Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Discovering the Hidden Resources of Antarctica

Antarctica is an unexplored world all its own, which is why there are conducted international science researches. The most striking characteristic of Antarctica proves to be the enormous ice shelf that covers over not simply nearly all of the land, but furthermore pushes out into the water as a permanent floating ice shelf which exists sometimes on hundreds of miles across the sea. Holding almost 90 percent of all the ice on earth, this continent contains about two percent of all the water on our globe. The endurance of the great inland ice maintains sea level worldwide. With horrific consequences for all seacoasts and seaports, only a few feet of this ice melting and turning into water would cause the sea level to rise dangerously.

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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