Geology
Antarctica is the world’s southernmost continent, although it is a land almost completely submerged beneath the planet’s most extended ice sheet. The extreme features of Antarctica, the isolation from other continents, the unpredictable weather and freezing temperatures, have prevented the settlement of any native population. Antarctica today is a spectacular wilderness, isolated in human and historic terms.

Antarctica is the only continent which remained unknown to man until 200 years ago, when a spirit of adventure and scientific curiosity first attracted the early explorers. Once the existence of Antarctica was confirmed, its unique environment restricted access for most human purposes. Today the nations of the world appear to agree to continue its unique status as a free and open land of international co-operation, scientific research and unsullied beauty.

Wildlife

The climate of Antarctica is one of the most extreme in the world. Due to these harsh conditions the animals that came to reside here have developed many unique adaptations in order to survive and are now dependent on this continent. Most of the flora and fauna in Antarctica is concentrated in coastal and marine areas. The land ecosystem is therefore extremely restricted and almost all life systems depend on the sea, which provides the resources for the survival of most species.

The biological productivity in Antarctic waters is higher than in any other waters in the world. The seawater is very cold, and can hold dissolved gasses, such as carbon dioxide and oxygen better than warmer waters. The area is also very windy, which causes the storm-tossed seas to keep essential nutrients such as phosphates, nitrates and other minerals in suspension where they can be easily utilized by the phytoplankton. These conditions are essential to the photosynthesis of plant species and the respiration of marine organisms. The abundance of these conditions allows a proliferation of plankton, the primary produce of the Antarctic Ocean and the lowest stage of the Antarctic food chain.

Plankton is a group of free-floating organisms which are subdivided into phytoplankton (plant organisms) and zooplankton (animal organisms). Their movement is strictly related to sea currents as they can only move vertically on their own.

Phytoplankton consists of microscopic and largely unicellular algae and protozoa which bloom under photosynthesis from the sun. Zooplankton is made up of herbivorous animals which feed on the phytoplankton, or carnivorous animals which feed on other plankton organisms. Examples of these creatures are copepods, larval crustaceans, jellyfish, larval sea urchins, arrow worms and larval fish. The most dominant group of the zooplankton is krill.

History & Politics

Antarctica, unlike any of the other continents, was believed to exist long before it was actually discovered. Antarctica is a word of Greek origin, which means “opposite to the Artic”. The ancient Greeks, beginning with Pythagoras and further expounded by Aristotle, believed that the earth was round. This meant that according to the symmetry of a sphere there had to be a southern region of land to balance the existing, inhabited northern lands. They named this undiscovered land Terra Australis Incognita, which translates as the Unknown Southern Continent.

The beginning of the 16th Century was the beginning of the Golden Age of Exploration. Most early explorers believed that there did exist a Great Southern Land, but most early maps show the great mass joined with the southern tip of Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

A Portuguese naval voyage led by Bartholomeu Días de Noveas and Joâo Infante sailed around the southern tip of Africa and up to Mozambique in 1487. This voyage was followed by Vasco de Gama in 1497 who sailed south from Europe down the western coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and north up the eastern coast of Africa until he reached India. These explorations proved that Terra Australis Incognita was not part of the continent of Africa as was previously supposed.

Similarly, the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan made an important discovery while under the patronage of the Spanish Crown to find an eastern passage to the Indies. He discovered the strait between South America and the southern land. He named this land Tierra del Fuego, meaning the Land of Fire due to the sightings of the native campfires spotted on shore. By discovering this passage, which now bears his name, he proved that the southern land was in fact separate from South America, although it was still believed to be connected to Tierra del Fuego.

In 1577 Englishman Francis Drake, sailing in the Pelican, set out to make a circumnavigation of the globe. While making a deviation through the straits he reported sailing around the south of Tierra del Fuego and discovered the passage which is now named after him. This proved, that the great southern continent was not continuous with Tierra del Fuego either.

The end of the 17th and most of the 18th centuries saw several voyages of exploration south of Tierra del Fuego and many of the sub-Antarctic and Southern Ocean islands were discovered. The Falklands, South Georgia and Kerguelen Islands were all once thought to be northern projections of the southern land, as were Tasmania and New Zealand, but gradually it was discovered that they were not.

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