Cool Antarctica, pictures of Antarctica, facts and travel guide Antarctica Travel Information and Travel Guide No place on earth compares to this vast white wilderness distilled to an elemental haiku: snow, ice, water, rock. Antarctica is simply stunning. The enormity of its ice shelves and mountain ranges invariably heightens feelings of humanity’s insignificance and nature’s grandeur. Because the continent has never had a native population – even today, scientists and other staff members at research stations are only temporary residents – Antarctic wildlife is still unafraid of people. Everyone – scientist, support worker, government official and tourist alike – who comes to this, the most isolated continent, must ‘earn’ Antarctica, either by making an often-difficult voyage or a costly flight. An international treaty signed by 46 countries, representing the large majority of the world’s population, governs Antarctica. Antarctica’s most pressing issue is its environment and how best to protect it. Human activity in the Antarctic is also having negative impacts. Ready to go? Read more
Antarctica Tours & Travel | Intrepid Travel AU Top responsible travel tips for Antarctica 1. Don’t use aircraft, vessels, small boats, or other means of transport in ways that disturb wildlife, either at sea or on land. 2. Don’t feed, touch, or handle birds or seals or approach or photograph them in ways that cause them to alter their behavior. Special care is needed when animals are breeding or molting. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Penguin Visit Antarctica - Discovering Antarctica Why are more people able to visit Antarctica? We have already seen why people want to visit Antarctica for example its unique beauty and wildlife is appealing to people. But why are more people able to visit Antarctica? Study the transcript, data and graphs showing some of the different reasons why it is much easier to visit Antarctica than in the past. Make notes why travelling to Antarctica is now possible. 1. “I visited Antarctica last year. 2. According to the Office of National Statistics Family Resources Survey for 2008-9 over half the households in the United Kingdom have an income of over £500 per week and almost 20% have an income of over £1000 per week after taxes etc have been paid. 3. In 1951 66% of manual workers had two weeks holiday. How have holiday entitlements changed?
Antarctica Earth's southernmost continent Antarctica ()[note 1] is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being about 40% larger than Europe, and has an area of 14,200,000 km2 (5,500,000 sq mi). Most of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi). Antarctica is, on average, the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents, and it has the highest average elevation. The ice shelves of Antarctica were probably first seen in 1820, during a Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. Antarctica is governed by about 30 countries, all of which are parties of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System. Etymology Geography East Antarctica comprises Coats Land, Queen Maud Land, Enderby Land, Mac. Present day
Antarctic animals adapting to the cold Antarctic animals are exposed to some of the coldest environments on earth. Animals survive in these harsh conditions by reducing the percentage of body heat that is lost to the environment. This can be by physical means (generally evolved over many generations) or patterns of behaviour. Physical adaptations Thick, windproof or waterproof coats Many Antarctic animals have either a windproof or waterproof coat. Thick fat (or blubber) layers Whales, seals and some penguins have thick fat layers. Blubber layers can also be used as an energy reserve, for example male elephant seals can live off their fat reserves during summer. Small ‘extremities’ The term extremities is used to mean any body part that is removed from the main body. Specialised adaptations by emperor penguins Emperor penguins are highly adapted to cold environments – and as the only animal that breeds during the Antarctic winter, they need to be. Behavioural adaptations
Penguin Cycle Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance | Timeline 1914-1916 When he left South Georgia Island on December 5, 1914 in his bid to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent, Ernest Shackleton had no idea that the next bit of land he touched (save for remote Elephant Island) would be that very same South Georgia - a year and a half later and after having not so much as set foot on the Antarctic continent. The story of what happened in between, outlined below, constitutes one of the most stupendous polar survival sagas of all time. For more specifics on the expedition and its 28 members, see the dispatches and Meet Shackleton's team, respectively. August 1Endurance departs London the same day Germany declares war on Russia August 4 Shackleton offers his ship and crew to British government for war effort August 8 After Shackleton receives one-word telegram from Admiralty ("Proceed"), Endurance departs Plymouth October 26 With final crew on board, Endurance leaves Buenos Aires, Argentina for South Georgia December 7 Enters the Antarctic pack ice
seal People in Antarctica Is it very different living in Antarctica? In some obvious ways it is different from Australia, such as living among snow and ice and having very long periods of darkness in winter and light in summer. And of course it is very cold and often windy, like the top of a mountain. Living ‘in the field’, away from the main station, you experience this difference very strongly. In other ways Antarctic life is quite like ‘home’ – people at the stations have fully insulated living and working quarters with their own rooms and bath/toilet facilities. Human impacts in Antarctica Antarctica is often thought of as a pristine land untouched by human disturbance. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. For a little more than 100 years people have been travelling to Antarctica and in that short time most parts have been visited and we have left more than just footprints. Human impacts include: harvesting some Antarctic species to the verge of extinction for economic benefit, killing and disturbing other species, contaminating the soils, and discharging sewage to the sea and leaving rubbish, cairns and tracks in even the most remote parts. Changing attitudes More recently attitudes have changed as we begin to realise that there are few unvisited places left on Earth and that they are of enormous value to humanity. Scales of environmental impacts in Antarctica Environmental impacts in Antarctica occur at a range of spatial scales. Global impacts of the industrial world show in Antarctica Finally, the Antarctic region is a sensitive indicator of global change. Sealing
Antarctic Summer Glacial dreaming The Mertz Glacier, named for Swiss explorer Xavier Mertz who died during an Australian expedition with Douglas Mawson in 1913 and whose body most likely remains in the glacier today, is an inhospitable, remote part of Antarctica between Cape de la Motte and Cape Hurley. The glacier was renowned for an exposed ice tongue poking 40 kilometres out from the Antarctic continent but in early 2010 a 97-kilometre long iceberg smashed into Mertz, resulting in the calving of a massive chunk of the ice tongue. In January 2011, a team of nearly 40 Australian and international scientists braved the Southern Ocean to deploy underwater cameras, moorings and sensors to study the glacier and its surrounding waters, with the mission of uncovering new information about the Earth's changing climate. Related links Interactive: Super icebreaker The Aurora Australis has been at the centre of Australia's research in Antarctic since the super icebreaker was launched in 1990. A world of white Credits