Antarctic ice sheet. Complete description of Antarctica

Despite the reduction in area continental ice Antarctica, its thickness increases.

The latest series of studies, carried out using data received from the European Cryosat satellite, made it possible to find out and found that, simultaneously with a decrease in the total area of ​​ice in Antarctica, their thickness increased. According to experts, the accuracy of the scientific equipment installed on Cryosat is currently unparalleled. In this regard, the confidence in the data obtained is high, and their importance from a scientific point of view is not in doubt. Although scientists are not able to explain the reliable cause of the thickening of the polar ice, but there is no doubt that this process is directly related to changes in environmental conditions.

Cryosat measured the thickness of the ice layer at certain control points, which were mainly located at the extremities of the continent, for example, on the desert plateau, known for the presence of very blue ice. There is almost no snow here, but there is an abundance of very clean ice. Such specific conditions are the best suited for measuring the thickness of the ice cover from a satellite. In this regard, a special high-precision device is installed on Cryosat - a laser altimeter, which, using radar signals, allows you to study the thickness and other characteristics of ice and transmit the data back to the satellite.

The thickness of ice in Antarctica is determined quite simply, taking into account the time delay between the emission of a signal and its receipt after reflection from the earth's firmament under the mass of ice. The difficulty lies in the fact that usually the ice in Antarctica is covered with a fairly thick layer of snow, and the signal does not always penetrate through it, which causes large distortions in the measurements. Therefore, those areas of the mainland. where there is no snow are ideal for such studies, since the accuracy of measurements is an order of magnitude higher here.

The value of the obtained data lies in the fact that satellite monitoring has been carried out in the selected regions since 2008. Prior to this, it was found that from 2008 to 2010 the layer Antarctic ice increased by an average of 9 centimeters. but in the next two years, the increase was already 10 centimeters. which indicates a significant increase in the growth rate of the ice crust thickness. German scientists from the University of Dresden note that from 1991 to 2000, the layer of ice crust on the desert plateau grew by only 5 centimeters. which is much lower than the rates seen today.

Currently, a team of climatologists from the United States. Europe and Canada are busy collecting additional information, which scientists hope will help explain possible reasons increase in the thickness of the ice of the sixth continent.

The thickness of the ice under which there is Vostok - a subglacial lake in Antarctica?

Firstly, this is fossil ice, whose age is calculated not in years, hundreds of years or thousands, but hundreds of thousands of years. It froze for a very long time, during the time that the continent of Antarctica existed. The age of the ice, which was lifted almost from the depth where the water begins, is about 430 thousand years.

It is clear that during this time a lot of ice has frozen and its thickness is about 4000 meters. The last figure is the depth of the well drilled by Russian scientists; scientists did not reach the water so as not to disturb the lake's ecosystem, which is very fragile and vulnerable to anthropogenic interference.

By the way, in the northern part of the lake, the ice thickness is less than 4000 meters - about 3800 meters, and in the southern part it is more - about 4200 meters.

Ice of Antarctica

Behind last years extensive research has been carried out in Antarctica. The mainland, almost entirely covered with an ice sheet, is one and a half times the size of Australia. The thickness of the ice here reaches 5 km. Deep valleys and entire mountain systems are hidden under the glaciers. Soviet researchers discovered under the ice near the Pole of relative inaccessibility a huge mountainous country with peaks reaching a height of 3 thousand meters above sea level. Moreover, about a kilometer of ice lies above the highest of the peaks. Now scientists have calculated that the volume of the ice sheet of Antarctica is 25 million cubic meters. km. Suffice it to say that the melting of this amount of ice will cause the level of the World Ocean to rise by 56 m above the current level. A huge ice cap lying on the southern mainland develops according to very complex laws. continuously all year round precipitation falls on its surface. Every year the layer of snow grows, and under the pressure of newly fallen snow, it turns into firn, and then into glacier ice. As the glacier grows upward, it experiences stresses that cause the glacier to spread from the center to the edge, compensating for the continuous growth in the center.

Scientists from many countries have made trips through the ice sheet of Antarctica, making seismic measurements of the thickness of the ice sheet. Now the length of these routes, or, as they are called, cuts, reaches 25 thousand km. During these trips, a number of measurements were made, in particular, the measurement of the temperature of the snow cover to a depth of 50 m. At this depth, seasonal and long-term fluctuations in air temperature no longer affect. Here the temperature is relatively constant. For example, in the center of Antarctica, it reaches 56 58C, with an ice sheet thickness of 3500 m. When scientists calculated how the temperature changes with depth, they encountered a contradiction. According to theoretical curves associated with geothermal internal warmth Earth, it turned out that at a geothermal step of 1 per 30 m, already at a depth of 1880 m, the ice temperature should be 0, that is, it should be on the verge of melting, and this contradicted a number of indirect signs. The first deep wells drilled in Antarctica showed that sometimes the temperature begins to decrease with depth rather than increase, and only at a depth of several hundred meters is there again an increase in temperature according to the geothermal gradient.

True, these wells were drilled in the marginal part of the glacier, where the correct picture can be distorted due to the movement of ice. But in the center of the ice sheet, the temperature gradient can be strongly distorted due to the growth of the glacier as a result of snow accumulation. It is very important to clarify these data, since if the lower layers of the glacier have a temperature close to zero, then we have the right to expect that a layer of water lies under a thick layer of ice, and this radically changes all our ideas about the structure of the Antarctic ice sheet . Recent drilling work has shown that in Antarctica there is indeed a layer of water under the ice.

Pyramids in Antarctica?

Everyone is accustomed to the picture shown to us, where Antarctica is continuous endless snow-covered expanses. And only near the coast, where the coastline thaws during the warm period, beaches and partially mountain ranges are exposed. And everything else - lies, as we were told, in geography lessons - under 2-3 km of ice. And there are places according to official data and up to 5 km. But, it turns out, if you look in the Google Earth program - in the depths of the mainland on the surface above the ice there are mountain and rocky massifs, partially covered with neither snow nor ice.

It is surprising that these not at all low mountains rise from under the thickness of ice and snow. Maybe the thickness of the ice on the continent is not kilometers at all. If you recall the video and photo of ice sliding into the ocean, then its height is a maximum of several hundred meters.

It is unusual to see mountains without snow deep in this continent. Airstrip at the foot of the mountains

Could these be traces of water erosion - when the continent was free of ice and there were comfortable temperatures?

Glacier off the coast of Antarctica. It cannot be said at all that the thickness of this ice is 2 km. But somehow no one talks about this and does not compare.

And where are the kilometer-thick glaciers? Here, even 30 m will not be typed ...

