Transcript Antarctica The Last Continent (basic text version) Pictures by Alan Light, Drummond Small, Mike Usher, Paul Ward Text by Hadla Trad, Paul Ward /

Antarctica
The Last Continent
(basic text version)
Pictures by Alan Light, Drummond Small, Mike Usher, Paul Ward
Text by Hadla Trad, Paul Ward / CoolAntarctica.com
Copyright: Material on these pages is copyright Paul Ward / CoolAntarctica.com or reproduced with permission from other copyright
owners. It may be downloaded and printed for personal reference or public performance in an educational establishment as long as it is
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Antarctica covers the South Pole
Africa
South
America
South
Pole X
X
Australia and NZ
Midnight at the pole 21st December
The Living Earth, Inc. copyright 2006
Midday at the pole 21st June
Most people still get to Antarctica by ship. You have to cross “Drake’s
Passage”, which is a narrow sea. It is the roughest sea on Earth!
As your ship comes closer to Antarctica, you will see lots of albatrosses.
This is a young Wandering Albatross. The Wandering Albatross has the greatest
wingspan of any bird at up to 3.5m.
The first iceberg you see is like a
doorway to the Antarctic.
When you do see an iceberg you will
know that you have arrived in Antarctica
and are sailing in the sea around Antarctic
waters.
Antarctica will be like a different world.
Unlike anything you have ever seen
before.
Welcome to Antarctica.
More and more people get to Antarctica by air. Ice runways are becoming more
common and this is an increasingly used form of transport for those on scientific bases.
The passengers can be dropped off in South America or Australia to get to their own
country instead of taking weeks on board ships as used to happen.
This is the ship HMS Endurance. It has pulled up against the edge of an ice
shelf in the Prince Gustav Channel. This couldn’t happen today because the
whole ice shelf broke up a few years ago. Some people think it’s because of
Global Warming.
Ships are one of the best ways to travel around Antarctica. The continent and
surrounding islands are either very mountainous and rugged broken up rock, or a
big mass of ice.
In the Antarctic spring, a Russian icebreaker enters sea ice that formed in
the winter. Not all ships in Antarctica are icebreakers, but most have extra
strength for the ice. Ice attached to the coast is common in the spring. If ships
can break through it cargo can be delivered without waiting for the weather so
much.
The flat area between the man and the mountains is the sea. The whiter region
is pack-ice which formed last year. This ice forms somewhere else and floats here.
It’s called consolidated pack-ice. The darker region is “fast-ice” sea-ice that has
formed here in the last few weeks. It’s still new.
This is sea-ice forming. It is about 2.5cm thick. It is soft enough to push your
finger through! As the tide rises and falls it forms these shapes which look like
jigsaw puzzle pieces. They push over on top of each other. The sea freezes
quickly in calm, cold conditions. It doesn't freeze earlier because the surface of
the sea moves too much.
As winter approaches, the only people left behind in Antarctica are
scientists and support staff on research stations. At this time about 1000
people live in an area 1.5 times larger than the USA. Sea-ice doubles the area of
Antarctica. Flights are very rarely attempted because it is too dark and the
weather is terrible.
New Zealand Scott base. This is an average size for an Antarctic base, there are
about 10 people over the winter and up to 85 in the summer. The industrial style
buildings are typical of Antarctic bases sadly.
Antarctic bases old and new. Near to us is Hut-Point, McMurdo Sound. This
hut is from Captain Scott’s 1904 Discovery expedition that had about 25 men.
Behind it is the modern McMurdo base. This has about 250 people in the
winter and 1000 in the summer – it is easily the largest Antarctic Base.
Inside Scott’s hut it is like a time capsule. There have been few visitors most of
whom have respected the hut the way it was left. This and cold temperatures
mean that many items are exactly as they were when left over 100 years ago.
Amundsen-Scott Base at the South Pole. This base houses 75 over the
winter and 250 in the summer. It is the third base built at the South Pole, the
other two were buried by snow and ice. Like other modern base designs on ice,
this is held up on legs. It can be raised in the future so that it is not buried by
snow and ice.
Science in Antarctica. Bases in Antarctica exist so that science can take
place, there are lots of different projects from the small to the large. This is a
10m telescope and laboratory at the South Pole.
You can feel a huge silence. As the temperature falls, any water vapour in the air
freezes and falls out. You can see very far in the distance. There is no wind. The
entire place is motionless and totally silent.
