Antarctica

You'll need warm clothing: Most of these items can be bought or hired in Ushuaia , but sometimes — in the high season — it is not always easy to get the right sizes. So bring whatever you can from your own stock. Cruise operators typically only allow people on land at any one time to comply with IAATO agreements. Consequently if you are in a boat with more than people the chances are you will only spend a couple of hours at most per day off ship.

These are often pricier than typically cruises that cross the Drake Passage both ways, but cut 1—3 days off the total travel time. Most offer "expedition style" trips where guests are invited to help out, although usually no prior sailing experience is required. Yachts take individuals on a "by the bunk" basis and also support private expeditions such as scientific research, mountaineering, kayaking, and film-making.

Compared to the more popular cruise ships, a small yacht can be more work and significantly less comfortable, but typically allows more freedom and flexibility. For the right people this can be a far more rewarding experience. One way to get into Antarctica, although difficult, is through the various research stations in which you can join research teams for. Ponies, sledges and dogs, skis, tractors, snow cats and similar tracked vehicles and aircraft including helicopters and ski planes have all been used to get around Antarctica.

Cruise ships use zodiac boats to ferry tourists from ship to shore in small groups. Bring your own fuel and food, or arrange supplies in advance. You cannot purchase fuel or food on the continent.

Book with a small ship.

Cruise ships come fully prepared with landing transport, food, etc. Some also provide cold-weather clothing. Antarctica has hour sunshine during the southern hemisphere summer, and hours of nighttime during the winter. Visitors should ensure that they take steps to keep regular sleeping hours as continuous daylight disturbs the body clock.

There are no hotels or lodges on the mainland, and research bases will not generally house guests. Most visitors sleep aboard their boat, although land expeditions will use tents for shelter. It is possible to obtain employment with scientific expeditions and research bases in Antarctica. Positions are often competitive and may only be open to very qualified candidates. Induction and training need to be undertaken before departure for Antarctica.

A few positions are for people who want to "winter over" in the dark, brutally cold Antarctic winter. Antarctica is an extreme environment, and accidents are unavoidable. Every year numerous people are injured or even killed visiting the Antarctic, and while this should not dissuade people from visiting, it should encourage visitors to exercise caution and make a realistic evaluation of their own abilities when choosing a trip.

As most visitors to Antarctica will arrive by boat, the greatest dangers occur due to storms at sea. With modern safety and ship design the odds of sinking are low, but the odds of being thrown about by a wave are high. When on a boat in rough weather always make sure that you have at least one secure handhold, and avoid opening doors during storms as a sudden shift in the waves can easily bring a heavy door crashing back onto a body part.

In severe weather stay in your cabin and wait for the storm to subside. Similarly, be extremely cautious when returning to ship via a zodiac and follow crew instructions — a landing platform in rough weather can be deadly should you slip and fall. Weather on the continent is equally extreme, although most visitors pack appropriate gear.

For expeditions there are limited search-and-rescue options, so expeditions must plan for all contingencies. There is no formal government or legal system in Antarctica, but the laws of the country of origin or departure as well as those of a claimant government may apply. Rules regarding protection of the environment and of historical sites will be strictly enforced, and fines can be extreme. In Antarctica, a hospital is usually days away. Most ships and research stations have a doctor, but facilities are limited.

In cases where evacuation is required if even possible , costs can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Many Antarctic cruise operators require passengers to obtain evacuation insurance. Before embarking on an Antarctic journey, those with pre-existing conditions should strongly consider the risks of venturing into a land where medical help may not be available. Antarctica has an extreme environment. Cold weather is a major health hazard.

Visitors should be properly prepared and equipped for any visit. Waterproof and windproof gloves, coat, pants, and boots are an absolute necessity. Other necessities that are often overlooked include sunscreen and sunglasses — summertime visitors will be exposed to the sun's rays from above and from reflections off of snow, ice, and water.

