What was discovered in 2017 was the largest volcanic region on earth, stretching from McMurdo Sound to the base of the Antarctic Peninsula there are 91 volcanoes hidden beneath the ice. We will pass near it towards the end of our trek across the continent of ice. Sitting on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound, Mt Erebus is the southernmost active volcano on earth. If East Antarctica has its secrets beneath the ice, West Antarctica is not to be left behind. ![]() The origins of these dead continents remain a mystery, as well as when they were jammed together. A craton is the stable crystalline rocky core of a continent, to differentiate it from the masses of material that are bulldozed up along the edges, or that accrete on and erode from its surface. And what they found was a graveyard of dead continents, as the Antarctic bedrock was not the expected homogenous mass locked under the ice, but instead was the cobbled together remnants of three continental cratons. A sleek European Satellite called GOCE (if you want to know, although you will soon forget, that stands for Gravity Field and Steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) measured the gravitational fields of Antarctica from low (155 mile) elevation until 2013, when it re-entered the atmosphere and joined all of the other dead hidden in the ice.īy 2018 scientists had pieced together from all that data a picture of what lay under all that ice. It is a living, breathing entity, cloaked in ice and daring any to uncover her secrets.Īnd she is not just a graveyard for those who have tried to invade her space. Antarctica is not some unchanging land, frozen in place by a thick sheet of ice. When the shrinking of the surface layers in the “heat” is followed by the expansion of refreezing at night, the layers of the entire surface have to adjust. “warms” the upper layers of ice, even creating some melt during the day. And not only are you going to have the treat of feeling earthquakes rock the ice, Antarctica has a whole different form of shaking, icequakes especially during the summer. But the placement of more sensors has revealed that Antarctica actually has as many earthquakes as the other continents. If you remember what was taught in school when we were kids, you might think that we will finally be out of the reach of earthquakes…. However, this century has seen a great increase in knowledge about what lies under that ice. ![]() And the incredibly hostile weather conditions place extreme limits on exploration. The mile and a half of ice that covers most of the continent is a more effective shield than millions of miles of space. It is, perhaps, the least known landmass in the solar system. The substance of the Antarctic Continent has been, until the 21 st Century, a greater mystery than the makeup of other planets. And only in the last few years have we begun to catch a glimpse of them. Her actions have been unknown unseen and unheard. Others have been swallowed up by her explorers who vanish into the wasteland, never to be seen again scientists eaten, along with their vehicles by yawning crevasses hidden by snow. They belong to an indigenous woman from the tip of South America. ![]() On the last outpost before reaching the Continent, the Sandwich Islands, a skull and femur were found. She holds tightly her dead and their secrets. A mile and a half of Ice covers her land, extreme temperatures have made her the only place on earth that man has never been able to conquer. How, you have to be wondering, can I call a continent of glaring white dark and brooding? Because Antarctica holds her secrets close. Region#4 Country#13: Antarctica REMA Map of AntarcticaĪnd then we come to Antarctica.
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