And we are always shown this:

Maybe there are such deposits of ice in the mountain valleys. But on the plain, such thicknesses are not visible from the photographs.

Scientists have one argument in assessing the age of the ice - we made cores and measured the number of rings on them. But we know that this method is fundamentally wrong: Lost Squadron 37,000 years old.

A unique super-salty lake five kilometers deep was discovered by scientists in Antarctica under a 19-meter layer of centuries-old ice. The lake was named Vida. The age of microbes found in the water of the lake reaches 2800 years. As biologists expect, since the water in the lake has been isolated from the rest of the world for millennia, unique ecological systems could form in an unusual reservoir. According to the researchers, this may provide a clue to the search for organic life on other planets, including Mars.

The researchers did not drill a pit directly to the lake, fearing to destroy the tightness of the reservoir. Using the method of radiocarbon analysis, scientists determined the age of sedimentary rocks found in the ice core - 2800 years. When the rocks were thawed, microorganisms were found in them, which they managed to revive. Biologists have suggested that the protozoa survived due to a unique combination of light, cold, and super-salinity.

Sources: news-mining.ru, www.bolshoyvopros.ru, restinworld.ru, sibved.livejournal.com, www.astronomy.ru

Aircraft of the ancients

Damascus - ancient city

asphalt lake

Dudleytown - the secret of an ancient curse

Egyptian Pyramid Mystery

Water from air

The solution to this problem was proposed by the Israeli company Water-Gen. According to its representatives, to provide a source of water at any time ...

City of Caral

About a hundred years ago in Peru, American archaeologists found fragments of household utensils made of ceramics. It turned out that their age is not ...

Seychelles - paradise islands

The Seychelles is a paradise where you want to stay forever. This is a large number of different beaches, hotels and bays. There are countless...

Supercomputers of Russia and China

It appears that China is determined to reduce its dependence on Western supercomputer companies. Supporting this assumption is that...

Spirit of the house

People have long believed in certain creatures that are invisibly next to a person. Some are evil and you need to beware of them, but ...

Lake Titicaca

Sun - meaning for the Earth

The value of the Sun for the Earth is difficult to overestimate. It is thanks to him that life exists and people have the opportunity to enjoy every new day. ...

Su-30M2 and Su-30SM

Representatives of the aviation unit of the Eastern Military District began acceptance of four multi-role fighters - Su-30SM and Su-30M2 at the manufacturing enterprises of Irkut Corporation OJSC ...

Any word, any phrase in a language cannot arise from nowhere. ...

Antarctica- a continent located in the very south of the Earth, the center of Antarctica approximately coincides with the geographic south pole. Antarctica is washed by the waters of the Southern Ocean.
The area of ​​the continent is about 14,107,000 km² (of which ice shelves - 930,000 km², islands - 75,500 km²).

Antarctica is also called the part of the world, consisting of the mainland of Antarctica and adjacent islands.

Map of Antarctica - open

Opening

Antarctica was officially discovered on January 16 (28), 1820 by a Russian expedition led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, who approached it on the sloops Vostok and Mirny at the point 69°21′S sh. 2°14′ W d.(G) (O) (area of ​​present-day Bellingshausen Ice Shelf). Previously, the existence of the southern mainland (lat. Terra Australis) was asserted hypothetically, it was often combined with South America (for example, on a map compiled by Piri Reis in 1513) and Australia (named after the “southern mainland”). However, it was the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev in the south polar seas, having circled the Antarctic ice around the world, confirmed the existence of the sixth continent.

The first to enter the continental part on January 24, 1895 were the captain of the Norwegian ship "Antarctic" Christensen and the teacher natural sciences Carsten Borchgrevink.

Geographic division

The territory of Antarctica is divided into geographical areas and areas discovered years earlier by various travelers. The area explored and named after the discoverer (or others) is called "land".

The official list of lands of Antarctica:

• Queen Maud Land
• Wilkes Land
• Victoria Land
• Land Mary Byrd
• Ellsworth Land

Relief

Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth, the average height of the surface of the continent above sea level is more than 2000 m, and in the center of the continent it reaches 4000 meters. Most of this height is the permanent ice cover of the continent, under which the continental relief is hidden, and only 0.3% (about 40 thousand km²) of its area is free of ice - mainly in West Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains: islands, coastal areas, etc. n. "dry valleys" and individual ridges and mountain peaks (nunataks) rising above the ice surface. The Transantarctic Mountains, crossing almost the entire continent, divide Antarctica into two parts - West Antarctica and East Antarctica, which have a different origin and geological structure. In the east there is a high (the highest elevation of the ice surface is ~4100 m above sea level) ice-covered plateau. The western part consists of a group of mountainous islands connected by ice. On the Pacific coast are the Antarctic Andes, whose height exceeds 4000 m; the highest point of the continent - 5140 m above sea level - the Vinson massif in the Ellsworth mountains. In West Antarctica there is also the deepest depression of the continent - the Bentley depression, probably of rift origin. The depth of the Bentley depression, filled with ice, reaches 2555 m below sea level.

Under-ice relief

The study using modern methods made it possible to learn more about the subglacial relief of the southern continent. As a result of the research, it turned out that about a third of the mainland lies below the level of the world ocean, the research also showed the presence mountain ranges and arrays.

The western part of the continent has a complex relief and large elevation changes. Here are the highest mountain (Vinson 5140 m) and the most deep depression(Bentley trough −2555 m) in Antarctica. The Antarctic Peninsula is a continuation of the South American Andes, which stretch towards the South Pole, slightly deviating from it to the western sector.

The eastern part of the mainland has a predominantly smooth relief, with separate plateaus and mountain ranges up to 3-4 km high. In contrast to the western part, composed of young Cenozoic rocks, the eastern part is a projection of the crystalline basement of the platform that was previously part of Gondwana.

The continent has relatively low volcanic activity. The largest volcano is Mount Erebus on Ross Island in the sea of ​​the same name.

NASA's subglacial surveys have discovered a crater of asteroid origin in Antarctica. The diameter of the funnel is 482 km. The crater was formed when an asteroid with a diameter of about 48 kilometers (larger than Eros) fell to Earth, about 250 million years ago, in the Permian-Triassic period. The asteroid did not cause severe harm to the nature of the Earth, but the dust raised during the fall led to centuries of cooling and the death of most of the flora and fauna of that era. This crater is by far the largest on Earth.

ice sheet

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest on our planet and exceeds the nearest Greenland ice sheet in area by approximately 10 times. It contains ~30 million km³ of ice, that is, 90% of all land ice. Due to the severity of the ice, as studies by geophysicists show, the continent sank by an average of 0.5 km, as evidenced by its relatively deep shelf. The ice sheet in Antarctica contains about 80% of all fresh water on the planet; if it melts completely, global sea levels will rise by almost 60 meters (for comparison: if the Greenland ice sheet melted, ocean levels would rise by only 8 meters).