The fact that there is not as much ozone over Antarctica and some of the nearby islands than other regions of the world means that there is not such a strong block against the sun's rays. Additionally, those arriving by boat are strongly encouraged to take some seasickness medicine on their journey, as even the most seaworthy individual will feel queasy in a severe storm; check with your doctor to determine what medicine is appropriate for you to bring.

Antarctica has a very fragile environment. Pollution should be avoided if at all possible. Expeditions should anticipate the need to remove all waste from the continent when they leave. Waste disposal and sewage facilities on the continent are severely limited and restricted to permanent installations. Of particular concern to tourists is the danger of introducing foreign organisms into the fragile Antarctic environment. Many tour operators will require visitors to do a boot wash after every landing to avoid carrying seeds or other items from one location to another.

In addition, visitors should examine all clothing before embarking to avoid bringing any plant or animal material to the Antarctic; invasive species have devastated many regions of the planet, so it is particularly important to protect Antarctica from this danger. It publishes standards for member tour operators on responsible practices for private visitors to the continent.

The top-level Internet domain for Antarctic sites,. Generally, its servers are hosted elsewhere; a satellite connection may be possible from some Antarctic locations but connectivity is limited at best. Post offices are few and far between, but you can send home a postcard with a truly unique postmark from the Chilean town of Villa Las Estrellas or the British base of Port Lockroy, both on islands off the Antarctic Peninsula. Regions [ edit ]. Antarctic Islands There are some islands around the Antarctica mainland that are south of 60 degrees latitude; north of them are the Subantarctic Islands.

Article Geo different to Wikidata Wikivoyage: Latitude , Longitude 0 Map , Geohack Difference: This continent travel guide to Antarctica is a usable article. It has information about the continent, as well as links to several destinations. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page. Retrieved from " https: Since the s an important focus of study has been the ozone layer in the atmosphere above Antarctica. In , three British scientists working on data they had gathered at Halley Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf discovered the existence of a hole in this layer.

It was eventually determined that the destruction of the ozone was caused by chlorofluorocarbons CFCs emitted by human products. With the ban of CFCs in the Montreal Protocol of , climate projections indicate that the ozone layer will return to levels between and In The Polar Geospatial Center was founded. The Polar Geospatial Center uses geospatial and remote sensing technology to provide mapping services to American federally funded research teams. On 6 September Belgian-based International Polar Foundation unveiled the Princess Elisabeth station , the world's first zero-emissions polar science station in Antarctica to research climate change.

Belgian polar explorer Alain Hubert stated: The biggest eruption in Antarctica in the last 10, years, the volcanic ash was found deposited on the ice surface under the Hudson Mountains , close to Pine Island Glacier. Meteorites from Antarctica are an important area of study of material formed early in the solar system ; most are thought to come from asteroids , but some may have originated on larger planets. The first meteorite was found in , and named the Adelie Land meteorite. In , a Japanese expedition discovered nine meteorites. Most of these meteorites have fallen onto the ice sheet in the last million years.

Motion of the ice sheet tends to concentrate the meteorites at blocking locations such as mountain ranges, with wind erosion bringing them to the surface after centuries beneath accumulated snowfall. Compared with meteorites collected in more temperate regions on Earth, the Antarctic meteorites are well-preserved. This large collection of meteorites allows a better understanding of the abundance of meteorite types in the solar system and how meteorites relate to asteroids and comets.

New types of meteorites and rare meteorites have been found. Among these are pieces blasted off the Moon, and probably Mars, by impacts. Because meteorites in space absorb and record cosmic radiation, the time elapsed since the meteorite hit the Earth can be determined from laboratory studies. The elapsed time since fall, or terrestrial residence age, of a meteorite represents more information that might be useful in environmental studies of Antarctic ice sheets. In January reports emerged of a 2-kilometre 1. Satellite images from 25 years ago seemingly show it.

Due to its location at the South Pole, Antarctica receives relatively little solar radiation except along the southern summer. This means that it is a very cold continent where water is mostly in the form of ice. Precipitation is low most of Antarctica is a desert and almost always in the form of snow, which accumulates and forms a giant ice sheet which covers the land. Parts of this ice sheet form moving glaciers known as ice streams , which flow towards the edges of the continent. Next to the continental shore are many ice shelves.

