Antarctica
Posted by India Ireland on Thursday, October 22, 2009
CLIMATE
Antarctica has six months of daylight and six months of darkness in a year. There are only two seasons, half the year it's summer the other half is winter. During the winter, Antarctica is tilted away from the sun, causing it to be dark. During summer, Antarctica is facing the sun making it lighter and warmer.
The Antarctic is colder than the North Pole because it warms up and cools down quicker. Antarctica gets warmer faster than the Arctic because the Ocean water carries heat from the equator to the poles. The land of Antarctica heats up faster than the waters of the Arctic.
Antarctica holds the world record for the coldness, wind and altitude.
The temperature falls as you leave the coast as the continent slopes upwards and temperature falls as you go higher.
TEMPERATURE
The lowest recorded on earth was at Vostok station -89.2 degrees celsius, the average summer temperature at the South Pole is -27.5 degrees celsius and the average winter temperature at the south Pole is -60 degrees celsius.
Mawson station in Antarctica is the windiest place on earth. The average wind speed is 27 kmh and the maximum recorded gust: 248.4 kmh.
GLACIER
Like great rivers of ice, glaciers have sculpted mountains and carved out calleys. They continue to slope theladscape in many places today.
PLAIN
A plain is an extensive, level, usually treeless area of land.
PLATEAU
A plateau, also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually cosisting of relatively flat terrain. A highlt eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau. A volcani plateau is a plateau produces by volcanic activity.
VALLEY
A valley (or dale) is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. In Antarctica they have numerous valleys, lots of them are ice but a few are not.
NUNTAK
Mountains in the Antarctuc are few, many are a type of mountain calles a "nuntak". Nuntaks are mountains which are completely surrounded by an ice field (a cold version of the ocean and islands except that these are on land and raised high above sea level.
Some people say that Antarctica has a coral reef but it doesn't.
FLORA
There aren't many plants, some grass and moss. The extreme conditions make Antarctca a habitat in which only the hardiest can survive. Very few species have been recorded on the 2% of the continent that is ice-free. They include about 150 lichens, 30 mosses, some fungi and one liverwort.
COMMUNITY
The population is about 4,000 on scientific basis in the short summer 1,000 total in winter, around 30,000 summer tourists - and this phase is 1.4 x bigger than the USA! There are NO Permanent residents and NEVERA has been a native population.
HISTORY
Antarctica was imagined by the ancient Greeks, but not even seen until 1820. The first time anyone set foot on Antarctica was in 1821. The first year-round occupation - overmintering - was in 188. The South Pole was first reached in 1911.
Antarctica has six months of daylight and six months of darkness in a year. There are only two seasons, half the year it's summer the other half is winter. During the winter, Antarctica is tilted away from the sun, causing it to be dark. During summer, Antarctica is facing the sun making it lighter and warmer.
The Antarctic is colder than the North Pole because it warms up and cools down quicker. Antarctica gets warmer faster than the Arctic because the Ocean water carries heat from the equator to the poles. The land of Antarctica heats up faster than the waters of the Arctic.
Antarctica holds the world record for the coldness, wind and altitude.
The temperature falls as you leave the coast as the continent slopes upwards and temperature falls as you go higher.
TEMPERATURE
The lowest recorded on earth was at Vostok station -89.2 degrees celsius, the average summer temperature at the South Pole is -27.5 degrees celsius and the average winter temperature at the south Pole is -60 degrees celsius.
Mawson station in Antarctica is the windiest place on earth. The average wind speed is 27 kmh and the maximum recorded gust: 248.4 kmh.
GLACIER
Like great rivers of ice, glaciers have sculpted mountains and carved out calleys. They continue to slope theladscape in many places today.
PLAIN
A plain is an extensive, level, usually treeless area of land.
PLATEAU
A plateau, also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually cosisting of relatively flat terrain. A highlt eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau. A volcani plateau is a plateau produces by volcanic activity.
VALLEY
A valley (or dale) is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. In Antarctica they have numerous valleys, lots of them are ice but a few are not.
NUNTAK
Mountains in the Antarctuc are few, many are a type of mountain calles a "nuntak". Nuntaks are mountains which are completely surrounded by an ice field (a cold version of the ocean and islands except that these are on land and raised high above sea level.
Some people say that Antarctica has a coral reef but it doesn't.
FLORA
There aren't many plants, some grass and moss. The extreme conditions make Antarctca a habitat in which only the hardiest can survive. Very few species have been recorded on the 2% of the continent that is ice-free. They include about 150 lichens, 30 mosses, some fungi and one liverwort.
COMMUNITY
The population is about 4,000 on scientific basis in the short summer 1,000 total in winter, around 30,000 summer tourists - and this phase is 1.4 x bigger than the USA! There are NO Permanent residents and NEVERA has been a native population.
HISTORY
Antarctica was imagined by the ancient Greeks, but not even seen until 1820. The first time anyone set foot on Antarctica was in 1821. The first year-round occupation - overmintering - was in 188. The South Pole was first reached in 1911.