The ice sheet is dome-shaped with an increase in the steepness of the surface towards the coast, where it is framed in many places by ice shelves. The average thickness of the ice layer is 2500-2800 m, reaching a maximum value in some areas of East Antarctica - 4800 m. The accumulation of ice on the ice sheet leads, as in the case of other glaciers, to the flow of ice into the ablation (destruction) zone, which is coast of the continent; ice breaks off in the form of icebergs. The annual volume of ablation is estimated at 2500 km³.

A feature of Antarctica is a large area of ​​ice shelves (low (blue) areas of West Antarctica), which is ~10% of the area that rises above sea level; these glaciers are the source of icebergs of record size, much larger than those of the outlet glaciers of Greenland; for example, in 2000, the largest iceberg B-15 known at the moment (2005) with an area of ​​over 10 thousand km² broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf. AT winter period(summer in the northern hemisphere) area sea ​​ice around Antarctica increases to 18 million km², and decreases to 3-4 million km² in summer.

The ice sheet of Antarctica was formed about 14 million years ago, which was apparently facilitated by the rupture of the bridge connecting South America and the Antarctic Peninsula, which, in turn, led to the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (currents West Winds) and the isolation of the Antarctic waters from the World Ocean - these waters make up the so-called Southern Ocean.

Climate

Antarctica has an extremely harsh cold climate. In East Antarctica, at the Soviet Antarctic station Vostok on July 21, 1983, the lowest air temperature on Earth in the entire history of meteorological measurements was recorded: 89.2 degrees below zero. The area is considered the cold pole of the Earth. Average temperatures winter months(June, July, August) from -60 to -70 °С, summer (December, January, February) from -30 to -50 °С; on the coast in winter from -8 to -35 °С, in summer 0-5 °С.

Another feature of the meteorology of East Antarctica is katabatic (katabatic) winds, due to its dome-shaped topography. These steady winds southerly directions occur on rather steep slopes of the ice sheet due to cooling of the air layer near the ice surface, the density of the near-surface layer increases, and it flows down the slope under the action of gravity. The thickness of the air flow layer is usually 200-300 m; due to a large number wind-blown ice dust, horizontal visibility in such winds is very low. The strength of the katabatic wind is proportional to the steepness of the slope and highest values reaches coastal areas with a high slope towards the sea. The katabatic winds reach their maximum strength in the Antarctic winter - from April to November they blow almost continuously around the clock, from November to March - at night or when the Sun is low above the horizon. In summer, during the daytime, due to the heating of the near-surface air layer by the sun, katabatic winds near the coast stop.

Data on temperature changes from 1981 to 2007 show that the temperature background in Antarctica has changed unevenly. For West Antarctica, as a whole, an increase in temperature is observed, while for East Antarctica, no warming has been detected, and even a slight decrease has been noted. It is unlikely that in the XXI century the process of melting of the glaciers of Antarctica will increase significantly. On the contrary, the amount of snow falling on the Antarctic ice sheet is expected to increase as temperatures rise. However, due to warming, a more intensive destruction of ice shelves and an acceleration of the movement of outlet glaciers of Antarctica, which throw ice into the World Ocean, are possible.

Population

In the 19th century, there were several whaling bases. Subsequently, they were all abandoned.

The harsh climate of Antarctica prevents its settlement. Currently, there is no permanent population in Antarctica, there are several dozen scientific stations at which, depending on the season, from 4000 people live (150 Russian citizens) in summer and about 1000 in winter (about 100 Russian citizens).

In 1978, the first man of Antarctica, Emilio Marcos Palma, was born at the Esperanza station in Argentina.

Antarctica assigned internet top-level domain .aq and telephone prefix +672 .

Status of Antarctica

In accordance with the Antarctic Convention, signed on December 1, 1959 and entered into force on June 23, 1961, Antarctica does not belong to any state. Only scientific activities are allowed.

The deployment of military installations, as well as the entry of warships and armed vessels south of 60 degrees south latitude, are prohibited.

In the 1980s, Antarctica was also declared a nuclear-free zone, which excluded the appearance of nuclear-powered ships in its waters, and nuclear power units on the mainland.

Now the parties to the treaty are 28 states (with the right to vote) and dozens of observer countries.

Antarctica (Greek ἀνταρκτικός - the opposite of the Arctic) is a continent located in the very south of the Earth, the center of Antarctica approximately coincides with the geographic south pole. Antarctica is washed by the waters of the Southern Ocean.

The area of ​​the continent is about 14,107,000 km² (of which ice shelves - 930,000 km², islands - 75,500 km²).

Antarctica is also called the part of the world, consisting of the mainland of Antarctica and adjacent islands.

Discovery of the continent Antarctica

Antarctica was discovered on January 16 (28), 1820 by a Russian expedition led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, who approached it on the sloops Vostok and Mirny at the point 69°21′ S. sh. 2°14′ W (G) (O) (area of ​​the modern Bellingshausen Ice Shelf). Previously, the existence of the southern continent (lat. Terra Australis) was hypothetically stated, often it was combined with South America (for example, on a map compiled by Piri Reis in 1513) and Australia. However, it was the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev in the south polar seas, having circled the Antarctic ice around the world, confirmed the existence of the sixth continent.

The first to enter the continent was probably the team American ship"Cecilia" February 7, 1821. The exact location of the landing is not known, but it is believed to have occurred in Hughes Bay (64°13'S 61°20'W (G) (O)). This claim of landing on the continent is among the earliest. The most accurate is the statement about the landing on the mainland (Davis Coast) from the Norwegian businessman Henrik Johann Bull, dated 1895.

Geographic division

The territory of Antarctica is divided into geographical areas and areas discovered years earlier by various travelers. The area explored and named after the discoverer (or others) is called "land".

The official list of lands of Antarctica:

• Queen Maud Land
• Wilkes Land
• Victoria Land
• Land Mary Byrd
• Ellsworth Land
• Land of Kots
• Land of Enderby

The northernmost point of the continent is Prime Head.

Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth, the average height of the surface of the continent above sea level is more than 2000 m, and in the center of the continent it reaches 4000 meters. Most of this height is the permanent ice cover of the continent, under which the continental relief is hidden, and only 0.3% (about 40 thousand km²) of its area is free of ice - mainly in West Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains: islands, coastal areas, etc. n. "dry valleys" and individual ridges and mountain peaks (nunataks) rising above the ice surface. The Transantarctic Mountains, crossing almost the entire continent, divide Antarctica into two parts - West Antarctica and East Antarctica, which have a different origin and geological structure. In the east there is a high (the highest elevation of the ice surface is ~4100 m above sea level) ice-covered plateau. The western part consists of a group of mountainous islands connected by ice. On the Pacific coast are the Antarctic Andes, whose height exceeds 4000 m; the highest point of the continent - 5140 m above sea level - the Vinson massif in the Ellsworth mountains. In West Antarctica there is also the deepest depression of the continent - the Bentley depression, probably of rift origin. The depth of the Bentley depression, filled with ice, reaches 2555 m below sea level.

The study using modern methods made it possible to learn more about the subglacial relief of the southern continent. As a result of the research, it turned out that about a third of the mainland lies below the level of the world ocean, the research also showed the presence of mountain ranges and massifs.

The western part of the continent has a complex relief and large elevation changes. Here are the highest mountain (Mount Vinson 5140 m) and the deepest depression (Bentley trough −2555 m) in Antarctica. The Antarctic Peninsula is a continuation of the South American Andes, which stretch towards the South Pole, slightly deviating from it to the western sector.

The eastern part of the mainland has a predominantly smooth relief, with separate plateaus and mountain ranges up to 3-4 km high. In contrast to the western part, composed of young Cenozoic rocks, the eastern part is a projection of the crystalline basement of the platform that was previously part of Gondwana.

The continent has relatively low volcanic activity. The largest volcano is Mount Erebus on Ross Island in the sea of ​​the same name.

NASA's subglacial surveys have discovered a crater of asteroid origin in Antarctica. The diameter of the funnel is 482 km. The crater was formed when an asteroid with a diameter of about 48 kilometers (larger than Eros) fell to Earth, about 250 million years ago, in the Permian-Triassic time. The dust raised during the fall and explosion of the asteroid led to centuries of cooling and the death of most of the flora and fauna of that era. This crater is by far the largest on Earth.

In the event of complete melting of the glaciers, the area of ​​Antarctica will be reduced by a third: western Antarctica will turn into an archipelago, while eastern Antarctica will remain the mainland. According to other sources, the whole of Antarctica will turn into an archipelago.

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest on our planet and exceeds the nearest Greenland ice sheet in area by approximately 10 times. It contains ~30 million km³ of ice, that is, 90% of all land ice. Due to the severity of the ice, as studies by geophysicists show, the continent sank by an average of 0.5 km, as evidenced by its relatively deep shelf. The ice sheet in Antarctica contains about 80% of all fresh water on the planet; if it melts completely, global sea levels will rise by almost 60 meters (for comparison: if the Greenland ice sheet melted, ocean levels would rise by only 8 meters).

The ice sheet is dome-shaped with an increase in the steepness of the surface towards the coast, where it is framed in many places by ice shelves. The average thickness of the ice layer is 2500-2800 m, reaching a maximum value in some areas of East Antarctica - 4800 m. The accumulation of ice on the ice sheet leads, as in the case of other glaciers, to the flow of ice into the ablation (destruction) zone, which is coast of the continent; ice breaks off in the form of icebergs. The annual volume of ablation is estimated at 2500 km³.

A feature of Antarctica is a large area of ​​ice shelves (low (blue) areas of West Antarctica), which is ~10% of the area that rises above sea level; these glaciers are the source of icebergs of record size, much larger than those of the outlet glaciers of Greenland; for example, in 2000, the largest iceberg B-15 known at the moment (2005) with an area of ​​over 10 thousand km² broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf. In winter (summer in the Northern Hemisphere), the area of ​​sea ice around Antarctica increases to 18 million km², and in summer it decreases to 3-4 million km².

The age of the ice sheet in the upper part can be determined from annual layers consisting of winter and summer deposits, as well as from marker horizons that carry information about global events (for example, volcanic eruptions). But at great depths, numerical modeling of ice spreading is used to determine the age, which is based on knowledge of the relief, temperature, snow accumulation rate, etc.

According to Academician Vladimir Mikhailovich Kotlyakov, the ice sheet of the mainland was formed no later than 5 million years ago, but more likely, 30-35 million years ago. Apparently, this was facilitated by the rupture of the bridge connecting South America and the Antarctic Peninsula, which, in turn, led to the formation of the Antarctic circumpolar current (Western Winds current) and the isolation of the Antarctic waters from the World Ocean - these waters make up the so-called Southern Ocean.

Geological structure

Geological structure of East Antarctica

East Antarctica is an ancient Precambrian continental platform (craton) similar to those of India, Brazil, Africa, and Australia. All these cratons were formed during the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent. The age of the rocks of the crystalline basement is 2.5-2.8 billion years, the most ancient rocks of Enderby Earth are more than 3 billion years old.

The basement is covered by a younger sedimentary cover formed 350-190 Ma ago, mostly marine origin. The layers with an age of 320-280 Ma contain glacial deposits, but younger ones contain fossil remains of plants and animals, including ichthyosaurs, which indicates a strong difference between the climate of that time and the modern one. Findings of heat-loving reptiles and fern flora were made by the first explorers of Antarctica and served as one of the hardest evidence of large-scale horizontal plate movements, confirming the concept of plate tectonics.

seismic activity. Volcanism

Antarctica is a tectonically calm continent with low seismic activity, manifestations of volcanism are concentrated in West Antarctica and are associated with the Antarctic Peninsula, which arose during the Andean period of mountain building. Some of the volcanoes, especially island ones, have erupted in the last 200 years. The most active volcano in Antarctica is Erebus. It is called "the volcano guarding the way to the South Pole".

Climate

Antarctica has an extremely harsh cold climate. In East Antarctica, at the Soviet Antarctic station Vostok on July 21, 1983, the lowest air temperature on Earth in the entire history of meteorological measurements was recorded: 89.2 degrees below zero. The area is considered the cold pole of the Earth. The average temperatures of the winter months (June, July, August) are from -60 to -75 °С, summer (December, January, February) from -30 to -50 °С; on the coast in winter from -8 to -35 °С, in summer 0-5 °С.