Whalers and sealers were the first to explore Antarctica. They killed lots of
whales and seals and many species became endangered. International laws were
passed to stop them and the seal populations have recovered. However, the great
whales are still in danger. This plaque is painted on a whale vertebra on an
Antarctic base. It represents 118,159 whales killed between 1911 and 1930 – in
just one part of Antarctica.
Pack-ice is “glued” together by the sea freezing between the pieces to give
a solid surface. It is very rough and broken up. This makes the surface very
difficult to travel over. Vehicles or people on skis have to stop-start constantly and
always change direction to find the best path.
Sea-ice freezes ice-bergs in place. In open sea they are free to move around.
When the sea freezes, they are fixed for the winter. Ice-bergs are made of freshwater. They formed as part of glaciers and ice-shelves and became a berg when
they reached the sea after hundreds or thousands of years then fell off the end.
It is possible to walk across the sea-ice to frozen-in ice bergs. The stripes in the
berg were formed when it was part of a glacier or ice-shelf. Different temperatures
and snow conditions when the berg was being formed create the stripes. Whiter
bands have more air. They were formed in colder conditions. Bluer bands have less
air and were formed in warmer conditions.
Standing next to even a
small berg can be very
exciting and scary!
If the sun is out, the
different colours warm up
at different rates. Clear
regions can act like a lens
warming up the interior.
You can hear lots of creaks
and bangs.
The sea-ice around it is
also creaking as the tide
rises or falls. It becomes an
uncomfortable place to be.
There’s also the fact that
you’re on ice not very thick,
and there’s 8-10 times
more ice below your feet
than you can see above.
Fast-ice sometimes doesn't move from its original place. After many days of low
temperatures it becomes hard and strong. This makes it an excellent travelling
surface. The long pole carried by one of these men is used to test the ice – more
than 3 “thwacks” to get through and it’s safe to walk on, less than 3 and you must
re-trace your steps carefully.
Field work in Antarctica. Some scientific work in Antarctica takes place away from bases
in remote areas. This picture shows a traditional camp from the 1970’s when the field party
had two dog teams and sleds that can be seen here arranged on either side of the tent.
Scenes like this can still be seen today in the Antarctic summer except that instead of dog
teams pulling the sleds, skidoos are used. Field parties like this are visited by small aircraft
for re-supplying with food and fuel so they can spend longer away from base and go to
more remote areas.
A field party in Antarctica is the
purest way of experiencing the
continent.
Nothing can match doing this with
sleds pulled by dogs. This is now a
part of history never to be repeated.
Dogs have not been allowed in
Antarctica since the Antarctic Treaty
stopped them in 1994.
It was 20 years or more before that
though that dogs were used for travel
because they were the best method.
Vehicles with internal combustion
engines have been used for many
years now.
This Weddell seal is resting miles from anywhere on flat and unbroken ice. It
must have made a crack in the ice by ramming it from below and then worked on
the crack with its teeth to make a hole so it could leave the ice. Though the ice is
strong, fortunately for the seal it was not too thick for it to get through.
Ice bergs come in all shapes and sizes. Just imagine how much ice there is
below the surface here that you can’t see.
This is the same berg as in the previous picture, but from a different direction and
on a different day. The changing snow, ice and weather conditions make
Antarctica always look different. You never know what the next day will bring.
Crossing glaciers and ice fields is dangerous because there are so many
crevasses. These are cracks in the ice that form when the ice sheet direction
changes or when it goes over an obstacle. Roping-up is required, so if one person
goes down a crevasse, the others are able to rescue them.
A tracked vehicle (called a
Pisten Bully) with a crevasse
probe.
The crevasse probe is electronic.
It is held on the end of the long
arm, the wooden disc and inner
tube let it ride in front of the
vehicle on the snow or ice.
This vehicle will be the first one in
a convoy going ahead of all the
others, finding crevasses and
stopping before any other vehicles
are in danger.
Investigating a crevasse –
deliberately!
Crevasses are often covered
over by a bridge of blown snow.
Such bridges may be strong
enough to support a vehicle or
so weak that they cannot
support a single man.
You must be very careful when
approaching them. Training to
rescue yourself or others who
may fall into a crevasse is a part
of the preparation needed to
travel around Antarctica
overland and away from bases.
There are many atmospheric
phenomena in Antarctica as a result of
the low temperatures.
