic ice sheet, but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow, rather than general bodies of ice. The lists include outlet glaciers, valley glaciers, cirque glaciers, tidewater glaciers and ice streams. Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have "glacier" in their name, e.g. Pine Island Glacier. Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves. For the purposes of these lists, the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60° (the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System). Read more...
As Antarctica has never been permanently settled by humans, there has historically been little military activity in the Antarctic. Because the Antarctic Treaty, which came into effect on June 23, 1961, bans military activity in Antarctica, military personnel and equipment may only be used for scientific research or any other peaceful purpose (such as delivering supplies) on the continent.
The Antarctic Treaty specifically prohibits military activity on land or ice shelves below 60°S. While the use of nuclear weapons is absolutely prohibited, the Treaty does not apply to naval activity within these bounds (in the Southern Ocean) so long as it takes place on the high seas. Read more...
Antarctic Skin Temperature Trends between 1981 and 2007, based on thermal infrared observations made by a series of NOAA satellite sensors. Skin temperature trends do not necessarily reflect air temperature trends.
The effects of global warming in Antarctica may include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt and ice loss. A summary study in 2018 incorporating calculations and data from many other studies estimated that total ice loss was 43 gigatons per year on average during the period from 1992 to 2002 but has accelerated to an average of 220 gigatons per year during the five years from 2012 to 2017. Read more...
Portrait of Sir James Clark Ross by John R. Wildman. The object in the bottom righthand corner is a dip circle.
Sir James Clark Ross (15 April 1800 – 3 April 1862) was a British naval officer and explorer remembered today for his exploration of the Arctic with his uncle Sir John Ross and Sir William Parry and, in particular, his own expedition to Antarctica. Read more...
Children, adolescents and teachers of the school of Esperanza Base.
Antarctica has few permanent residents, and contains research stations and field camps that are staffed seasonally or year-round, and former whaling settlements. The largest station, McMurdo Station, has a summer population of about 1,000 people and a winter population of about 200. Approximately 29 nations, all signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, send personnel to perform seasonal (summer) or year-round research on the continent and in its surrounding oceans.
The population of persons doing and supporting scientific research on the continent and its nearby islands south of 60 degrees south latitude (the region covered by the Antarctic Treaty) varies from approximately 4,000 in summer to 1,000 in winter; in addition, approximately 1,000 personnel including ship's crew and scientists doing onboard research are present in the waters of the treaty region. Read more...
A number of governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rock or on ice that is (for practical purposes) fixed in place.
Many of the stations are staffed around the year. A total of 40 countries (as of October 2006), all signatories to the Antarctic Treaty, operate seasonal (summer) and year-round research stations on the continent.
The population of people performing and supporting scientific research on the continent and nearby islands varies from approximately 4,000 during the summer season to 1,000 during winter (June). In addition to these permanent stations, approximately 30 field camps are established each summer to support specific projects.[dubious – discuss] Read more...- An Antarctic Protected Area is an area protected under the Antarctic Treaty System. There are three types of Protected Areas under this system:
- Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) under the Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora (1964 onwards) and Annex V to the Environment Protocol (2002)
- Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA) under Annex V of the Environment Protocol (2002)
- Historic Site or Monument (HSM)
Map of territorial claims in Antarctica, including Marie Byrd Land which is unclaimed
Seven sovereign states maintain a territorial claim on eight territories in Antarctica. These countries have tended to place their Antarctic scientific observation and study facilities within their respective claimed territories. A number of such facilities are located nowhere near their country's sector, however. Many nations such as Russia and the US have no claim anywhere in Antarctica, yet have large research facilities within the sectors of foreign countries. Read more...
Flag of the Antarctic Treaty.
Prior to 2002, Antarctica had no flag as the condominium that governs the continent had not yet formally selected one even though a particular design was in widespread use. The consultative members of the Antarctic Treaty System officially adopted a flag and emblem in 2002, which is now the official symbol of the continent. Several unofficial designs have also been proposed. Read more...
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Ross who visited this area in 1841. To the west of the sea lies Ross Island and Victoria Land, to the east Roosevelt Island and Edward VII Peninsula in Marie Byrd Land, while the southernmost part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf, and is about 200 miles (320 km) from the South Pole. Its boundaries and area have been defined by the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research as having an area of 637,000 square kilometres (246,000 sq mi).
