Antarctica (The Frozen Continent)

Background information fact; by edgardowelelo@yahoo.com, Master of the Game

The ANTARCTIC SEAS are among the most hospitable in the world. The waters are extremely rich in oxygen and swarm with food, both vegetable and animal. Antarctica is the most hostile and forbidding place on Planet Earth. No animal of any size can survive permanently on the surface of the continent, except for human beings and the creatures that inhabit the microclimate that humanity creates for itself.

THE FROZEN CONTINENT (ANTARCTICA)

The permanent covering of ICE on the great white POLAR ICECAPS, the ARCTIC and ANTARCTIC, reflects back 85 per cent of the SUN’S RAYS. Nowhere on Planet Earth is as cold, as windy or as lifeless as the two poles. To stand at the NORTH POLE is to rest suspended above a FROZEN OCEAN. Beneath your feet there is no land, just a metre or two of ICE and then the COLD, COLD SEA. The ARCTIC OCEAN is encircled by the mighty continents of Europe, Asia and North America. On a summer’s day at the SOUTH POLE, the temperature is far colder. And beneath the feet is not just a thin crust but over 3000 metres of ice, which rests not on sea but on land.

Antarctica is a frozen continent larger than Europe, larger even than the United States and Mexico combined. A massive ICECAP covers 98 per cent of that land, swallowing a continent higher than any other on Planet Earth. All you can see from the SOUTH POLE is an endless expanse of FLAT WHITE ICE and the tiny intrusion of the AMUNDSEN – SCOTT STATION, a United States research station which is staffed throughout the long ANTARCTIC WINTER.

The ICE hardly moves and it is possible to mark the exact position of the SOUTH POLE. A simple pole with a brass plague indicates the SPOT. Walk round it and you walk round the WORLD. The POLAR REGIONS are the coldest places on Planet Earth for the same simple reasons. One is that, due to their position at the top and bottom of the Planet Earth, they receive less of the sun’s warming radiation than any other parts of the WORLD’S SURFACE. Even in mid-summer the sun never rises high above the polar horizon. We are used to the sun being cool in the morning or late evening but at the poles it is like that all day. They never feel the fierceness of the burning midday heat of the overhead sun that beats down in the TROPICS. Their position on the Planet Earth’s sphere also means that much of the ANTARCTIC and ARCTIC have very long winters of complete darkness when they never see the sun at all.

At the ARCTIC CIRCLE, 66⁰ 32’ North, and the ANTARCTIC CIRCLE, 66⁰ 32’ South, the sun does not rise above the horizon on midwinter’s day. The length of the POLAR WINTER NIIGHT increases with latitude until at the poles themselves, the sun sets just once a year. For a while after it disappears, a little light reflected off the snow provides a glow above the horizon. Then the setting sun leaves the POLAR WORLD in complete darkness for half of the year.  During this longest of winters, none of the sun’s radiation is available to warm the poles. When finally the sun does re – appear above the horizon, it stays up for the next six months. You might think that such a long period with continuous 24 – hour daylight would make up for the long dark winter. But the warmth the POLAR REGIONS absorb in the summer is far less than the heat they lose in the winter. The other main reason for the cold comes from the ice itself. All but 2 per cent of ANTARCTICA is covered by it. Bare Rock is as rare and precious on the continent as an oasis in a desert. And ice looks white because it reflects back the sun’s rays. Most of the radiation reaching the great icecaps of the ARCTIC and ANTARCTIC is reflected to space without being transformed into heat. With so much radiation being reflected and so little being on offer in the first place, the warmth equation in the POLAR REGIONS works out heavily in favour of the negative. Only in November and December, the very height of the Antarctic summer, does the South Pole actually gain heat. The Antarctic is much colder than the Arctic. The average winter temperature in the ANTARCTIC is minus 60 degrees centigrade. Even on a good summer’s day at the SOUTH POLE it is minus 30 degrees centigrade, colder than the coldest winter’s night at the North Pole. One major reason for this is height. With every 100 metres you climb, the air temperature drops by 1 degree centigrade, and the surface at the SOUTH POLE is 2385 metres above the sea level. Antarctica is the highest continent on Planet Earth, three times higher than any other. Its average elevation is 2300 metres compared with just 720 metres in the United States.