Water vapour cannot form because of the
freezing temperatures. So often there are
tiny ice crystals that float around in the
air. This leads to a wide variety of effects.
This picture shows a “Solar Pillar” caused
by the sun (behind the cloud at top)
reflecting from lots of minute ice plates
suspended in the air.
The pillar is almost as bright as the sun
itself and because it is an optical
phenomena and not real (like a rainbow)
it moves with you when you walk around.
Here’s a fun thing to do on a cold day (-32°C here). Take out a flask of boiling
water and a plastic cup. Pour the water into the cup and throw it into the air. As
the boiling water hits the cold air, it instantly vapourises and drifts away. The
streaks towards the bottom left are small pieces of ice. The rest just becomes gas.
Another atmospheric phenomena is called ‘diamond dust’. The small white
speckles that you see floating in the picture are tiny ice particles in the air that
reflect the sun. It looks as if the air is full of glitter.
Antarctic land transport. Many vehicles have tracks instead of wheels
including all those that go away from the bases. Vehicles with wheels are used
in and around bases where conditions are easier.
The first effective tracked vehicles in Antarctica. These are some of the
vehicles involved in the first successful overland journey to the South Pole in
the Trans Antarctic Expedition of 1955-58. The Massey Ferguson tractor was
the first tracked vehicle to reach the South Pole, a modified agricultural model.
The original form of transport in Antarctica was dog-sled pulled by
huskies. These animals helped to open up Antarctica and for a long time were
the only reliable form of transport until engined vehicles became reliable and
trustworthy.
Strongly built, powerful and loyal. The men who worked with huskies never forget the
connection of man, dog and landscape, being part of the pack and working to a common
goal in a challenging but ultimately hugely rewarding environment.
Dogs sleds became less important as a means of transport from the 1960’s
onwards. To start, the dogs supported engined vehicles and then later the vehicles
became more important. Dogs were kept in Antarctica until February 22nd 1994 when the
last team was removed. Antarctic huskies became a breed apart being selected for
Antarctic conditions.
Antarctica is home to many millions of penguins. This one is an Adélie. It is
the commonest species found in Antarctica. It lives in the deep south. This one
is seen crossing the sea-ice to its nest site in early spring. As the season goes
on the ice breaks up and it doesn’t have to go so far.
Here are a pair of Adélies all clean and glistening from their swim in the sea.
They are on their way to the breeding colony. These only had a few miles to walk
across the frozen sea. Sometimes if the ice continues, they have to walk for tens
of miles. It’s very hard to get around when you only have such little legs!
Early spring can still bring storms. These penguins are on their way to their
nesting grounds and have to face out the weather. They head into the wind so
their feathers are not ruffled. This gives them the best insulation. They pull
themselves as short and squat as they can to reduce the size of their bodies.
This way they don’t lose heat.
The penguins have come here to nest. This is only about half as many
penguins as will eventually arrive. Those who come early get the best places.
They are a little raised and are the least likely to get wet when it warms up and the
snow melts. Note the pack-ice in the distance. This will break up as the season
goes on.
This male adélie penguin in
the is advertising for a mate
early in the breeding season.
It is very important for him to be
noticed by other female
penguins so that he can find
one to lay eggs with.
Once a mate has been found, nest-building begins. Penguin nests are not
impressive like other birds. They consist of just a circle of stones on the ground.
There aren’t many stones around, so they spend most of their time stealing
stones from each other, over and over again.
The proud parents to be by their magnificent nest – that’s it I’m afraid. This
pair are in the process of a courting ritual. Starting low down they weave beaks
together, getting higher and higher, eventually throwing their flippers back with a
loud “awk, awk, awk” sound. It teaches them what their mate’s voice sounds like.
The large icy step is called
an “ice foot”. It completely
surrounds coasts at the end
of winter. As the tide rises
and falls, it leaves a layer of
ice each time which builds
up. It’s left as a large step
when the attached sea-ice
breaks up and floats away.
These penguins are
returning from a fishing trip
to find the tide has gone out
and they can’t get back to
the shore. So, they wander
up and down the bottom of
the ice foot until the tide
comes back in and can float
them back up to the right
level.
He seems to know where he’s going, lets follow him!
Snowfall at nesting time can be a problem. It’s just around freezing point and
this can cause problems for penguins with eggs or chicks. If the snow melts and
floods the nest, the chicks or eggs will become chilled. Note the reddish colour
under the flipper of the penguin to the left. A way of losing excess heat is by
diverting blood through the flippers.