Another feature of the meteorology of East Antarctica is katabatic (katabatic) winds, due to its dome-shaped topography. These steady southerly winds occur on rather steep slopes of the ice sheet due to the cooling of the air layer near the ice surface, the density of the near-surface layer increases, and it flows down the slope under the action of gravity. The thickness of the air flow layer is usually 200-300 m; due to the large amount of ice dust carried by the wind, horizontal visibility in such winds is very low. The strength of the katabatic wind is proportional to the steepness of the slope and reaches its highest values ​​in coastal areas with a high slope towards the sea. The katabatic winds reach their maximum strength in the Antarctic winter - from April to November they blow almost continuously around the clock, from November to March - at night or when the Sun is low above the horizon. In summer, during the daytime, due to the heating of the near-surface air layer by the sun, katabatic winds near the coast stop.

Data on temperature changes from 1981 to 2007 show that the temperature background in Antarctica has changed unevenly. For West Antarctica, as a whole, an increase in temperature is observed, while for East Antarctica, no warming has been detected, and even a slight decrease has been noted. It is unlikely that in the XXI century the process of melting of the glaciers of Antarctica will increase significantly. On the contrary, the amount of snow falling on the Antarctic ice sheet is expected to increase as temperatures rise. However, due to warming, a more intensive destruction of ice shelves and an acceleration of the movement of outlet glaciers of Antarctica, which throw ice into the World Ocean, are possible.

Due to the fact that not only average annual, but also in most areas even summer temperatures in Antarctica do not exceed zero degrees, precipitation there falls only in the form of snow (rain is an extremely rare occurrence). It forms an ice sheet (snow is compressed under its own weight) with a thickness of more than 1700 m, in some places reaching 4300 m. About 80% of all fresh water Earth. Nevertheless, there are lakes in Antarctica, and in the summer, rivers. The food of the rivers is glacial. Thanks to intensive solar radiation, due to the exceptional transparency of the air, the melting of glaciers occurs even at a slight negative air temperature. On the surface of the glacier, often at a considerable distance from the coast, streams of melt water are formed. The most intense melting occurs near oases, next to rocky ground heated by the sun. Since all streams are fed by the melting of the glacier, their water and level regime is completely determined by the course of air temperature and solar radiation. The greatest expenses in them are observed during the hours of the most high temperatures air, that is, in the second half of the day, and the smallest - at night, and often at this time the channels completely dry up. Glacial streams and rivers, as a rule, have very winding channels and connect numerous glacial lakes. Open channels usually end before reaching the sea or lake, and the watercourse makes its way further under the ice or in the thickness of the glacier, like underground rivers in karst areas.

With the onset of autumn frosts, the flow stops, and deep channels with steep banks are covered with snow or blocked by snow bridges. Sometimes almost constant snow and frequent blizzards block the channels of streams even before the runoff stops, and then the streams flow in ice tunnels, completely invisible from the surface. Like crevasses in glaciers, they are dangerous as heavy vehicles can fall through them. If the snow bridge is not strong enough, it can collapse under the weight of a person. The rivers of the Antarctic oases flowing through the ground usually do not exceed a few kilometers in length. The largest - r. Onyx, over 20 km long. The rivers exist only in the summer.

Antarctic lakes are no less peculiar. Sometimes they stand out in a special, Antarctic type. They are located in oases or dry valleys and are almost always covered with a thick layer of ice. However, in summer, a strip of open water several tens of meters wide is formed along the banks and at the mouths of temporary streams. Often, lakes are stratified. At the bottom there is a layer of water with elevated temperature and salinity, as, for example, in Lake Vanda (English) Russian .. In some small closed lakes, the concentration of salt is significantly increased and they can be completely ice-free. For example, oz. Don Juan, with a high concentration of calcium chloride in its waters, freezes only at very low temperatures. Antarctic lakes are small, only some of them are larger than 10 km² (Lake Vanda, Lake Figure). The largest of the Antarctic lakes is Figurnoye Lake in the Bunger oasis. Bizarrely meandering among the hills, it stretches for 20 kilometers. Its area is 14.7 km², and the depth exceeds 130 meters. The deepest is Lake Radok, its depth reaches 362 m.

There are lakes on the coast of Antarctica, formed as a result of water backwater by snowfields or small glaciers. Water in such lakes sometimes accumulates for several years until its level rises to the upper edge of the natural dam. Then excess water begins to flow out of the lake. A channel is formed, which quickly deepens, the flow of water increases. As the channel deepens, the water level in the lake falls and it shrinks in size. In winter, the dried-up channel is covered with snow, which is gradually compacted, and the natural dam is restored. In the next summer season, the lake begins to fill with melt water again. It takes several years until the lake is filled and its waters again break into the sea.

Comparing Antarctica with other continents, it can be noted that there are absolutely no wetlands on the South Polar continent. However, there are peculiar glacial "swamps" in the coastal strip. They form in summer in depressions filled with snow and firn. The melt water flowing into these depressions moistens the snow and firn, resulting in a snow-water porridge, viscous, like ordinary swamps. The depth of such "bogs" is most often insignificant - no more than a meter. From above they are covered with a thin ice crust. Like real swamps, they are sometimes impassable even for caterpillar vehicles: a tractor or all-terrain vehicle that has got into such a place, bogged down in a snow and water porridge, will not get out without outside help.

In the 1990s, Russian scientists discovered the subglacial non-freezing Lake Vostok - the largest of the Antarctic lakes, having a length of 250 km and a width of 50 km; the lake holds about 5400 thousand km³ of water.

In January 2006, geophysicists Robin Bell and Michael Studinger from the American Lamont-Doherty Geophysical Observatory discovered the second and third largest subglacial lakes, with an area of ​​​​2000 km² and 1600 km², respectively, located at a depth of about 3 km from the surface of the continent. They reported that this could have been done sooner if the data from the Soviet expedition of 1958-1959 had been analyzed more carefully. In addition to these data, satellite data, radar readings and measurements of the force of gravity on the surface of the continent were used.

In total, in 2007, more than 140 subglacial lakes were discovered in Antarctica.

As a result of global warming, tundra began to actively form on the Antarctic Peninsula. According to scientists, in 100 years the first trees may appear in Antarctica.

An oasis on the Antarctic Peninsula covers an area of ​​400 km², total area oases 10 thousand km², and the area is not occupied by ice areas (including snowless rocks) is 30-40 thousand km².

The biosphere in Antarctica is represented in four “arenas of life”: coastal islands and ice, coastal oases on the mainland (for example, the “Banger oasis”), the nunatak arena (Mount Amundsen near Mirny, Mount Nansen on Victoria Land, etc.) and the arena of the ice sheet .

From plants there are flowering, fern (on the Antarctic Peninsula), lichens, fungi, bacteria, algae (in oases). Seals and penguins live on the coast.

Plants and animals are most common in the coastal zone. Ground vegetation in ice-free areas exists mainly in the form various kinds mosses and lichens and does not form a continuous cover (Antarctic moss-lichen deserts).

