The most mysterious continent of the planet: 10 interesting facts about Antarctica

Almost the entire surface of Antarctica is covered with a dense layer of ice. For this reason, the continent remains the least studied on the whole planet, and in order to learn something new, scientists have to overcome extreme difficulties. But polar explorers do not give up. They equip stations in terrible climatic conditions, put up with the lack of sun and terrible frosts, drill wells for several years, trying to get to ice lakes, organize expeditions to dangerous zones of collapsing ice shelves - all this so that we can learn more about Antarctica, the most mysterious continent of the planet.

Since the Russian expedition, led by Lazarev and Bellingshausen, discovered the last continent unknown to the world in 1820, its appearance has not changed much. Due to the incredibly severe weather conditions, no one was in a hurry to establish a colony here or build a port city. And even today, the only people living on the continent can be considered employees of research stations. We offer to see why Antarctica is curious.

The main storage of fresh water on the planet

Antarctica is the largest freshwater storage on the planet. True, it is contained in the form of ice, the average thickness of which is about 1.6 kilometers. It is here, and not in the lakes and rivers of the Earth, that 70% of all fresh water resources of the planet are accumulated.

She's not like that at all

Antarctica looks like a huge white continent on world maps and satellite images. But if you remove all the ice, we will see what the real Antarctica looks like, with plains, hollows and mountain peaks.

Could not find colder places

The coldest place on the planet is in Antarctica, but it is not the South Pole. At the American Amundsen-Scott station, located at the geographic pole, the absolute temperature minimum is -82.8 ° C. While the temperature at the Russian Vostok station was -89.6 ° С, the record minimum, which amounted to -91.2 ° С, was witnessed by Japanese scientists at the Kupol Fuji station in 2004 (although this data for a number of reasons, they are still disputed by reputable scientists). The thing is that in Antarctica the same climatic principles apply as in the rest of the globe: the further inland, the more severe and contrasting the climate. And the Amundsen-Scott station, although located at the point of the South Pole, is geographically closer to the ocean than the Vostok and Fuji Dome stations.

The driest desert in the world

In fact, Antarctica is not completely covered with snow, and the driest place on the planet is not located in the Atacama Desert or Death Valley, but here in Antarctica. A place where for 2 million years there has been no rain or snow, it is called the Dry Valley of McMurdo. In these unique, ice-free valleys, research is often carried out, because it is much more convenient to study the surface and deep layers of the continent where there is no kilometer-thick ice.

Palms grew here

Antarctica has not always been so harsh and almost devoid of life. What can be observed today on the mainland is the result of changes that have occurred with the continent over the past 50 million years. During the Eocene, when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was much higher than today, the climate on the planet was very warm and humid. Climatic differences between equatorial and polar latitudes during this period were not so significant. Lush tropical forests grew on the coast of Antarctica, and even in the depths of the continent there were coniferous forests, quite rich in life.

Road Over Glacial Faults

Antarctica has its own road, with a length of more than 1,400 kilometers. This unique track was laid right in the snow, and some of its sections pass through glacial faults, which had to be carefully leveled. The road connects the American Amundsen-Scott station and the McMurdo coastline. Due to non-flying weather, Amundsen-Scott station often experiences difficulties with cargo delivery. For this reason, the road was laid, the operation of which is very expensive.

Antarctica is also melting

The ice cover of Antarctica, as well as the polar cap in the Northern Hemisphere, has been devastated by global warming in recent decades. After analyzing satellite images, scientists calculated that the annual loss of ice increased by 6 times compared with the end of the 70s of the last century.

Antarctica has a kindergarten, school and church

It turns out that not only polar explorers live in Antarctica, but also quite ordinary people, far from scientific research. We are talking about the Chilean town of Villa Las Estrella, founded in 1984. In an effort to prove its rights to part of Antarctica, Chile founded a city on the coast, which is inhabited by scientists, the military, as well as members of their families. It has everything you need for life, from kindergarten and school to a supermarket and the Catholic Church, and in winter it is warmer than in Russian Yakutia. But the Chileans in a sense were ahead of the Argentines. Back in 1975, they founded the Esperanza station, where three years later the first citizen of Antarctica was born. Of course, nobody except Argentina recognizes this status for Emilio Marcos Palm. Nevertheless, he was the first person who was born on the southernmost continent of the planet.

Hot volcanoes lurk beneath the ice

There are many volcanoes in Antarctica, most of which are hidden under a layer of ice. The number of volcanoes in Antarctica according to various sources is from 40 to 90. Some of them, for example, the Erebus volcano, are regularly active.

No dogs allowed

If the first explorers of the polar latitudes could not imagine their journeys without faithful four-legged friends, today dogs are strictly prohibited from entering the territory of the continent. Environmentalists fear that the best friends of a person could harm the local representatives of flora and fauna, which will lead to disruption of the fragile polar ecosystems of the continent.