Eventually the eggs are hatched and the chicks born. Covered in fine down,
they are always protected by one of the parents until they are large enough to be
able to regulate their own temperature. Penguin chicks grow at a rapid rate.
Parents take it in turn to baby-sit or catch food.
These chinstrap penguins are almost big enough to be left by the parents so
they can both go fishing to supply their increasing need for food. When both
parents go, the chicks form loose “creches” where they get better protection from
the cold, and also from predators such as skuas.
Some chicks get dirtier than
others of course!
On a more serious note,
getting so dirty can be
dangerous because the down
is unable insulate the chick.
This means that the chicks
can get too cold.
Unlike the adults, the chicks
can’t go into the sea to wash
themselves off.
Adélie Chicks don’t go into the
sea until they have moulted
their juvenile down (baby
feathers) and gained the adult
feathers.
Predatory skuas come looking for unguarded eggs and unguarded or
weakened chicks. They are always ready to pounce! Even though they cause
trouble for the penguin colony, they only kill a small number of chicks.
Hungry chicks chase a returning adult demanding to be fed. The adult runs
away to try and get rid of chicks that are not theirs. Only their own chicks will never
give up until they are fed – they have no other alternative. These chicks may both
belong to this adult, or one may just be about to give up.
Gentoo penguin and chicks. They are one of the calmest and least aggressive
of Antarctic penguins. There are two sub-species. This is the southern subspecies which is found down to the Antarctic Peninsula. The slightly larger
northern sub-species is found mainly on the sub-Antarctic island of South
Georgia.
A King Penguin cleaning itself. These are the second largest kind of penguin. They are
nearly 1m tall and weigh about 15kg. They are not birds of the ice, they breed away from
the pole on the islands around Antarctica where it is not quite so cold.
Raspberry ripple snow. Snow algae live in the top 10 inches (25cm) or so of
recent (the last year’s) snowfalls. It is found in polar and mountainous regions in
the spring. As snow and ice begin to melt it releases stored nutrients. Treading
on the snow can release a faint smell of watermelon from the algae.
Blue eyed shag. It’s a cormorant that nests in Antarctica down to the Peninsula.
Blue eyed shags will not go far from open water, a fact that early Antarctic explorers
soon learnt. When they are sighted by an entrapped ship it is a sign that an ice-free
region is not far away.
Blue eyed shags like to nest in the most dramatic places. As they can fly –
unlike penguins – they are able to nest in sites very close to the sea but without
needing a convenient beach or sloping rocks to be able to leave the sea.
Blue eyed shag coming into land at its nest site. This can be a little difficult
because often there are so many shag nests on the ground. The birds need to be
careful of the neighbours when they land. They also often nest on very steep or
exposed ledges so they have to be careful not to slip off!
Cape Pigeons or Pintados are common small birds around Antarctic coasts.
They are similar in size to common pigeons, although are not closely related
because they are sea birds. They nest on ledges close to the sea.
Snow petrel courtship takes place largely in the air. The female leads the
male in an aerial ballet around the cliffs where they nest. The male’s task is to
keep up. Unwelcome attention is responded to by some accurately vomited krill,
the source of this male’s pink necklace.
Despite their small size and apparent fragility, snow petrels are quite capable of
toughing it out on the ice with no other shelter than putting their head under their
wing. Here it is -20°C and 15-20 knot winds.
This snow petrels is fishing for krill in a tide-crack. Tide cracks form when the
tide rises and makes the surface of the sea a little bit bigger, causing a crack that
can be several miles long, but no more than 1-2 feet wide at most. At low tide, it
closes.
Krill are the engine that drives the
Antarctic ecosystem. They are shrimplike crustaceans about 4-5 cm (2
inches) long.
They feed on microscopic phytoplankton
which are floating plants that respond
quickly to the rise in daylight in the
spring. As krill colonies are so large,
they are available to nearly all Antarctic
animals that are bigger than they are.
In other oceans, the animals that feed
on phytoplankton tend to be smaller, so
the ability to “tap” the food chain so
close to the bottom is not available as it
is in Antarctica.
Krill outweigh the human population of
the earth by a factor of 2 or 3. Single
swarms have been estimated as
containing over 2 million tons of krill
spread over 450 square kilometres.
Antarctic fish are probably the best cold-adapted fish that the world has ever seen.
