
The layers of ice and snow contain information from the past on nuclear explosions, or the utilization of lead in gasoline. Common lead has been measured on the ice surface and tracked since the 1950's. Because of the precipitation of the decomposing lead alkyls that came from the leaded gasoline burning, the ice surfaces have demonstrated a scary rise in lead concentrations over the course of the past ten years.
Vegetation in Antarctica is found mostly as lichens. Springtails and mites prove to be the most common land animals. A wingless fly is the biggest animal found in Antarctica; no insects can live there. In the ocean around penguins and seals can be observed. Especially the seals have impressed the researchers in diving as deep as 1,500 feet and staying under water for 30 minutes while hunting for food.
In the winter, the penguins migrate north, but in the rest of the year they hang around in the Antarctic. They have the ability to maintain a course heading exactly and precisely, due to their ability to use the sun to find their location. The planet's largest inhabitant lives also in Antarctica. Eating nearly one ton of shrimp daily, and weighing five times more than any past dinosaur, the great blue whale is nearing extinction.
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