In contrast, the ARCTIC is simply a low-lying basin of frozen ocean, and the surface at the NORTH POLE is just a few metres above sea level. The constant presence of the ocean below the Ice provides continual warmth. Any seal that maintains a breathing hole in the ICE knows that it is far warmer in the sea than out on a wind – chilled ice sheet. Another factor that makes ANTARCTICA so much colder is its ISOLATION. The ARCTIC is surrounded closely by great land masses (continents). The most northerly parts of CANADA are just 760 kilometres from the NORTH POLE. High pressure systems form each summer over the massive land areas of RUSSIA and NORTH AMERICA, and spill their warm air north over the ARCTIC. Like giant night storage heaters, they ensure the ARCTIC REGION never gets very cold. ANTARCTICA, on the other hand, is alone in the GREAT SOUTHERN OCEAN. Africa is 4000 kilometres from the edge of the continent, while AUSTRALIA is 2500 kilometres away. Even the ANTARCTIC PENINSULA, which stretches far to the north like the bent handle of a giant frying pan, only brings ANTARCTICA to within 750 kilometres of the most southerly tip of SOUTH AMERICA. In addition, the GREAT SOUTHERN OCEAN that surrounds ANTARCTICA is the roughest on the globe. Intense low pressure systems rush unimpeded round the continent, isolating it from the rest of the world’s weather. The warm air from the tropics that is so important in keeping ARCTIC from becoming too cold finds its access to the Antarctic more difficult. Antarctica is left the highest, most isolated and by far the coldest on Planet Earth.

The differences in temperature and isolation of the two POLAR REGIONS have had a dramatic effect on the wildlife and flora that survive in them. The proximity of great landmasses (continents) has made the ARCTIC available for repeated attempts at colonization. Animals from the South can easily walk North as summer comes, knowing that when harsh winter weather approaches they can simply walk South again. So the ARCTIC is home to 40 land mammals, ranging in size from tiny mice to the massive musk oxen. ANTARCTICA has no native land mammals. Though a POLAR BEAR could probably live off the numerous SEALS during the ANTARCTIC SUMMER, it would be in trouble in the winter. There would be very few den sites available and the only other way to escape from the terrible cold would be to swim at least 750 kilometres to the North. Because of this problem, all the mammals that survive in the ANTARCTIC are marine mammals – whales and seals – which can escape to the ocean in the winter. Similarly, eight land – based birds are resident in the ARCTIC throughout the year and these are supplemented in the summer by 150 migrants. Antarctica has no resident land birds and virtually all the birds that do occur there are based around the sea. No birds or mammals can endure the terrible cold of the winter in the centre of the ANTARCTICA CONTINENT. In fact, the largest creature that lives there year round is a wingless midge, and insect just 12 millimetres long. To survive, most of Antarctica’s animals just have to get out in the winter. PLANTS, of course, cannot move away when winter comes and so, not surprisingly, Antarctica’s flora is very sparse.  On the whole continent (Antarctica) there are only hardy LICHENS, MOSSES and LIVERWORTS and just two flowering plants. Most of these are found on the ANTARCTIC PENINSULA which, stretching so far North, enjoys the mildest weather. The ARCTIC is much better provided. GREENLAND, one of the harshest and most glaciated lands within the ARCTIC CIRCLE, has 40 species of flowering plants. The Arctic is also much richer in the most numerous large mammals of them all, HUMANS. Within the ARCTIC CIRCLE today there are about 2 million people. These include the only indigenous people to live in either POLAR REGION, the ESKIMOS or INUIT, who have inhabited the ARCTIC for over 3000 years. ANTARCTICA remains the only continent where HUMAN FOOTSTEPS are relatively fresh and still infrequent. It was not until 1899 that people overwintered on it for the first time. Until the 1950s, only a handful of brave explores and scientists ventured south. Even now the total summer human population is about 3500, dropping to under 1500 in the winter. The vast majority of these are men. The lucky few that have made the safari South all seem strongly affected by the Antarctic. They talk of a land that seems bigger, more powerful than anywhere else they have ever visited; of scenery that is breathtakingly beautiful; and of a unique wildlife that is perfectly adapted to the harshest environment on Planet Earth. They are united by a desire to return. In an age when over 30 people can reach the summit of Everest in the day, ANTARCTICA remains for many the last place that can still remind HUMANS of their place in NATURE. Until the middle of the eighteenth century, ANARCTICA was a land of complete mystery. No human eye had even looked upon it. ARISTOTLE first postulated the existence of a GREAT SOUTHERN LANDMASS in the fourth century BC and since then, People hoped they would eventually discover TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA, the unknown continent. But it was not until 1772 that a ship set sail with the aim, in the words of the Lords of the British Admiralty, of “prosecuting your discoveries as near to the South Pole as possible”. The ship’s captain was James Cook, who only two years earlier had returned from discovering AUSTRALIA. He set sail in Resolution on an epic safari that would last three years and take a ship across the ANTARCTIC CIRCLE for the first time. In the process, he would shatter the dreams of many. People hoped for another new land like the recently discovered AMERICAS – a green, fertile place rich in gold. But Cook was to find only ice. Today, most people visiting ANTARCTICA still go by SEA. PORT STANLEY in the FALKLAND ISLANDS is a traditional starting point. From there, it is just over 1270 kilometres to the tip of the long arm of the ANTARCTIC PENINSULA. Few ports in the Southern hemisphere come so close but, even so, people seldom leave the shelter of STANLEY HARBOUR without a certain amount of fear. The SOUTHERN OCEAN that lies ahead is the worst in the world. Powerful winds continually race round it, reaching hurricane force several times a year, and huge waves form unimpeded by any land. The latitudes just North of ANTARCTICA are well named the roaring forties and the furious fifties.