The circulation of the Ross Sea is dominated by a wind-driven ocean gyre and the flow is strongly influenced by three submarine ridges that run from southwest to northeast. The circumpolar deep water current is a relatively warm, salty and nutrient-rich water mass that flows onto the continental shelf at certain locations. The Ross Sea is covered with ice for most of the year. Read more...
Painting of James Weddell's second expedition, depicting the brig Jane and the cutter Beaufroy.
The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn in the 15th and 16th centuries proved that Terra Australis Incognita ("Unknown Southern Land"), if it existed, was a continent in its own right. In 1773 James Cook and his crew crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time but although they discovered nearby islands, they did not catch sight of Antarctica itself. It is believed he was as close as 150 mi (241.4 km) from the mainland. Read more...
This list of Antarctic expeditions is a chronological list of expeditions involving Antarctica. Although the existence of a southern continent had been hypothesized as early as the writings of Ptolemy in the 1st century AD, the South Pole was not reached until 1911. Read more...- Antarctica is one of the most physically and chemically extreme terrestrial environments to be inhabited by microorganisms. Nonetheless, on February 6, 2013, scientists reported that bacteria were found living in the cold and dark in a lake buried a half-mile deep (0.80 km) under the ice in Antarctica. This finding was later confirmed by scientists on August 20, 2014. Read more...
The geology of Antarctica covers the geological development of the continent through the Proterozoic Eon, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.
More than 170 million years ago, Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. Over time Gondwana broke apart and Antarctica as we know it today was formed around 35 million years ago. Read more...
Did you know...
- ... that Lois Jones led the first all-woman science team to Antarctica in 1969?
- ... that there are eight churches on Antarctica?
- ... that in 1937 Ingrid Christensen became the first woman to indisputably set foot on mainland Antarctica?
- ... that Mount Berlin, a volcano in Antarctica, has had large Plinian eruptions in the past and is still fumarolically active through towers of ice?
- ... that Elizabeth Truswell used ancient pollen to show that plants existed in Antarctica before the ice cap formed?
- ... that East Base in Antarctica housed Jackie Ronne and Jennie Darlington, the first women to spend a winter on the continent?
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Selected images
The blue ice covering Lake Fryxell, in the Transantarctic Mountains, comes from glacial meltwater from the Canada Glacier and other smaller glaciers.
Image of the largest Antarctic ozone hole ever recorded due to CFCs accumulation (September 2006)
The above map shows the subglacial topography of Antarctica. As indicated by the scale on left-hand side, blue represents portion of Antarctica lying below sea level. The other colours indicate Antarctic bedrock lying above sea level. Each colour represents an interval of 760 m (2,500 ft) in elevation. Map is not corrected for sea level rise or isostatic rebound, which would occur if the Antarctic ice sheet completely melted to expose the bedrock surface.
Antarctopelta fossils
Mount Erebus, an active volcano on Ross Island
Post office Tangra 1091 Antarctic postal services of the Bulgarian scientific station
Red fluid pours out of Blood Falls at Taylor Glacier. The colour derives from iron oxides.
Roald Amundsen and his crew looking at the Norwegian flag at the South Pole, 1911
Topographic map of Antarctica after removing the ice sheet and accounting for both isostatic rebound and sea level rise. Hence, this map suggests what Antarctica may have looked like 35 million years ago, when the Earth was warm enough to prevent the formation of large-scale ice sheets in Antarctica.
Nimrod Expedition South Pole Party (left to right): Wild, Shackleton, Marshall and Adams
The "ceremonial" South Pole, at Amundsen–Scott Station
A full moon and 25-second exposure allowed sufficient light for this photo to be taken at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station during the long Antarctic night. The station can be seen at far left, the power plant in the centre and the mechanic's garage in the lower right. The green light in the background is the aurora.
Adelie penguins in Antarctica
Glaciers and rock outcrops in Marie Byrd Land seen from NASA's DC-8 aircraft
Emperor penguins in Ross Sea, Antarctica
Dumont d'Urville Station, an example of modern human settlement in Antarctica
Subglacial topography and bathymetry of bedrock underlying Antarctica ice sheet
Painting of James Weddell's second expedition in 1823, depicting the brig Jane and the cutter Beaufroy
HMS Endurance: the Royal Navy's former Antarctic patrol ship.
About 400 species of lichen-forming fungi are known to exist in Antarctica.
Port Lockroy Museum
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