Imagine opening a refrigerator door that has been closed for thousands of years, and when you open the door, discover something new on every shelf that has never been seen by human eyes! This vision became a reality for humans about 160 years ago, when Antarctica, the world's largest "refrigerator", was actually located and then opened to modern civilization.
Astronauts observing Earth from space tell us that one of the most distinctive features of our planet is Antarctica. It covers 14,244,934 square kilometers (5,500,000 square miles), an area larger than the United States and Central America combined. Researchers found that it had an average thickness of about 1,981 meters and contained more than 90% of the world's ice. Only about 5% of the land area in Antarctica is visible. If our newly exploded "refrigerator" were to be defrosted, it would raise sea levels from 150 to 200 feet and flood all the world's ports and lower coasts. After the disappearance of the ice sheet, areas in Antarctica sank, making the continent smaller.
Discovery and exploration
In the middle of the 18th century, man began to direct his exploratory interests to the south. A few years ago, much of the southern hemisphere was a large and unknown area. Due to the enormous distances, no one could answer basic questions as if it were mainly land or water.
In 1772, British explorer Captain James Cook embarked on a three-year voyage to the extreme southern latitudes. The ice prevented him from approaching, and although he circled the continent, he never saw the land of Antarctica. Between 1800 and 1821, seal hunters and explorers saw islands and parts of the peninsula and perhaps part of the mainland. Subsequently, US Naval Officer Charles Wilkes and British explorer James Ross contributed significantly to Antarctica's interest and knowledge and paved the way for ground exploration. Robert F. Scott, a British explorer, was 925 kilometers from the South Pole in 1903. In fact, he was reached on December 14, 1911 by Norwegian Roald Amundsen. About a month later, Scott and his group of four others came to the fire, but died on Ross Ice Shelf on the return trip. The difficulties in reaching Poland are confirmed by the fact that no other part of the country did so before 1957-1958. Finally, the huge door to the world's largest "refrigerator" began to open. Containing?
Meteorological studies
The opening of Antarctica pleased the researchers' eyes because it was completely different. While the Arctic is basically oceanic, Antarctica is the land. This partly explains the colder weather. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -126.9 degrees Fahrenheit (-88.3 degrees Celsius) at Russia's Vostok base in August 1960. To date, this is the only continent where humans cannot live permanently. . regardless of external resources.
The climate in Antarctica helps to control the climate around the world. Researchers think that the giant "refrigerator" produces more cold air than anywhere else in the world. The crystalline air flows down the polar slopes towards the coast and accumulates along the coast in gusts of 225 to 233 kilometers per hour. In fact, the icy wind proved to be the weakest factor in Antarctic exploration. After all, it sweeps the winds of Chile and Argentina, as well as parts of Australia and New Zealand, and contributes significantly to the "air conditioning" of our home, the earth.
The Southern Ocean is actually part of the only large ocean on the planet. It converges with the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. But it has its own characteristics. It is colder and less salty than the northern oceans. Cold seawater moves north and then flows under warmer waters at the "convergence" where the southern ocean meets the northern oceans and extends north across the equator.When the southerly flowing water in the western parts of other oceans meets the cold Antarctic waters, they turn eastward and form a circumpolar current that circles the earth in an irregular path near the latitude 47 ° - 61 ° movements Southern oceanographers measure currents, test their mineral content, measure temperature at different levels and reflect sound waves off the seabed to determine depth. This information, when combined with wind currents and glacial activity, is invaluable in meteorology and other sciences.
Plant and animal life
As cold as a refrigerator, few plants survive. Due to the long night in Antarctica, the 800 types of plants - lichens, mosses, freshwater algae, bacteria, molds, yeasts and fungi that live on earth - remain inactive for a long time. However, in small summer towns, they become photosynthetic almost instantly within days, weeks, or a month or two.
On the other hand, there are a lot of animals, although plant life is scarce; but the number and size of terrestrial species are small. Almost any animal can be seen on the ice edge or in the water, living in or feeding on the sea. Animals that depend on the soil for food and protection include small insects and spiders as well as some microscopic species. The largest of these is a fly, a relative of the house fly, about 3 millimeters in length. In addition to the non-flying penguins, there is the South Pole Skua and the Antarctic Tribe. Terns, albatrosses, cormorants, gulls and other birds can be found in Antarctica and the subantarctic archipelago. Some birds sometimes invade the interior of the continent.
The artist is the best navigator in the world. Spend six months a year in the Antarctic and six months in the Arctic, traveling 17,700 kilometers north to enjoy the Antarctic summer. In this way, he manages to live in the almost eternal daylight.