In bad weather, the crossing to the ANTARCTIC PENINSULAR can take weeks. Even the largest ships often choose to turn back and sit out the storm in port rather than battle to hold position in a massive sea. In good weather, a strong modern ship averaging, say 10 knots can make the crossing in three days. For the first day or so, the only animals visible are petrels and albatrosses which appear from nowhere, hugging the waves with their long wings. Then suddenly there is a change. The air is colder, mist appears and the birds are more numerous and different. A glance at the ship’s thermometer shows the sea temperature had suddenly dropped. These are all signs that the ship has just passed the Antarctic Polar Front, where cold water spreading out from Antarctica meets warmer upwelling water coming down from the tropics. Each year this meeting place shifts a little North or South but it is always there – a barrier between everything Antarctic and everything from other worlds. To the South lie COLD SEAS and the unique animals adapted to live in them. To the North are animals that, for the most part, could not survive in the Southern Ocean. For anyone travelling South to the ice, crossing the POLAR FRONT is always a very significant moment. There is a distinct feeling that what lies ahead is somehow more dangerous, more challenging than the world left behind. Soon the first icebergs start to appear. They are “growlers”, blocks of ice no bigger than a car that the ocean has nearly eaten away. But as you continue south they get bigger and bigger until one morning you wake to find massive cathedrals of ice floating by. Nothing, no photographs or prose, can prepare the mind for this spectacle. Electric blue to dazzling white, the icebergs come sculpted by the sea and the sun into an amazing variety of shapes. Dazzled by their beauty, it is easy to forget the danger they represent. The radar screen becomes increasingly peppered with white dots, each an iceberg big enough to have sunk the Titanic. Even today, the largest of the most modern icebreakers may be crushed if trapped by them. Captain Cook’s Resolution was tiny. Its 460 tonnes of fragile timber must have been dwarfed by most of the bigger icebergs. Yet nothing could blunt Cook’s determination to get South.