They have lived at between -2°C and +2°C for 20-30 million years and they do not
travel to other seas. This ice fish has no red pigment in its blood to carry oxygen.
Low temperatures and high blood volume mean that it does not need it.
This small arthropod is found only around Signy Island in the South Orkneys
group. The Antarctic Ocean is unique in that it has no Decapod crustaceans –
crabs and lobsters – despite them being common elsewhere including the Arctic
Ocean. Other species like this one take their roles instead.
Inshore fish may be caught by marine biologists using nets such as this, or
by hand while diving. Many Antarctic fish have special proteins in their blood which
stop them from freezing. This makes them supercooled, but still go about their
lives as normal.
Diving during the Antarctic winter poses its own problems – a lack of open
water being one of them! These divers are preparing to lay a line for a fishing net.
2 holes are made 100m apart. A line is attached to a diver who swims from one of
these holes to the next. The line is then used to set and recover fishing nets.
Dive holes can be made with a chainsaw which has an especially long
blade. This is what has happened here.
A square hole is cut and then the
floating ice cut into 4 pieces. These 4
pieces are then pushed down from the
surface under the ice where they float
up because they are naturally buoyant.
These 4 pieces can be seen around the
diver.
Under-ice divers are always attached to
the surface by a rope held by a line-man
who lets the line out or pulls it in by a
series of commands. In emergency, he
can pull the divers manually back to the
surface through the hole.
Some ghostly roughly oval shaped objects can be made out in the water, this is a
shoal of jellyfish-like creatures called ctenophores. Diving under ice can be an
ethereal experience. A fun thing you can do after a dive is to take your weight belt
off and push yourself back under the ice, stand up and walk about upside down.
The summer months means that boating is allowed again. Icebergs such as
this are usually left alone because they may be unstable and tip up. Sometimes
they are just too fascinating to leave alone, and you have to take it in turns to pose
or take pictures.
Bergs are shaped by many influences and as they age, they may become
unstable and break into smaller pieces, or just tip up to a more stable position. They
are scarred with these processes and no two bergs are identical. Although some are
prettier than others.
A very eroded iceberg. There has been a lot of melting above the sea level. The
berg is not really as big as it seems here, the ship is quite a long way behind!
This was a particularly fascinating place. We sat in a small high-powered
inflatable boat watching the waves rise and fall. As the waves rose, the gap in the
berg became flooded, and as they fell it was just ice. We debated whether or not to
try and rush through as the waves were rising. In the end we decided that it might
be too dangerous!
Icebergs are endlessly varied in shape, but also in the way they appear in
different weather conditions. This specimen looks particularly spooky in the heavy
sea fog hanging at an altitude of 20-30 feet.
Mountains that emerge from an expanse of ice are called “Nunataks”. They
are like islands that emerge from the ocean, except that in this case the ocean is
one of snow and ice. Surprisingly such sterile environments can attract birds that
nest on them despite being many miles from the sea and food.
Antarctica is very good at
dramatic scenery.
Built on an a remote Nunatak, this
is the former Soviet
Leningradskaya Station. The
nunatak is 1,000 feet high (over
300m) in a part of Antarctica called
Oates Land.
This base was open between
1971 and 1992. It was closed
because it was too expensive and
difficult to get supplies to.
It may be re-opened soon
A Föhn bank is formed by a Föhn wind - a warm contour-hugging wind that is
blowing across Coronation Island in the South Orkneys group in this case. The wind
is warmer than the ice and rock, and as it blows across the land, it causes snow and
ice to sublime. That is to turn directly from a solid to a gas without passing through a
liquid phase. This causes the cloud layer that can be seen.
Ice bergs trapped in sea ice – I know you’ve seen lots of them already, but they
are one of the wonders of being able to visit an Antarctic winter. Going out to them is
like being able to walk up to and touch a cloud. You know they’re there, you know
they’re huge, but most of the time, they’re for looking at and not touching.
One of the finest animals in the world (IMHO) – an Antarctic fur seal. These
creatures can seem quite frightening at first contact because they feign attacks
and growl at you. When you’re more familiar and comfortable with them, they can
be the best truly wild animal to make contact with.
Fur seals were brought very close to the edge of extinction by sealers in the
1800’s. They have made an excellent recovery since then. Now their numbers are
threatening some fragile habitats in sub-Antarctica islands.
A young Weddell Seal pup with its mother behind. Weddell seals are animals
of the ice. They live further south than any other mammal. Between the end of
August and early November in the southern hemisphere spring, the mother seals
haul themselves out of holes in the ice and give birth to their pups.
