Antarctica: The Frozen Continent

The icebreaker Laurence M. Gould noses through the LeMaire Strait in Antarctica during a Dive & Discover expedition in early 2006. Photo by Kate Madin, WHOI. Most people know that Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth, but did you know it is the world's largest desert? That huge volcanoes can be found here? Or a lake the size of Lake Ontario is locked beneath the ice? Discover what else you would find in Antarctica.

Antarctica's Location and Geography

Imagine flying in a plane over Antarctica, the southernmost continent and the coldest and driest region on earth. From the air, you see that it covers a huge area, about 14 million square

kilometers (5.4 million square miles), about half the size of the United States. Antarctica is just slightly larger than another continent in the southern hemisphere, Australia. You also see that it is quite mountainous. Antarctica has an average elevation of 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) making it the highest continent on Earth. In comparison, the average elevation of the state of Colorado (the highest in the USA) is a mere 6,800 feet. As your plane circles over the landscape, you note that Antarctica is divided into unequal eastern and western portions by the Transantarctic Mountain chain, which is about 100 million years old. East Antarctica is a platform about 488 meters (1,600 feet) above sea level, composed of rocks more than 550 million years old, with younger rocks on top.

West Antarctica lies south of South America. The land in West Antarctica is lower than in the east, and in some places is even well below sea level. The continents highest peak, Vinson Massif, is found in West Antarctica. It is located on the coast and is 4,876 meters (16,000 feet) tall. Under the surface of Antarctica, all is not cold and quiet. In fact, there is an active volcano in Antarctica: Mount Erebus, which is 3,794 meters (12,447 feet) in height, is located in East Antarctica, on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelfa place where ice extends far out over the ocean. Antarctica is also home to Lake Vostok, one of the world's largest lakes. Lake Vostok is roughly the size of North America's Lake Ontario, but it is not a lake for sailing boats. It lies 4 kilometers (2 miles) below the continental ice sheet. Its waters have been sealed from air and light under the tremendous pressure of the continental ice sheet for perhaps as long as 35 million years.

Geologic History: Antarctica was not always the frozen, dry continent it is now. Two hundred million years ago, it was the center of a supercontinent called Gondwana that included parts of South America, Africa, India, and Australia. The breakup of Gondwana about 180 million years ago started the episode of continental drift that separated Africa from South America, and formed the South Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, the Indian subcontinent started moving north, heading for Asia and the eventual uplift of the Himalayas, while Antarctica moved southward. The similarity in the types of rocks and fossils found in these southern continents helps prove the theory of continental drift. Rocks and fossils also confirm that Antarctica was once connected to these regions, and that it was much warmer and wetter in the distant past. The plate reconstructions shown above were derived from data made available on the ODSNGeomar Web site.

Antarctica's Exploration Timeline

1772 to 1775: The first well-documented evidence for the existence of a frozen southern continent came from the second expedition of Captain James Cook beginning in 1772. He did not actually see the continent but he did cross the Antarctic Circle (67 South Latitude) and saw the icebergs and frigid waters of the far southern ocean. Next Page 1772 to 1775: The first well-documented evidence for the existence of a frozen southern continent came from the second expedition of Captain James Cook beginning in 1772. He did not actually see the continent but he did cross the Antarctic Circle (67 South Latitude) and saw the icebergs and frigid waters of the far southern ocean.

1819 and 1820: The next expeditions by William Smith, and James Bransfield a year later, in 1820, discovered the South Shetland Islands and the shore of the Antarctic Peninsula.

1821: Captain John Davis, part of an American group of explorers, landed on the continent at Hughes Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula. Much of the early exploration was directed at finding good hunting grounds for seals.

1820 to 1890s: Beginning in 1820 there were several expeditions by British, French, American, and Russian explorers, but starting around 1840 there was little work done in the Antarctic for more than 50 years. That changed in the 1890s when Norwegian and Scottish expeditions explored the area for whaling.

Early 1900s: During this period, many countries sent exploring expeditions to the Antarctic. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the Sorth Pole on Dec. 14, 1911.

1912 to 1915: Perhaps the most famous Antarctic expedition was led by Ernest H. Shackleton. He and his crew survived being shipwrecked in the sea ice around Antarctica and finally were rescued after a harrowing voyage in a small open boat across 1,300 kilometers (807 miles) of some of the most treacherous ocean on the planet.

Mid 1900s: Explorers from many countries visited Antarctica in the early to mid 20th century. Perhaps the most important event was the focus on Antarctic exploration and scientific studies accomplished during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957.

1961: Those scientific efforts led to the establishment of the Antarctic Treaty, which has been signed by 44 countries. This treaty, passed into law in 1961, calls for Antarctica to be used for peaceful purposes only. It also promotes international scientific cooperation in Antarctica.