On 17 January 1773, the Resolution crossed the Antarctic Circle (66⁰ 32’ South) and Cook found himself in “an immense field composed of different kinds of ice”.  He was among the thick pack ice that completely surrounds the continent, retreating and advancing each year with the changing seasons. With extraordinary bravery, Cook and his crew continued for a whole year to try and get further South. They were finally halted at latitude 71⁰ 10’ South by a solid wall of ice. Cook had still not observed any land that might have been part of the unknown continent. All he could see was white to the horizon and he thought the ice extended right to the South Pole. But he was confident that beneath it there would be the unknown continent everyone had dreamt of for so long. He suspected that, if someone eventually did go far enough South to discover this continent, “the world will derive no benefit from it”. Cook had managed to get as far South as he did by sailing only in the Antarctic summer. Even today it is impossible for the largest icebreakers to get near Antarctica in the winter because then the waters round the continent freeze over. An area up to 20 million square kilometres is covered in ice, effectively more than doubling the size of the continent. It is the biggest seasonal change to take place anywhere on the planet and it effects virtually all Antarctic wildlife. Most animals feed in the sea and when access to it is blocked they are forced to move north, chased away by the ever extending ice edge. After Cook’s remarkable voyage it was 50 years before anyone dared venture so far South again. In 1819, William Smith, an Englishman from NORTHUMBERLAND, was rounding Cape Horn en route from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso. Violent storms drove his ship south and he found himself among mountainous, snow – covered islands. Smith could not investigate whether these were close to the unknown continent because he had a cargo to deliver. But he decided that he just had to return. The following June, in the middle of winter, he came South again and found the sea completely frozen. Just as they are today, his islands were totally inaccessible at that time of year. He made his third attempt in October, eight months after his original chance sighting. In the ANTARCTIC SPRING, with the seas clear of winter pack ice, Smith made as successful landing and claimed the islands for Britain, calling them the “New South Shetlands”. The SOUTH SHETLANDS remain today the first sight of land for many who cross the SOUTHERN OCEAN from SOUTH AMERICA or THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. They form the largest archipelago in ANTARCTICA, a 540 kilometre – long backbone of rocky vertebrae about 105 kilometres to the north – west of the ANTARCTIC PENINSULA. When Smith first set eyes on them, he must have agreed with Cook that the unknown continent was unlikely to prove a land of wealth and promise. The prevailing westerly winds are often very strong and massive waves direct from the Pacific smash on to the western shores. When the islands, usually shrouded in fog, emerge from the gloom, they are mountainous, rocky, snow – covered and very unwelcoming. Yet their position on the edge of the peninsula, the most northerly extent of the Antarctic continent, gives them a relatively mild climate. Each summer, the ice retreats far enough to release the islands from winter’s grip and provide a few large areas of ice – free terrain. There is more life on the SOUTH SHELTLANDS than anywhere else around ANTARCTICA. Splashes of bright orange lichen covering whole cliff sides can be seen from out at sea. Large expanses of moss add the colour green to Antarctica’s otherwise black and white paint box. Busy penguin colonies cover any accessible bare rock and the beaches are often noisy with seals. It was the SEALS that first impressed WILLIAM SMITH. His reports of “seals in abundance” brought an immediate response from the seal industry and money for further exploration. Within just a few months, Smith returned as master and pilot to Edward Bransfield. The two men had begun a survey of the uncharted SOUTH SHETLANDS when, on 30 January 1820, bad weather forced them to sail South through a heavy mist. When this eventually lifted, SMITH and BRANSFIELD were amazed to see a coastline to the south – west. The midshipman later wrote  that the scene was “the most gloomy that can be imagined, and the only cheer that the sight afforded was in the idea that this might be the long – sought SOUTHERN CONTINENT, as land was undoubtedly seen in latitude 64 degrees’. The great southern continent, the unknown land, had at last revealed itself. SMITH and BRANSFIELD had been granted a view of the very northern tip of the ANTARCTIC PENINSULA which stretches up to 64 degrees south. But they may not have been the first to observe mainland Antarctica. On 27 January 1820, just three days before their sighting, Captain Baron Thaddeus Von Bellingshausen of the Imperial Russian Navy reported seeing “a solid stretch of ice running from east through south to west”. Bellingshausen was then 3200 kilometres to the south – east of Bransfield, attempting to sail around the continent. Today there can be little doubt that he was looking at the coastline of continental Antarctica but it seems he did not realize it at the time. Bellingshausen continued his circumnavigation and eventually reached the SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS which, ironically, he thought he was the first to discover. While moored off these islands, he awoke one morning to find a small boat lying alongside his two far larger vessels. By an extraordinary coincidence he had run into the American sealer, Nathaniel Palmer. Spurred on by the reports of SMITH and BRANSFIELD, Palmer had sailed to the SOUTH SHETLANDS in search of seals. On a clear day, he climbed high into the mountains on the SHETLANDS and saw in the distance to the south a beautiful mountain range. So representatives of three countries, Russia, the United States and Britain, all claimed to have been the first to lay eyes on the southern continent. Most authorities today favour Bellingshausen’s claim. It is not surprising that these early explores should have come across the Antarctic Peninsula first. It is by far the most accessible part of the continent, stretching north like a long extended hand of welcome. Each summer, the ice retreats far enough to give most of the Peninsular coastline access to the sea and the resultant maritime climate is milder than that of the rest of the continent. This is the gentlest face of Antarctica, an exquisitely beautiful area where most of the mainland’s wildlife survives.  