Antarctic animals are completely dependent on the coastal ecosystem of the Southern Ocean: due to the scarcity of vegetation, all food chains coastal ecosystems begin in the waters surrounding Antarctica. Antarctic waters are particularly rich in zooplankton, primarily krill. Krill directly or indirectly form the basis of the food chain for many species of fish, cetaceans, squid, seals, penguins and other animals; There are no completely land mammals in Antarctica, invertebrates are represented by about 70 species of arthropods (insects and arachnids) and nematodes living in soils.

Of the terrestrial animals, seals live (Weddell, crabeater seals, sea leopards, Ross, sea ​​elephants) and birds (several species of petrels (antarctic, snowy), two species of skuas, arctic tern, Adélie penguins and emperor penguins).

In freshwater lakes of continental coastal oases - "dry valleys" - there are oligotrophic ecosystems inhabited by blue-green algae, roundworms, copepods (cyclops) and daphnia, while birds (petrels and skuas) fly here occasionally.

Nunataks are characterized only by bacteria, algae, lichens and heavily oppressed mosses; only skuas following people occasionally fly onto the ice sheet.

There is an assumption about the presence in the subglacial lakes of Antarctica, such as Lake Vostok, of extremely oligotrophic ecosystems, practically isolated from the outside world.

In 1994, scientists reported a rapid increase in the number of plants in the Antarctic, which seems to confirm the hypothesis of global warming on the planet.

The Antarctic Peninsula with adjacent islands has the most favorable conditions on the mainland. climatic conditions. It is here that two species of flowering plants found in the region grow - antarctic meadow grass and kito colobanthus.

Man and Antarctica

In preparation for the International Geophysical Year, about 60 bases and stations belonging to 11 states were founded on the coast, ice sheet and islands (including Soviet ones - the Mirny Observatory, Oasis, Pionerskaya, Vostok-1, Komsomolskaya and Vostok stations, American ones - Amudsen -Scott at the South Pole, Byrd, Hulett, Wilkes and McMurdo).

Since the late 1950s in the seas surrounding the continent, oceanographic work is carried out, regular geophysical research is carried out at stationary continental stations; expeditions are also undertaken into the interior of the continent. Soviet scientists carried out a sledge-tractor trip to the Geomagnetic Pole (1957), the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility (1958), and the South Pole (1959). American explorers went on all-terrain vehicles from Little America station to Byrd station and further to Sentinel station (1957), in 1958-1959 from Ellsworth station through the Dufek massif to Byrd station; In 1957-1958, British and New Zealand scientists on tractors crossed Antarctica through the South Pole from the Wedell Sea to the Ross Sea. Australian, Belgian and French scientists also worked in the interior of Antarctica. In 1959, an international treaty on Antarctica was concluded, which promoted the development of cooperation in the exploration of the ice continent.

History of the study of the continent

The first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle belonged to the Dutch; it was commanded by Dirk Geeritz, who sailed in the squadron of Jacob Magyu. In 1559, in the Strait of Magellan, Geeritz's ship, after a storm, lost sight of the squadron and went south. When it descended to 64° S. sh., high land was discovered there. In 1675, La Rocher discovered South Georgia; Bouvet Island was discovered in 1739; in 1772 in the Indian Ocean Yves-Joseph Kerglen, French Marine officer, discovered the island named after him.

Almost simultaneously with the sailing of Kerglen from England, he set off on his first trip to Southern Hemisphere James Cook, and already in January 1773 his ships Adventure and Resolution crossed the Antarctic Circle at meridian 37°33′E. e. After a hard struggle with the ice, he reached 67 ° 15′ S. sh., where he was forced to turn north. In December 1773, Cook again went to the southern ocean, on December 8 he crossed it and on the parallel of 67 ° 5′ S. sh. was covered in ice. Freed, Cook went further south and at the end of January 1774 reached 71 ° 15′ S. sh., SW from Tierra del Fuego. Here an impenetrable wall of ice prevented him from going further. Cook was one of the first to reach the south polar seas and, having met solid ice in several places, he announced that it was impossible to penetrate further. They believed him and for 45 years they did not undertake polar expeditions.

The first geographical discovery of land south of 60 ° S. (modern "political Antarctica", governed by the Antarctic Treaty system) was committed by the English merchant William Smith, who stumbled upon Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, on February 19, 1819.

In 1819, the Russian sailors F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev on the military sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" visited South Georgia and tried to penetrate deep into the South Arctic Ocean. The first time, on January 28, 1820, almost on the Greenwich meridian, they reached 69°21′ S. sh. and discovered the actual modern Antarctica; then, having gone beyond the polar circle, Bellingshausen passed along it to the east to 19 ° e. where he crossed it again and reached in February 1820 again almost the same latitude (69 ° 6 ′). Further to the east, it rose only to 62° parallel and continued on its way along the margin of the floating ice. Then, on the meridian of the Balleny Islands, Bellingshausen reached 64 ° 55 ′, in December 1820 reached 161 ° W. passed the Antarctic Circle and reached 67°15′ S. sh., and in January 1821 it reached 69 ° 53′ S. sh. Almost at the 81° meridian, he discovered the high coast of Peter I Island, and, having gone further east, inside the Antarctic Circle, he discovered the coast of Alexander I Land. Thus, Bellingshausen was the first to complete a full voyage around Antarctica at latitudes from 60° to 70°.

In 1838-1842, the American Charles Wilkes explored a part of Antarctica, named Wilkes Land after him. In 1839-1840 Frenchman Jules Dumont-Durville discovered Adélie Land, and in 1841-1842 Englishman James Ross discovered the Ross Sea and Victoria Land. The first landing on the coast of Antarctica and the first wintering was made by the Norwegian expedition of Carsten Borchgrevink in 1895.

After that, the study of the coast of the continent and its interior began. Numerous studies were done by English expeditions led by Ernest Shackleton (he wrote a book about them, In the Heart of Antarctica). In 1911-1912, between the expedition of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and the expedition of the Englishman Robert Scott, a real race to conquer South Pole. Amundsen, Olaf Bjaland, Oskar Wisting, Helmer Hansen and Sverre Hassel were the first to reach the South Pole; a month after him, Scott's party arrived at the coveted point, which died on the way back.

From the middle of the 20th century, the study of Antarctica began on an industrial basis. Numerous permanent bases are being created on the continent by various countries, conducting meteorological, glaciological and geological research all year round. On December 14, 1958, the third Soviet Antarctic expedition, led by Evgeny Tolstikov, reached the South Pole of Inaccessibility and established the temporary Pole of Inaccessibility station there.

