Antarctica is located in the southernmost region of the world. As a matter of fact, there are many hidden facts about Antarctica which are unknown. As a continent, Antarctica is a virtually inhabited place. It is covered with vast ice sheets. The mainland is a freezing arid desert where access to water determines the plethora of life. Information about Antarctica has expanded nobly since the International Geophysical Year. Geologists, geophysicists, glaciologists, biologists, and alike scientists have planned and visited all of the landmass’s peak zones.
The Antarctic treaty is a unique example of multinational cooperation and respect for a rules-based order. Currently, there are 54 members in total. The treaty is aimed at upholding the freedom of scientific research for the benefit of all of mankind. This treaty also works as a mechanism for solving territorial claims disputes amongst nations concerning Antarctica.
Antarctica is the fifth largest mainland on earth. It’s the only mainland that’s separate and with a zero population. Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and strong windy mainland in the world. It’s encircled by three oceans – the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The credit for introducing the whole world to this land in 1820 goes to Russian contenders Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.
Ram Charan Ji was the first Indian to reach Antarctica in 1960.
1. The Oldest Sperm To Date Has Been Found In Antarctica. 50 Million-Year-Old Sperm Of A Worm.
The finding of the fossilized sperm set up inside the hedges of a 50 million-year-aged articulated worm cocoon has been ingrained ” brilliant” by scientists.
The discovery, documented by The Royal Society, articulates that the specimen is the oldest creature sperm ever discovered.
Benjamin Bomfleur, an experimenter at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, stated that the unearthing occurred by mischance. While on a journey on Seymour Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, Thomas Mors, likewise a paleo biologist, was inspecting for remote mammal bones when he neared across a fossilized cocoon. The investigators were surprised that when they focused inside the hedges of the cocoon to assess its composition, they discovered fractions of the animal’s sperm.
2. Antarctica Is The Only Continent On Earth Where Snakes Are Not Found At All.
Why serpents aren’t there in Antarctica? Snakes can be seen on every continent on the planet except Antarctica. Reptiles are cold-blooded and their bodies require a foreign warmth source to live. Snakes survive in the mountains, in trees, and water. Snakes can not live in places where the ground stays frosty the whole time round hence there are no snakes north of the Arctic Circle or in Antarctica. Reptiles can not adjust their body temperature. They require warmth for them to break down their meals, and to allow their muscular system to perform.
The polar temperatures are far exorbitantly frosty for reptiles to live. The median periodic temperature ranges from around − 10 °C on the Antarctic seacoast too − 60 °C in, the upmost region of the interior. Near the seacoast, the temperature can transcend 10 °C on occasions in summer and slip to below − 40 °C in winter.
3. Antarctica Is The Largest Polar Desert In The World.
Antarctica is the largest desert on the planet, nearly twice the size of the Sahara Desert. A desert is termed by the volume of precipitousness in a region. An area that receives really low rainfall is categorized as a desert. There are numerous varieties of deserts, involving tropical, nearshore, and polar deserts. What they all own in common is desolate, windswept geography, which makes it problematic for flora and fauna likewise to grow. This is also clearly applicable to Antarctica.
While maximum deserts alone cover a portion of a landmass, the Antarctic Polar Desert spans the total of Antarctica. It snows and storms on the nearshore Antarctic Peninsula, but in the McMurdo Dry vales in East Antarctica, it rarely rains.
4. 90% Of The Clean Water Of The Earth Is Here But In The Form Of Ice.
The current Antarctic ice sheet holds around 90 per cent of Earth’s entire ice amount and 70 per cent of its fresh water. The ice distance at the Pole, which is around two miles thick, is continually displacing, transporting the facility towards the Pole along with it at the rate of around 30ft.
Closely 90 per cent of the ice running across West Antarctica converges into ice watercourses that are the most vigorous, and maybe unsteady constituents of the ice sheet.
Recent glaciological studies have unearthed proof that some of these West Antarctic ice watercourses may be reacting to climatic and sea position fluctuations in recent history. This fluctuations that could steer to furthermore rapid-fire recession and international sea-level hikes shortly. Limited active volcanoes may correspondingly affect the ice sheet’s demeanour.
