Facts about Antarctica

The first person known to have crossed the Antarctic Circle was the explorer James Cook, in 1773. However, it was only 47 years later that the continent was actually spotted, by M.P. Lazerev and Fabian von Bellinghausen. John Davis, who was the captain of an American sealer, is purported to have been the first one to set foot on the continent by landing at an area known as Hughes Bay, in 1821. Although, there are many people who think that Carsten Borchgrevnik and Leonard Kristensen were the ones who first landed on the actual continent, in 1895.

The continent of Antarctica is the fifth largest, or the second smallest, on the planet, and is located in the Southern Hemisphere. It is so cold out there, that if a solid steel bar should be dropped, it would shatter. This is one of the main reasons why human beings find it an uninhabitable place. And also why there are so many interesting facts about Antarctica, which are given below:

• Snow and ice cover almost the entirety of the continent. It is estimated that the level of the sea would rise by as much as 200 feet if all the ice in Antarctica were to melt.
• The ice stretches across right up to the ocean, where it is called an Ice Shelf. The Ross Ice Shelf, which is the largest sized ice shelf, covers 208,000 square miles, is larger in size than Texas.
• The falling snow is what forms the ice, since it does not melt when it falls. And every year, as more snow collects, the snow below gets compressed into ice. It is said that 70 percent of the Earth’s fresh water is contained in the ice of Antarctica.
• Antarctica is the driest, windiest, and coldest continent. The lowest recorded temperature in the world, -128 degrees F, was in Antarctica at the Russian Vostok Station.
• Antarctica is divided into two areas, East Antarctica and West Antarctica. East Antarctica, covering 7,770,000 sq km, which is the largest part of the continent, is a high plateau, covered with ice. West Antarctica, covering 6,475,000 sq km, comprises of an archipelago made up of mountainous islands, each of which are connected by ice. The two parts of the continent are divided by a mountain range.
• Antarctica has two active volcanoes, which are known. There could be more, however, these are the only two that have their peaks above the surface of the ice. Mount Erebus is the highest of them, which is located on the Ross Ice Shelf, in East Antarctica.
• There is very limited plant life in Antarctica, consisting mostly of moss and lichen, as well as some floating plants in the seas inland. The mite is the largest land living animal of Antarctica, being just big enough to be seen without using a microscope. It manages to survive by producing chemicals that are akin to the anti-freeze used in cars in the winter.
• Comprising of 80 percent of the bird population, penguins are the most common birds in Antarctica. While some of them live on land, others live on the ice floes. The Emperor penguin, for instance, never comes into the land, spending almost its whole life out in the ocean. The female Emperor lays her eggs on ice floes, where they are incubated by the male.
• The marine mammals that exist in Antarctica mostly comprise of seals and whales, with the tooth whale and the baleen whale being the two chief types of whales. The sperm whale and the killer whale are the two types of tooth whales, while the baleen whales are blue whales, humpback whales, and occasionally minke whales.
• Antarctica has no native or indigenous population. However, these days, a few thousand people live there in the summer in weather and research stations. Only a few scientists stay back for the winter there.
• Antarctica is considered to be the best laboratory on Earth, and scientists from all parts of the world converge here to study various things, such as: what consequences climate change will have on Earth; the unique organisms that inhabit this unspoiled ecosystem; and clues about the universe’s origins.

Photo: (Nils) Otto (Gustaf) Nordenskjold 1869-1928) Swedish explorer and geologist rescued from Antarctica in November 1903 by an Argentine vessel