2007-2008: International Polar Year: There have been a number of major international science initiatives in Polar Regions and all have had a major influence our understanding of global processes in these important areas. These initiatives have involved an intense period of interdisciplinary research that provide a broad range of information about the polar regions. The last such initiative was the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58. It produced unprecedented exploration and discoveries in many fields of research and fundamentally changed how science was conducted in the polar regions. Since then, technological developments such as earth observation satellites, autonomous vehicles and molecular biology techniques offer enormous opportunities for a further quantum step upwards in our understanding of polar systems. An IPY in 2007-2008 also affords an opportunity to engage the upcoming generation of young Earth System scientists and to get the public to realize just how much the cold ends of the sphere we all live on really do influence us. (Adapted from www.ipy.org)

Oceanographic Circulation: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the largest winddriven current on Earth. It is the only current that goes all the way around our planet and connects the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. It is driven by strong westerly winds and creates some of the roughest seas in the world that are notorious to sailors. It was discovered by Edmund Halley, the British astronomer, during the expedition of the HMS Paramore in 1699-1700. Later, James Cook in 1772-1775, and James Clark Ross in 1839-1843 both described the ACC in their journals. The ACC is a massive flow of water that acts as a barrier separating the Southern Ocean from more northern oceans. The current extends from the sea surface to depths of 4000 m (more than 2.5 miles) and can be more than 120 miles wide. It is a very cold current with temperatures ranging from 1 to 5C depending on the time of the year, and with speeds up to 2 knots (2.3 miles per hour or 3.7 km per hour). This is the same speed as a brisk walk. Antarctica is also the birthplace of deep ocean waters that make up part of the global Ocean Conveyor. Water that flows at the bottom of the ocean is formed on the continental shelf, particularly in the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea. As ice forms the water becomes saltier. As the ice drifts and gaps open up, the water loses heat and gets colder with temperatures from -0.9C to +0.4C (30 to 32F). Its density increases to become the densest water in the world and it sinks to the bottom of the ocean (below ~4000 m) to flow throughout the worlds deep ocean. Different weather conditions a little further north at 45-55S cause another water mass, called Antarctic Intermediate Water, to form. In this area, precipitation is greater than evaporation, so the salinity of the water is low. However, the water gets cooled and sinks to flow through the ocean northward at depths of 600-1000 m.

Image The path of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (also called the West Wind Drift) that flows around Antarctica (dark blue). The Subtropical Convergence marks the boundary between the cold waters to the south and the warm waters to the north. Image The speed of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current around Antarctic ranges from about 10 cm/sec or 0.2 knots (blue colors) to 100 cm/sec (purple colors) or 2 knots, with an average of 50 cm/sec or 1 knot (red color).

Image Cold water that flows north in the Atlantic Ocean forms around Antarctica. Antarctic Bottom Water forms on the continental shelf and sinks to spread through the bottom of the world's oceans. It is the coldest, deepest water in the ocean. Antarctic Intermediate Water forms further north and flows at a shallower depth.

Image Part of the Global Conveyor in the Atlantic Ocean. Waters formed around Antarctica flow north, while waters from the North Atlantic flow south.

Antarctica's Ecosystem

View interactive of Summer Ecosystem

View interactive of Winter Ecosystem

Diatoms like these are at the base of the Antarctic food chain. In summer they use photosynthesis to grow, and multiply into huge populations. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca Gast, WHOI)

Young (juvenile) krill that were collected in a net. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

A curious Emperor penguin approaches a technician. (Photo by Peter Wiebe, WHOI)

Orcas are toothed whales that hunt large single prey items, such as penguins and seals. (Photo by Mark Dennett, WHOI) The Circle of Life Antarctic seas are extremely productive because phytoplankton grows abundantly during the extended daylight of summer and feeds huge populations of krill. Krill, shrimplike crustaceans, are a key animal in this ecosystem, as food for top predators: whales, penguins, and seals. Soft transparent animals called salps also feed on phytoplankton in summer, and form huge swarms that may sometimes replace krill. Winters have little light, no phytoplankton growth, and extremely cold temperatures, but a complex food web links a great variety of ocean animals. If you are unable to view the interactive, you can download the Flash player for free. Click here An Abundance of Life Much of the ocean around Antarctica is ice-covered for half the year, and the temperature is near freezing all year. Yet the sea here is full of life, from microscopic algae to shrimplike krill to large predators that depend on them. This is one of the most abundant oceans on earth, and its cycle of production is tied to the change in seasons. Each winter in Antarctica, as the sun disappears and temperatures plunge, ice forms on the sea and extends outward from the continent to cover large areas of ocean. The ice is important to the ecosystem, because microscopic, single-celled algaethe same kinds that drift in the open water as phytoplanktonare trapped inside the ice as it forms and also grow on the ices underside. Young krill congregate under the ice all winter, and the algae provides critical food for them when there is not enough light to produce food in the open water. Instead of being a hardship, winter ice lets the krill survive until spring. In spring, the sea ice melts, releasing the trapped algae into the water. The algaenow living freely as phytoplanktonfind all that they need to grow: open water, lots of nutrients (compounds like plant fertilizer, stirred up from deeper water by wind and ocean circulation), and intense sunshine. What happens next is a bloom, or population explosion, of phytoplankton in the water. Animals, especially krill, consume this abundant food supply, and multiply to astounding levels. Scientists have estimated that the krill in the ocean around Antarctica weigh more than the entire worlds human population. The krill, rich in protein and fat, are food for large numbers of animals at the

top of the food chain, including penguins, seals, and whales. Scientists studying the Antarctic marine ecosystem now know that its high productivity is confined to the edge of the sea ice and a few other areas, rather than everywhere in the Southern Ocean. And that its high productivity may be changing, as the Antarctic climate warms and there is less and less sea ice.