These are floating extensions of outflowing glaciers from the continental ice mass. Offshore, temperatures are also low enough that ice is formed from seawater through most of the year. It is important to understand the various types of Antarctic ice to understand possible effects on sea levels and the implications of global cooling. Sea ice extent expands annually in the Antarctic winter and most of this ice melts in the summer.

This ice is formed from the ocean water and floats in the same water and thus does not contribute to rise in sea level. The extent of sea ice around Antarctica has remained roughly constant in recent decades, although the thickness changes are unclear. Melting of floating ice shelves ice that originated on the land does not in itself contribute much to sea-level rise since the ice displaces only its own mass of water. However, it is the outflow of the ice from the land to form the ice shelf which causes a rise in global sea level.

This effect is offset by snow falling back onto the continent. Recent decades have witnessed several dramatic collapses of large ice shelves around the coast of Antarctica, especially along the Antarctic Peninsula. Concerns have been raised that disruption of ice shelves may result in increased glacial outflow from the continental ice mass.

A single study by H. Jay Zwally et al. East Antarctica is a cold region with a ground base above sea level and occupies most of the continent. This area is dominated by small accumulations of snowfall which becomes ice and thus eventually seaward glacial flows.

Australian partnership offers 2020 Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Antarctica

The mass balance of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet as a whole is thought to be slightly positive lowering sea level or near to balance. Some of Antarctica has been warming up; particularly strong warming has been noted on the Antarctic Peninsula. This study also noted that West Antarctica has warmed by more than 0.

This is partly offset by autumn cooling in East Antarctica. Instead the recent increases in glacier outflow are believed to be due to an inflow of warm water from the deep ocean, just off the continental shelf. In the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen-B ice shelf collapsed. A study published in Nature Geoscience in online in December identified central West Antarctica as one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth. The researchers present a complete temperature record from Antarctica's Byrd Station and assert that it "reveals a linear increase in annual temperature between and by 2.

There is a large area of low ozone concentration or " ozone hole " over Antarctica. This hole covers almost the whole continent and was at its largest in September , when the longest lasting hole on record remained until the end of December. The ozone hole is attributed to the emission of chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs into the atmosphere, which decompose the ozone into other gases. Some scientific studies suggest that ozone depletion may have a dominant role in governing climatic change in Antarctica and a wider area of the Southern Hemisphere. This cooling has the effect of intensifying the westerly winds which flow around the continent the polar vortex and thus prevents outflow of the cold air near the South Pole.

As a result, the continental mass of the East Antarctic ice sheet is held at lower temperatures, and the peripheral areas of Antarctica, especially the Antarctic Peninsula, are subject to higher temperatures, which promote accelerated melting. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the continent. For other uses, see Antarctica disambiguation. Polar continent in the Earth's southern hemisphere. List of Antarctic expeditions and Women in Antarctica. Historical claims to continental Antarctica. Extreme points of Antarctica and List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands.

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Bring seasickness medication even if you don’t think you’ll need it.

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Antarctica - Wikipedia

Archived from the original on 17 March Archived from the original PDF on 23 November Lay summary — Ars Technica Retrieved 23 February The paper is attracting a lot of criticism from other scientists, however. Eric Rignot, who has worked on similar Antarctic studies, has been fielding a lot of questions about this one and shared his comments with Ars. Accumulation of snow in East Antarctica is 10 centimeters water equivalent per year. To detect changes in accumulation of gigatons with no error bar , or 10 percent, Zwally et al.

Current technology such as ICESat cannot detect any change smaller than 20 centimeters. Radar altimetry used for the earlier period is closer to centimeter noise, but nobody really knows. Archived from the original on 3 July Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Journal of Geophysical Research. Archived from the original on 29 March Retrieved 25 March Retrieved 26 March Archived from the original on 16 April Retrieved 5 April Archived from the original on 6 April Archived from the original on 18 May Retrieved 11 June