Here you will find five of the seventeen species of penguins in the world. The Adélie penguin and the emperor penguin are the only ones to breed on the continent. Adélie's penguin, averaging 38 centimeters high and weighing 4.5 to 6.8 kg, seems to derive its direction from an orientation linked to the sun and a clockwork mechanism. biological.
The Emperor Penguin, Adelia's older brother, takes the temperature of the "refrigerator" to the extreme. These dignified looking birds weigh between 25 and 45 kilograms and are nearly 1.2 meters in height. The mother penguin lays her only egg in winter. When it's done, head south into the cold darkness of the long winter's night. Almost as soon as the single egg is laid, the mother carefully places it on the floating feet of the father, leaving him in charge of incubating the egg, keeping it on his large feet under a warm fold of the skin of the abdomen. during two months. . While the future father is fasting during this duty, the mother goes north to the sea and collects food. When she returns, she is ready to feed the chicks, which she does by reliving the food she ate. The emperor penguin is the only bird that does not follow the expansion of the winter ice sheet as it spreads north, but instead remains for nearly six months of nighttime snowstorms, which would make it impossible to keep nests under other birds.
In the frigid waters of Antarctica we find millions of seals of various species. These animals are completely happy with their surroundings and are isolated by a layer of fat, which also provides a food reserve and helps keep the seal floating in the water. They have a rich "grass" in the water that is full of fish. There are several types of options that also find plenty of nourishment in the wide, dense edges of seafood and shrimp. The fish that live on the ocean floor are special in Antarctica. 90% of them do not appear anywhere else in the world.
Divers in wetsuits lined with 13 millimeters of insulation and working in water for an hour at -2 degrees Celsius tried out 130 known species of Antarctic fish and other species. Marine. Many, like squid, do not have red blood and some are semi-transparent. Other fish have red blood that does not freeze at extremely low temperatures. Recently, a diver discovered eel larvae measuring between 1.2 and 1.5 meters (four and five feet) in length - twenty times the size of any other newborn eel.
The climate is mild from October to February, but with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula, which stretches 966 kilometers from South America, the temperature never exceeds zero. During this period, some species of small insects only get warm for a few days and then cool down again when they are dormant. There are snowdrops and eight-legged mites. Researchers have discovered that your body produces a substance called glycerin. It is a chemical that is sometimes used as an antifreeze. Save the lives of these little insects during the Antarctic winter.
Fleas and insects are the disease problem. The old story that there are no bacteria in Antarctica is wrong. The continent may be as white as the inside of an operating room, but there are plenty of bacteria. Microbiologists have discovered bacteria 27 meters below the surface of the South Pole that seem to have been stuck there for a hundred years. With sterile masks and utensils, care was taken not to mix modern bacteria with those from the 19th century. They discovered staph, a type of bacteria that can cause serious infections. These bacteria were present in Antarctica in the 1860s, unless faulty technology or equipment allowed some of the scientists' bacteria to escape. In addition, the microbes in the ice were not dead but reappeared in the lab and heated once.
However, extreme cold and drought in the Antarctic atmosphere have a very conservative effect. Encyclopædia Britannica reports: “Several carcasses of mummified seals, mainly crabeater (a species of seal), have been found at distances up to 300 km from the sea and at altitudes up to 914 meters. in the dry valleys of McMurdo. When the crabs did not find food during these migrations, they died and their hard carcasses were preserved from the cold, dry climate.
A science laboratory
Today, Antarctica can be called a laboratory for scientists. Geologists are working to discover what lies beneath the extremely thick ice. Seismic records and radiometric photographs have recently shown that the rocky base in most of Antarctica is continental, not oceanic. At least today, Antarctica is the calmest and most asymmetrical of all continents. Almost all of Antarctica has been seen and most mountain areas have been photographed and mapped from above. Geologists, biophysicists, glaciologists and geophysicists continue to visit and study these areas in the hope of learning more about the whole structure and environmental system of the earth.
Several nations have installed Antarctic stations. Ten of the twelve countries that signed the Antarctic Treaty have winter seasons. Russia has the Billinghausen station on the peninsula. The US main base of operations is McMurdo Station, on the Pacific side of the continent. It works with nuclear energy and has an average of 900 inhabitants in summer and 200 in winter. It maintains small stations at the South Pole and on the peninsula throughout the year. And while the continent may be limited for some, it is actually seen as a future vacation spot. Tourists are already visiting their science stations and penguin colonies and it can of course be a ski paradise.
Who knows what other "treasures" will come out of the continental "refrigerator"? There is so much to explore and experience. Techniques can be developed to utilize the rich mineral reserves. Studying atmospheric conditions and the surrounding ocean can help scientists better understand the climate in all regions of the world. One thing we can be sure of: if we value a refrigerator at home, our Antarctic "refrigerator", which is now open for our use, will become more and more popular over time.