5. You Might Not Believe It But There Is Also An ATM In Antarctica.
The bone-chilling temperatures and months of ceaseless dusk don’t generally appeal to a place of setting up an ATM. However, financial activities carried out by the settlers atoned the continent do require an ATM.
The banking empire called Wells Fargo inducted an automatic teller machine( ATM) back in 1998 at McMurdo Station, the largest knowledge center on the continent.
6. In Some Places In Antarctica Wind Blows At A Speed Of 320KM/H.
The minimum temperature anytime reported anywhere on the planet was -89.2 ° C(-128.6 ° F) on July 21st, 1983 at the Russian Vostok foothold at the Southern Geomagnetic Pole. It’s close to the Pole of Inaccessibility, the point on the Antarctic continental shelf that is the furthest from any other location and thus the trickiest or most difficult place to reach. It becomes frequently one of, if not the coldest place on earth. As a result of its distance from any seacoast, it is least impacted by the warming effect of the oceans.
The Antarctic landmass is also battered by strong winds; calm periods are uncommon and typically last just one hour or less. At the French Dumontd’Urville foothold, a wind speed of 320 km/h (200 mph) was recorded in July 1972. As the air cools and thickens above the pole, the winds are forced mostly by gravity to descend from the interior toward the seacoast.
Due to the planet’s rapid rotation on its axis, these winds—known as “katabatic winds“—generate an ocean current known as the East Wind Drift when they reach the seashore. This ocean current has an impact well beyond the nearest coastland.
Despite the low rainfall conditions, it always seems like more snow is falling than there actually is. Snow that has already slipped is picked up by the constant, daily winds, which then carry it from place to place in all directions or on all sides. Because of this, blizzards frequently cause disorienting colourless circumstances in which everything around you assumes the appearance of an undyed coat without any discernible features.
7. Antarctica Belongs To Whom?
Due to its natural, untouched, and charming appearance, Antarctica is undoubtedly one of the world’s most blissful places to live. Nations should be careful not to focus on territorial disparities but rather on scientific research as the effects of global warming worsen and the battle for dominance of new territories intensifies.
No single nation owns Antarctica. The Antarctic Treaty, which keeps the continent in a condition of peace and scientific exploration, is in charge of this continent and is managed by all of mankind. There are over 70 underpinning research stations run by 32 countries that focus on numerous extremely important issues, such as the climate change.
8. 90% Of Meteorites Found To Date Have Come From Antarctica.
It is likely that Antarctica possesses a similar volume of meteorites to its enormous landmass as to far-off continents. It’s interesting to note that according to scientists with the Antarctic Meteorites Program, there is an entire level of iron meteorites buried beneath the Antarctic ice. They found that both rocky and iron meteorites on the ice layer had been warmed by the Sun and had begun to deteriorate through the ice; iron meteorites, however, had been warmed, which had led them to deteriorate.
9. There Is Also A Fire Station In Antarctica.
At McMurdo Station is where the Antarctic Fire Department is situated. There isn’t a full-time, competitive, professional fire department in Antarctica. Despite the challenging terrain, the AFD continues to provide the kind of assistance required to keep McMurdo and Amundsen- Scott Stations safe from the threat of fire.
The Antarctic Fire Department has developed and implemented innovative, effective procedures and tactics for Antarctic frontline missions in order to deliver decisive actions & favours on the world’s most arctic, humid, and windiest landmass.
10. Mount Erebus Is The Only Active Volcano In Antarctica.
The second-highest volcano in Antarctica, Mount Erebus is also the continent’s highest point and the planet’s southernmost active volcano. It is the Antarctic continent’s sixth-highest ultra mountain.
The first solo ascent was made by British mountaineer Roger Mear in 1985, however Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition arrived at Erebus first in 1908. Lava production at the volcano has remained constant.
The distinctive feature of Erebus is its abundance of ice fumaroles, which are ice halls that form around gases that emerge from openings in the outer layer. In a polar alpine environment devoid of organic matter and with oxygenated hydrothermal rotation in largely broken host gemstone, black ice has formed in the chamber with a surface opening beside fumaroles. According to Greek mythology, Erebus was a god Chaos’s offspring, and Gaia, or Earth, was his mother. Darkness and shadows combined to make Erebus.
