Antarctica, meaning ‘the opposite of the north’, is the last region on Earth in recorded history to be discovered. In January 1820, Russian Navy Captain Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen sighted what turned out to be a massive ice shelf — a thick suspended platform attached to the continent’s north coast. Days later, British Captain Edward Bransfield sighted land, but it was too difficult to approach.
HEROIC AGE OF EXPLORATION
The first recorded landing on Antarctica was by a Norwegian-Swedish whaling ship in 1895. Subsequently, the continent became the focus of intensive scientific and geographical exploration, with nations competing to reach the geographic South Pole. A team led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen found it in 1911, just weeks before a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott.
SIX-MONTH DARKNESS
In Antarctica the sun sets only once a year and rises once for a six-month summer. Temperatures range from 10°C on the Antarctic coast in summer to -60°C inland in the winter, and as a result about 98 per cent of the continent is covered by an ice sheet averaging 1.9 kilometres thick. No humans live permanently in Antarctica, although up to five thousand work for periods of time on research stations all over the continent. Animals native to Antarctica include penguins, walruses, seals and mites, and certain organisms such as algae, bacteria, and fungi.
PEACE AND SCIENCE
No one country owns Antarctica. Instead, multiple sovereign powers formally agree to share equal sovereignty and exercise their rights jointly. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and today 53 nations have consulting status. The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, nuclear explosions and waste disposal. It supports scientific research and protects the continent’s ecosystem.
PRESERVATION
Antarctica has a profound effect on the Earth’s climate and ocean systems. Its ice preserves a record of what Earth’s climate was like over the past one million years. Preserving the continent is vitally important, yet it is under threat from climate change, fishing and tourism. As global warming affects other parts of the world, its water and mineral resources have also become an issue.
wild geography
The continent is bigger than the United States, covering over 14 thousand square kilometres. The Transantarctic Mountains run from the Weddell Sea down to the Ross Sea, dividing the continent into Western (or Lesser) Antarctica and Eastern (or Greater) Antarctica. So far, 138 possible volcanoes have been identified in Antarctica, most sub-glacial; meaning that they are hidden under the ice. Mount Erebus is, at 3,794 feet, one of the highest and most active volcanoes on the continent, erupting for the last time in 2011. There are also three hidden canyons that run for hundreds of kilometres: the largest, Foundation Trough, is over 350 kilometres long and 35 kilometres wide.