In the 19th century, several whaling bases existed on the Antarctic Peninsula and adjacent islands. Subsequently, they were all abandoned.

The harsh climate of Antarctica prevents its settlement. Currently, there is no permanent population in Antarctica, there are several dozen scientific stations at which, depending on the season, from 4000 people live (150 Russian citizens) in summer and about 1000 in winter (about 100 Russian citizens).

In 1978, the first man of Antarctica, Emilio Marcos Palma, was born at the Esperanza station in Argentina.

Antarctica has been assigned the Internet top-level domain .aq and the telephone prefix +672.

Status of Antarctica

In accordance with the Antarctic Convention, signed on December 1, 1959 and entered into force on June 23, 1961, Antarctica does not belong to any state. Only scientific activities are allowed.

The deployment of military installations, as well as the entry of warships and armed vessels south of 60 degrees south latitude, are prohibited.

In the 1980s, Antarctica was also declared a nuclear-free zone, which excluded the appearance of nuclear-powered ships in its waters, and nuclear power units on the mainland.

Now the parties to the treaty are 28 states (with the right to vote) and dozens of observer countries.

Territorial claims

However, the existence of a treaty does not mean that the states that acceded to it have renounced their territorial claims to the continent and adjacent space. On the contrary, the territorial claims of some countries are formidable. For example, Norway claims a territory ten times larger than its own (including the island of Peter I, discovered by the Bellingshausen-Lazarev expedition). Great territories declared their Great Britain. The British intend to extract ore and hydrocarbon resources on the Antarctic shelf. Australia considers almost half of Antarctica to be its own, into which, however, the “French” Adélie Land is wedged. Made territorial claims and New Zealand. Great Britain, Chile and Argentina claim practically the same territory, including the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. None of the countries officially put forward territorial claims to the land of Mary Byrd. However, hints of US rights to this territory are contained in unofficial American sources.

The United States and Russia took a special position, declaring that they could, in principle, put forward their territorial claims in Antarctica, although so far they have not done so. Moreover, both states do not recognize the claims of other countries.

The continent of Antarctica is today the only uninhabited and undeveloped continent of the Earth. Antarctica has long attracted European powers and the United States, but it began to be of world interest at the end of the 20th century. Antarctica is the last resource reserve for humanity on Earth. After the exhaustion of raw materials on the five inhabited continents, people will develop its resources. However, since Antarctica will remain the only source of resources for countries, the struggle for its resources has already begun, which may result in a violent military conflict. Geologists have found that the bowels of Antarctica contain a significant amount of minerals - iron ore, hard coal; found traces of ores of copper, nickel, lead, zinc, molybdenum, rock crystal, mica, graphite. In addition, about 80% of the world's fresh water is located in Antarctica, the lack of which is already felt in many countries.

At present, observations are being made on climate and meteorological processes on a continent that, like the Gulf Stream in the Northern Hemisphere, is a climate-forming factor for the entire Earth. In Antarctica, the effects of outer space and the processes occurring in the earth's crust are also being studied.

The study of the ice sheet brings serious scientific results, informing us about the climate of the Earth hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of years ago. In the ice sheet of Antarctica were "recorded" data on the climate and composition of the atmosphere over the past hundred thousand years. By chemical composition different layers of ice determine the level of solar activity over the past few centuries.

Microorganisms have been discovered in Antarctica that may be of value to science and allow a better study of these life forms.

The many Antarctic bases, especially the Russian bases located around the entire perimeter of the continent, provide ideal opportunities for tracking seismological activity throughout the planet. The Antarctic bases are also testing technologies and equipment that are planned to be used in the future for the exploration, development and colonization of other planets of the solar system.

Russia in Antarctica

There are about 45 year-round scientific stations in Antarctica. Russia currently has seven operating stations and one field base in Antarctica.

Permanently operating:

• Bellingshausen
• Peaceful
• Novolazarevskaya
• East
• Progress
• Sea Squad
• Leningrad (Reactivated in 2008)
• Russian (Reactivated in 2008)

Canned:

• Youth
• Druzhnaya-4

No longer existing:

• Pioneer
• Komsomolskaya
• Soviet
• Vostok-1
• Lazarev
• Pole of inaccessibility
• Oasis (given to Poland in 1959)

Orthodox Church

First Orthodox Church in Antarctica was built on the island of Waterloo (South Shetland Islands) not far from the Russian Bellingshausen station with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. They collected it in Altai, and then transported it to the icy mainland on the scientific vessel Akademik Vavilov. The fifteen-meter temple was cut down from cedar and larch. It accommodates up to 30 people.

The temple was consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity on February 15, 2004 by the vicar of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, Bishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad, in the presence of numerous clergy, pilgrims and sponsors, who arrived on a special flight from the nearest city, Chilean Punta Arenas. Now the temple is the Patriarchal Compound of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Holy Trinity Church is considered the most southern Orthodox church in the world. To the south, there is only the chapel of St. John of Rylsky at the Bulgarian station St. Kliment Ohridsky and the chapel of St. Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles at the Ukrainian station Academician Vernadsky.

On January 29, 2007, the first wedding in Antarctica took place in this church (daughter of a polar explorer, Russian woman Angelina Zhuldybina and Chilean Eduardo Aliaga Ilabac, who works at the Chilean Antarctic base).

Interesting Facts

• The average surface elevation of Antarctica is the highest of all the continents.
• In addition to the cold pole, Antarctica has the points of the lowest relative humidity air, the strongest and longest wind, the most intense solar radiation.
• Although Antarctica is not the territory of any state, enthusiasts from the United States issue the unofficial currency of the continent - the "Antarctic dollar".

(Visited 663 times, 1 visits today)

The Antarctic glacier is the largest on Earth. Its area is 13 million 660 thousand square km, which is 1.6 times the surface of Australia. Judging by radar measurements, the average thickness of this cover is almost 2.2 km, the maximum thickness exceeds 4.7 km, and the total volume of Antarctic ice is close to 26-27 million cubic km - this is almost 90% of the volume of all natural ice planets. A complete melting of the Antarctic ice sheet would raise sea levels by 60 to 65 meters. The Antarctic ice sheet has a complex structure. It is formed by the confluence of the colossal land shield of East Antarctica, the "marine" ice sheet of West Antarctica, the floating ice shelves of Ross, Ronne-Filchner and others, as well as several mountain-cover complexes of the Antarctic Peninsula. As will be discussed below, the largest ice sheets of the past also had such a structure. Therefore, they are sometimes called glaciers of the Antarctic type.