Newly born Weddell seal pups are officially some of the world’s cutest creatures.
They flop about on the ice in the early days after their birth. They are not able to
co-ordinate their over-sized flippers until they grow into them. The mother had
arrived at the birth site some 10 days earlier. She came with enough resources of
blubber and protein to double the 25kg (55lb) birth weight of a pup in 10 days.
Weddell seal milk is one of the richest produced by any mammal and
contains about 60% fat. It helps the pups grow quickly shortly after birth. The
pups are weaned at around 7 weeks when they weigh about 110kg (242lb). Adults
they will weigh up to 400kg (880lb) and are up to 3m (10ft) long.
Keeping breathing holes open like this wears away the teeth of Weddell
seals and because of this Weddells only live to about 18 years old. This is about
half the life-span of a crabeater seal for instance.
Weddell seal pups don't automatically realise that they can or should dive and
the early attempts are amusing to watch. The mother pushes the pup into the water
against its will. She then pushes its head under the water - again against its will.
There is much coughing, spluttering and panic before the pup realises that it can
hold its breath under the water and that this in fact does help!
Displaying skua. Display is used to find a mate or to establish a territory.
Sometimes the birds do this as a pair. It is quite an impressive sight and the
squawking can be heard some considerable distance away. Skuas will also do
this if their nest is being approached by an unwanted visitor.
Sometimes the first sight you
get of a skua is when it
suddenly rushes at you from
the air, especially if it thinks
you are coming after its nest. If
you're particularly unlucky or if
its very unhappy at you being
so close, then you may receive
a whack at the back of the head
by the front of the wing.
Skua chicks are usually very
well camouflaged and this is
actually quite a good way of
finding skua chicks - when the
parents start getting upset you
know you're very close.
Here’s a parent letting this
researcher know he’s far too
close for comfort!
Antarctic terns nest on the Antarctic peninsula and also particularly on
Antarctic islands. If an intruder gets too close to the nest site, they will divebomb. This blurry picture is exactly what it seems like when they are divebombing! The tern dives and builds up great speed before letting out an earpiercing call that is perfectly timed to cause maximum panic!
A Giant Petrel, commonly known as a Geep, GP or to the old sealers as Stinkers They get this name from their habit of vomiting on any one or thing that
approaches them or seems like a threat. They build the traditional Antarctic nest of
small stones, but always seem to collect a lot more in comparison to penguins.
Giant Petrel chick. The adults spend much of their time scavenging and are
always to be found where there is a dead seal or whale carcass. Sometimes they
eat so much that they can’t take off because they become too heavy. They then
have to vomit a little so that they won’t be as heavy. They are large birds, the size
of a turkey with a wing span of 2 metres or more.
An American sheathbill (also known as "Mutts"). They are the garbage
disposers of the Antarctic. They will eat just about anything that they can lay their
beaks on. They are the only Antarctic bird species that don't have webbed feet, and
so are not able to fish for food like the others. They usually stay away from the seaice and move north in the winter when the weather becomes worse.
This sheathbill (Mutt) has been feeding on (in) a dead seal. They frequently look
for food in penguin colonies for eggs, dead chicks, even penguin faeces - there's
occasionally some not fully digested food there.
Southern Elephant Seals were one of the main targets for Antarctic sealers.
They were hunted because they had huge amounts of blubber. This keeps such
warm blooded animals at a normal mammal body temperature despite hours in
seas which are below freezing.
Elephant seals have clear “sexual dimorphism”. There is a big difference
between males and females. Males, such as this individual can grow to be 8 times
heavier than the females. They bear the scars of many fights with other males to
gain supremacy over harems of females and become the “beachmaster”.
Clouds scurry past in Antarctica like no-where else on earth. The cold and
the wind make each day feel clean, new and fresh, especially when the sun
shines. It’s not a landscape to observe from the outside, but to be in and feel part
of, even if the part you feel is rather vulnerable and at the mercy of that cold, wind
and sun.
Sunsets can seem ethereal as snow and ice reflect the sky. So it’s not just a
case of the land silhouetted against the sky, but of the sky colouring the whole
world. Ice and snow become a canvas to be painted by the rays of sunset and
sunrise.
What is the biggest
threat facing
Antarctica?
To be ignored
For people not to know
about it.
If you don’t know about
something, how can you
care for or protect it?