Resources In Antarctica: Hide And Seek
Because only Antarctica can offer the unique scientific research sites it does, it has been set aside as a place for only science. There is a large ice sheet which covers the majority of the land mass and also serves as a permanent series of floating ice shelves which cover hundreds of miles into the sea. The greatest one of these shelves, the Ross Ice Shelf, turns out to be almost as big as Texas. There have been studies through the years that show this particular chunk of ice is moving to the north at a speed of almost 1800 feet per year. Visit this site for further information on antarctica cruise ship.
Not only does Antarctica contain almost 2% of the total water on the planet, it contains an impressive 90% of the world’s ice. Sea level is greatly affected by the inland ice. If it continues to melt, sea levels would rise visibly, and destroy seaports and alter coastlines.
If all this ice melted at once, then the sea levels would go up by more than 250 feet. As a result, we have to find out just how the Antarctic icecap is doing. Not many people care about how the ice is moving forward or backward. Not only does the ice hold a lot of moisture, but it is also a giant geophysical record that could be up to a million years old.
The ice and snow have recorded events like nuclear explosions, the use of leaded gasoline and even lead smelting. Scientists have examined how much lead has particulated on the ice since 1950. Because we have burned leaded gasoline, the decomposed lead alkyls have created an increase in the lead concentration on the surface of the ice, and these levels have been increasing steadily over the last ten years. Maybe at last we will begin to understand the serious danger posed by pollution. Visit this site for further information on adventure antarctica cruises.
Although no elements were contained in the polar snows, trace amounts of DDT have been discovered in seals, some fish, and penguins in Antarctica. The ice layers can also provide information on items from space that have breached the atmosphere and imbedded in the ice sheet over time. Because we can use this information to show that the particles occur in a pattern, it is possible to know what kind of particles space vehicles will come across and how much, as well.
In Antarctica, the majority of the plant life are lichens. Springtails and mites prove to be the most common land animals. The largest land animal is a wingless fly; no flying insects inhabit Antarctica. In Antarctica?s waters, you?ll find the southernmost mammals. They are the Weddell seal and flightless penguin. This Weddell Seal is an amazing creature. It can dive up to 1500 feet and not surface for air for over 30 minutes.
All along the Antarctic coastline, you can find the Adelie penguins who nest where there is no ice. They can navigate with amazing accuracy. They use the sun and their own biological talents to maintain a straight course. In ten months, one half of a group of Adelies that were released thousands of miles from their rookery found it again. These animals were flown to the South Pole and released. When they were released, they recognized that their surroundings were unfamiliar, located the sun, and set off for their home rookery on a straight and exact course.
The planet’s largest inhabitant lives off Antarctica. Practically extinct today, this great blue whale consume around a ton of shrimp daily, and it remains five times bigger than any dinosaur which ever lived and breathed. Lots more fish species live near Antarctica than in the Arctic Ocean. An astounding fact is that 90% of the Antarctic bottom dwelling fish are not found anywhere else in the entire world, which proves how effective Antarctic Convergence really is.
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