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is a huge ice sheet covering 10 million square kilometers and over 4,000 kilometers across. It leans on a stone bed, which is partly flat, partly mountainous relief; in its main areas, this bed is located above sea level, which is why this shield is called terrestrial. The ice surface, hidden under a 100-150-meter thickness of snow and firn, forms a huge plateau with an average height of about 3 km and a maximum - in its center - up to 4 km. It has been established that the average ice thickness of East Antarctica is 2.5 km, and the maximum is almost 4.8 km. Until recently, such a thickness of ice in modern glaciers was not even suspected.

The West Antarctic ice sheet is much smaller. Its area is less than 2 million square km, the average thickness is only 1.1 km, the surface does not rise above 2 km. The bed of this shield over large areas is submerged below the ocean level, its average depth is about 400 m. So the West Antarctica glacier is a real “marine” ice sheet, the only one currently existing on Earth.

Of particular interest are the ice shelves of Antarctica, which serve as a floating continuation of its land and "sea" covers. There are practically no such glaciers outside Antarctica. Their total area is 1.5 million square km, with the largest of them, the Ross and Ronne-Filchner ice shelves, occupying the inland parts of the Ross and Weddell seas, each having an area of ​​0.6 million square km. The floating ice of these glaciers is separated from the "main" shield by lines of overlap, and its outer boundaries are formed by frontal cliffs, or barriers, which are constantly renewed due to the breaking off of icebergs. The thickness of the ice at the rear borders can reach up to 1-1.3 km, at the barriers it rarely exceeds 150-200 m.

Antarctic ice spreads from several centers to the periphery of the cover. In its various parts, this movement goes with different speed. In the center of Antarctica, as in Greenland, the ice moves slowly; near the glacial edge, its speed increases to many tens and hundreds of meters per year. And here, ice streams move fastest, unloading into the open ocean. Their speeds often reach a kilometer per year, and one of the ice streams of West Antarctica - the Pine Island Glacier - "makes" several kilometers per year.

However, most ice flows do not flow into the ocean, but into ice shelves. Ice flows of this kind move more slowly, their speeds do not exceed 300-800 m/year. Such "slowness" is usually explained by resistance from ice shelves, which themselves, as a rule, are slowed down by coasts and shoals. In this regard, experts predict that global warming can cause a kind of "domino effect": temperatures rise - ice shelves collapse, there will be no such glaciers - ice flows will gain freedom, their speeds will increase sharply, giving rise to a massive "descent" of ice into the ocean. And this can lead to a catastrophically rapid rise in the ocean level, which promises major trouble for all coastal regions of the Earth, including those far from Antarctica.

The climate of Antarctica is cold and dry. Moisture-bearing cyclones arising from temperature contrasts between Southern Ocean and the ice sheet, affect only the coastal parts of the mainland. They rarely penetrate into its inner regions, which are dominated by the Antarctic anticyclone. This also determines the distribution of precipitation: the high inner plateau of East Antarctica annually receives only 5–10 g/square cm of snow, on the lower West Antarctic shield this amount doubles, and in coastal areas it increases to 60–90 g/square cm.

Antarctica is characterized by an extremely low position of the food boundary. It lies at sea level, so that the entire glacial surface is a continuous area of ​​food. Therefore, although there is little snow here, its total income many times exceeds the loss from melting. However, the ice sheet is not growing. The increase in the mass of ice is also balanced here by the consumption, in which, however, the main role belongs not to melting, but to losses associated with the breaking off of icebergs.

After a long study of the mass balance of Antarctica, the researchers came to the conclusion that its incoming items are about 2 thousand cubic km of ice, and outflows, in which leading role iceberg flow plays, exceed this value. And although the total ice loss here is known only approximately, the prevailing opinion is that this balance is negative and the ice sheet is shrinking. Although there are many experts who do not agree with this and believe that, on the contrary, it is growing. So our knowledge of Antarctica is still insufficient to say with certainty what the nature of it is. modern evolution how it will respond to upcoming climate changes and, finally, what role it can play in current sea level changes. However, recent advances in the geosciences give us hope that we are on the cusp of solving this puzzle. The source of optimism lies in the enormous opportunities opening up in connection with the development of satellite surveying and satellite geodesy methods. Already now it is possible to count and measure icebergs in the Southern Ocean, it is possible to determine directly, by repeated measurements from space, changes in the height and area of ​​the ice sheet. Let's be patient and wait for the results.

The glaciation of Greenland and Antarctica is typically integumentary. The shape and structure of both covers, the nature of their movement, the degree of impact on surrounding nature suggest their exceptional proximity to the ice sheets of the past. I want to step on their ice and exclaim: “Here they are, the ice monsters of Agassiz, who once buried Europe and America!” And there is no exaggeration in this, they are genuine people from the Ice Age, its remnants. Judging by the excellent preservation and abundant snow supply of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, they are by no means badly adapted to the conditions of the modern era.

Of course, the entire glacial shell of the planet is not the same as it was 20 thousand years ago, but it has not disappeared, but only shrunk. It has been reduced more than once in the past, after which it has been restored again and again. Large fluctuations of glaciation - salient feature ice age that is still going on.

2. The coldest place on Earth is a high ridge in Antarctica, where the temperature was recorded at -93.2 ° C.

3. Some areas of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (an ice-free part of Antarctica) have not had rain or snow for the past 2 million years.

5. In Antarctica, there is a waterfall with water red as blood, which is explained by the presence of iron, which oxidizes when it comes into contact with air.

9. There are no polar bears in Antarctica (they are only in the Arctic), but there are a lot of penguins here.

12. Melting ice in Antarctica caused a slight change in gravity.

13. There is a Chilean town in Antarctica with a school, hospital, hotel, post office, internet, TV and mobile phone network.

14. The Antarctic ice sheet has been around for at least 40 million years.

15. There are lakes in Antarctica that never freeze because of the heat coming from the bowels of the Earth.

16. The highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica was 14.5°C.

17. Since 1994, the use of sled dogs has been banned on the continent.

18. Mount Erebus in Antarctica is the southernmost active volcano on Earth.

19. Once upon a time (more than 40 million years ago) Antarctica was as hot as California.

20. There are seven Christian churches on the continent.

21. Ants, whose colonies are distributed over almost the entire land surface of the planet, are absent in Antarctica (as well as in Iceland, Greenland and several remote islands).

22. The territory of Antarctica is larger than Australia by about 5.8 million square kilometers.

23. Most of Antarctica is covered with ice, about 1% of the land is free from ice cover.

24. In 1977, Argentina sent a pregnant woman to Antarctica so that the Argentinean baby would become the first person born on this harsh mainland.