Antarctica

Antarctica is a continent like no other. Around 98% is all ice sheets, where real strong blizzards, subzero temperatures and half a year of darkness makes life extremely hard for its inhabitants. It is surrounded by the world’s stormiest ocean and is teaming with rich and varied life.

Stations Belonging to Australia

In Antarctica, Australia owns three stations. They are Mawson Station, Davis Station, and Casey Station. Each year the ship Aurora Australis goes to these three stations taking the people who were there before home and bringing new people. So if you forget something when you leave, there is no corner shop to go to.

Food

In such a hostile and remote place food is very important for the people as well as health. A disease called scurvy was caused by a lack of vitamin C coming from fresh fruit and vegetables.

Weather Stations

Because the weather in Antarctica is extremely important to the rest of the world, getting meteorological information is a big job for the scientists who work there. There are around 100 weather stations in Antarctica. Some are automatic and some have staff.

Climate

The Antarctic climate can varies from freezing cold and very dry towards the plateau, to calmer, moisture conditions around the coasts. People sometimes give the plateau a different name. They sometimes call it the ‘‘polar desert.’’ Each year it has about 5cm of snowfall. The Antarctic winter goes from May till August and the summer goes from December till February. The July temperatures can go from –40c to –70c, which is inland and can go from –15C to –30C. January temperatures go from –15c to –35c which is inland and 10C around the coast area. In summer the northern islands temperature is 10C.

Iceberg Voyages

Once an icebergs is released, they are carried northward and westward at a speed of up to 8kmh a day. Most icebergs take over several seasons in this process and a few get stuck for years on end. About 2million tons of ice a year turns into icebergs.

Getting There

The first ships to brave the rough seas were Captain Cook’s ships, the Resolution and the Adventure in 1772. The Resolution was only 34m in length, and still Adventure was even smaller.

Shape is very important on an icebreaker as well as strength and power, so the more power and better shape hull there is the less chance there is of getting stuck. Amundsen’s ship Fram was made out of wood and the engine hardly had any power so it got stuck in the pack ice and was crushed.

Air Travel

A much quicker and comfortable way of to Antarctica is by aircraft. On the ship it takes 20 days as in a plane it takes just hours

Human Settlement

There are now thirty- seven permanent Antarctic bases, which are run by over seventeen nations. In winter the population is around one thousand and in summer it gets to four thousand.