A series of islands fringing the west coast of the Peninsula protects its sheltered channels and bays. Massive snow – covered mountains rise straight from the sea. Glaciers cut the mountains, calving icebergs into the sea. Wherever ice – free rock is available, there are breeding birds. WHALES travel south as the ice retreats, puffing their way through the mirror – like calm channels, while seals litter the icefloes. It is a silent natural spectacle. The PENINSULA contains most of the 2 per cent of ANTARCTICA that is ever ice – free, and so is not typical of the continent as a whole. The rest is far more demanding for both wildlife and humans. One of the first explores to see this crueller face was the British naval officer, Sir James Clark Ross. In 1839, he headed south from Hobart in Tasmania to another side of the continent. His goal was the magnetic South Pole, but he found his route blocked by Antarctica’s greatest ice barrier. It must have towered over the mast of his ship, being 45 – 75 metres high, running for hundreds of kilometres without interruption. Below the surface it extends to an average depth of 250 metres. This ice shelf, now known as the Ross Ice Shelf, made it impossible for him to proceed further south by ship. As he wrote at the time, he ‘might with equal chance of success try to sail through the Cliffs of Dover”. But his expedition did discover the Ross Sea which would prove the weak spot in Antarctica’s defences. There, unlike the rest of the continental edge, the sea ice clears quickly in the summer. The explorers that would in time follow Ross and attempt to walk to the pole would all use this way on to the continent. If you sail round Antarctica, you will see, like Ross, mainly white ice. Sometimes it towers over you as mighty ice shelves. Elsewhere great glaciers tumble into the ocean, calving off icebergs which make navigation very dangerous. Most of Antarctica is submerged in an enormous icecap. Covering 14 million square kilometres, one and a half times the size of Australia, it is by far the largest icecap on Planet Earth. On average it is 2160 metres thick but in places it reaches a maximum depth of 4000 metres. Complete mountain ranges as high as the EUROPEAN ALPS are simply swallowed in ice. It is formed by the compression of slowly falling snow, each flake pushing down on the flakes that preceded it. The ice started to form 30 million years ago and today about 90 per cent of all the world’s freshwater is trapped in the Antarctic icecap. The oldest ice in the present icecap is around 700,000 years old. Glaciologists who take samples from deep down in the ICECAP could easily present you with a drink of water made from ice frozen during the life of Christ. If today’s icecap melted, sea levels globally would rise by 60 metres, drowning all the major coastal cities of the world. The continent itself, relieved of the enormous weight of the ice, would rise by over 500 metres. The Antarctic icecap is the loneliest and most humbling place on Earth. From the edge of the continent to the SOUTH POLE stretch 2500 kilometres of ice broken, very occasionally, by the tips of the massive mountains below. These nunataks stand like rocky ships in a massive white ocean. Cold air from the high continental plateau rushes down the gradient to the sea causing katabatic winds. These reach over 300 kilometres an hour and add terrifying windchill to the already freezing conditions. Nowhere else on Planet Earth is as hostile to life or, to the early explorers, as challenging. When Ross left Antarctica in 1843, it was clear that the only way to discover more about the continent was to leave the relative safety of ships and venture on to the ICECAP. For 50 years nobody dared attempt it and Antarctica was left once more in complete solitude. Then in 1895, Carsten Borchgrevink, a young Norwegian who had emigrated to Australia, ventured south. The whaling industry in the North Atlantic was becoming increasingly uneconomic and Borchgrevink thought the Antarctic might provide new hunting grounds. He failed to find any but he did become the first person ever to make a confirmed landing on the Antarctic continent. On 25 January 1895, his small boat rowed through thick ice below Cape Adare and Borchgrevink leapt out on to a grey pebble beach. Inland, glaciers bigger than he had ever seen were cutting their way through massive snow- covered mountains. Borchgrevink was determined to return and discover the secrets that lay behind the mountains. But it was over three years before he managed to raise the £ 40,000 he needed. He was supported by a wealthy English publisher, Sir George Newnes, who demanded in return that the expedition should be called “The British Antarctic Expedition”. The Southern Cross left London on 23 August 1898 and arrived at CAPE ADARE in February 1899. Borchgrevink’s party immediately set about building two prefabricated huts which became home to 10 men and 75 dogs. The ship escaped when the sea began to freeze, leaving a group of people to overwinter in Antarctica for the very first time. It proved as much a mental test as a physical challenge. The party had to endure 10 weeks of complete darkness, relentless storms and the terrifying spectacle of the aurora flickering overhead. On 14 October, one of the biologists died of scurvy. Eventually the sun returned and the party set out on local sledging expeditions, the glaciers and mountains that hem in Cape Adare making longer safaris impossible. Then in January 1900, the Southern Cross returned and took the party further south to Ross Island and the Ross Ice Shelf. From there, Borchgrevink travelled over 15 kilometres by sledge towards the pole and set a new record of 78⁰ 50 South. It was a party led by a Norwegian, ROALD AMUNDSEN, who first made the journey across the icecap to the SOUTH POLE, reaching it on 14 December 1911. They were closely followed by Robert Scott’s British team, who arrived at the pole on 17 January 1912. Like Borchgrevink, AMUNDSEN believed that dog – pulled sledges were the only way to travel quickly enough across the icecap. Speed was of the essence since the longer the time of travel, the more food had to be carried and the greater the exposure to the cruel Antarctic elements. While Amundsen’s party took four sledges pulled by 52 dogs, Scott’s team of five dragged their sledges themselves, pulling over 90 kilograms of rations each.