11. There Is Also A Bar In Antarctica.
On Island Galindez, in the Ukrainian Antarctic Station Vernadsky, is where you’ll find Faraday Bar. There are exactly seven chairs available, and each shot of firm-distilled vodka, wine, or beer costs around $3. Vernadsky Research Base was originally built in 1947 by the British as a station for Antarctic expeditions. In 1996, Ukraine paid one British pound to acquire the base since it would have been too expensive for the British to disassemble it. A payload of lumber meant to supply the garrison was repurposed by some of the carpenters while the post was under British hands. The bar had a slight renovation when Ukraine took control of the post.
12. Husky Dogs Were Banned From Antarctica After 1994.
At the turn of the 20th century, dogs were dispatched on the rudimentary “courageous age” expeditions to the Antarctic. They were essential in helping the Norwegian explorer Amundsen and his battalion reach the South Pole first in 1911. Numerous experts believed that one of the key reasons the Norwegians were qualified to reach the pole before Scott and his battalion was the fact that they were intelligent and skilled dog trainers.
Since then, dogs have been extensively used for the Antarctic expedition and the validation of scientific discoveries. Despite travelling more slowly than cars, dogs were thought to be steady since they weren’t as large, and it was assumed that huskies had a similar awareness of crevasses.
Beginning in 1945, BAS used sledge dogs in the Antarctic. The first canines came from Labrador, Canada, and there were a few small additions in stocks from Greenland ( 1954 and 1961). To prevent breeding dogs with hereditary disorders, guarded records of the breeding were kept. To support hereditary diversity, dogs were similarly switched between locations in Antarctica (such as the Argentinian base, San Martin). Dogs were frequently fed seal meat at British outposts, therefore a specific serve unit of seals had to be killed each time.
Dogs have to be banned from Antarctica by April 1994 per Addition II of the Environmental Protocol (Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora). This ban was necessary due to concerns that dogs can bring illnesses that could be spread to seals and that they might disturb, upset, or harm the wildlife.
13. Metallica Band Was The First To Have A Concert On Antarctica.
Metallica became the first major band in history to perform their eagerly anticipated show in Antarctica, bringing the musicale that started as an internet rumour closer to reality. Metallica completed the full performance without any changes in order to adhere to international Antarctic convention for maintaining the vulnerable aboriginal terrain. The audience instead received the sound through headphones. The event was also recorded for later release and live-streamed.
14. Mount Vinson Massif Is The Highest Peak In Antarctica.
Mount Vinson, the highest point in Antarctica, is 4,892 metres high (16,050 feet). The Seven Summits, the highest points on the planet’s seven continents, include Mount Vinson, one of the most recently discovered and explored mountains. Despite being 1,897 m/,067 ft tall, Mount Vinson is not a technically difficult climb, despite the fact that it is exceedingly chilly at the peak, with temperatures down to minus 40 °C. Rovers with descending expertise can safely cross the gap under the direction of experienced Antarctic attendants.
To date, about 1000 people have ascended Mount Vinson. Although from a specialised climbing perspective the summits are more difficult, the cold wave, windy conditions, and the narrow window of an advantageous combination of circumstances to ascend prevent many climbers from reaching the top.
Conclusion
The southernmost region of Antarctica, the continent, is always covered in a thick layer of ice and is the coldest region. As a result, only a few experts travel there to do research; humans do not live there permanently. The least populated continent on Earth is Antarctica. The word “Antarctica” is derived from the Greek word “Antarctic,” which meaning “against the Arctic” or “against the north.” This snowy region is the sixth largest in the globe, spanning more than 14 million square kilometres.
Antarctica is a continent that is at the surface of our globe. Millions of people around the world regard Antarctica to be their ideal travel location. Penguins, seals, icebergs, and snow can be found there. Over 90% of the world’s ice reserves are found in Antarctica. With the aim of determining the criticality of the Antarctic continent as a whole, scientists from all over the world are stationed here.
Given that it is in its natural, untouched, or unspoiled state and appears charming, Antarctica is genuinely a place where one can live in complete contentment on the globe. Nations should be careful not to focus on territorial disparities but rather on scientific research as the effects of global warming worsen and the battle for dominance of new territories intensifies. The only place without infinite individual occupation is Antarctica.
Last Updated on by kalidaspandian