The story of their journeys, of Amundsen’s success and Scott’s heroic failure, has been told many times. They were very different men with very different aims. Amundsen’s and his sponsors’ objective was to reach a pole, and he was determined to achieve it. He had originally been hoping to conquer the North Pole but Robert Peary claimed this prize. So Amundsen quickly changed his plans and headed south, sending Scott a simple telegram: “Beg leave to inform you proceeding Antarctica”. Scott’s expedition was supported by the Royal Geographical Society. Although reaching the South Pole was the aim that caught the public’s imagination, the expedition’s principal objective was scientific research. The five men in the team all perished on their return journey from the pole. Scott and two of his companions died in their tent just under 18 kilometres from a food depot that would have saved their lives. The following spring, a search party discovered the three bodies still in their sleeping bags. Beside the tent was a sledge on which lay 16 kilograms of rocks that bore faint traces of fossil ferns. Scott’s party had dragged the specimens all that way in the cause of science. Despite its perils, ANTARCTICA still lures scientists to make the journey across the Southern Ocean to the continent. A few even stay there through the winter but they are trapped. Scientific bases built on the solid rock of the continent find themselves surrounded by pack ice to 3 metres thick. The enormous icebreakers that supply the bases in the summer are forced to leave, and scientists and support staff are left to overwinter alone. Modern communication systems allow them to telephone or send a fax by satellite. But in event of an emergency, a call for help could not be answered. No icebreaker could make its way through and no pilot would risk flying in such unpredictable conditions. Protected by its ice, Antarctica remains the last true wilderness on Planet Earth.