This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No.

OPP-0090495

TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GOING SOUTH 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GETTING AROUND ANTARCTICA 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WALKING AROUND THE WORLD 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FROZEN DESERT 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MORE ICE 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FROM THE MOON AND MARS 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . STAYING ALIVE AT 80 BELOW 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LIFE 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PENGUINS 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SEALS 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WHALES 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NORTH POLE/SOUTH POLE 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WHITE OUT 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MOUNTAINS & VOLCANOES 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LONG DAYS/LONG NIGHTS 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S CIENCE 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OZONE 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FRONTIERING 27. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EXPLORERS 29. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G ONDWANALAND 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O WNERSHIP
COVER PHOTO DOUG ALLAN Written by Edward G. Atkins, Ph.D and Larry Engel. Designer: Jaye Medalia This book was prepared under the auspices of, and in cooperation with, the Office of Polar Programs and the Informal Science Education Program, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA 22230. 2001 Sesame Workshop All rights reserved.

To learn more about Antarctica, go to: 2001 SESAME WORKSHOP http://tea.rice.edu/science_education/researcher_opprojects.html Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

GOING SOUTH
PETER MILLER

ANAR CTICA SERVIC ES, IN C.

W
2

elcome to Antarcticathe giant continent at the bottom of the Earth. If you enjoy record-breaking facts, then Antarctica may be the place for you. Its the coldest, windiest, driest and highest continent in the world. Its also the most isolated. This world of snow and ice, of six months of darkness and six months of daylight, sits alone. It is more than 2,800 miles from Africa, 2,000 miles from Australia and New Zealand, and 650 miles from South America. Because of its location and its bitter cold, Antarctica is one of Earths last frontiers. In fact, it hadnt even been seen by anyone until 1820. Even today, no one lives there permanently. But people do visit. Some are tourists, curious about this frontier continent. Most, however, are scientists and the people who operate research stations. The scientists look for clues to Earths past and Earths future. And they study its unique wildlife. Tourists and scientists can get to Antarctica by boat or by plane. Many who go by boat travel from the tip of South America to the Antarctic Peninsula, a voyage that takes people through some of the roughest seas in the world. Scientists headed for the main U.S. research outpost at McMurdo Station usually fly there. They use special planes that have skis instead of wheels to land on skiways made of ice.

PLANES, BOATS AND TRACTORS. Planes that fly to Antarctica have skis instead of wheels. They land on iceways rather than runways. Visitors flying to the frozen continent see a bleak, icy landscape. Boats must sail through dangerous ice packs and rough waters. Tractors and helicopters are the most common form of transportation once a visitor arrives.

PETER MILLER

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

GETTING AROUND ETTING ROUND ANTARCTIC A NTARCTIC A

1
ILLUSTRATION JEFF SPACEK

ntarctica is very hard to get to because it is so far away from where most people live. Early explorers also had trouble getting there because of sea ice. Thats the ice that forms and floats on the ocean and surrounds Antarctica for many miles. In winter, this ice, which can be up to 10 feet thick, forms a barrier 30 to 900 miles wide around the land. Because of sea ice, Antarctica doubles in size each winter. In summer, much of the ice strip gets thinner and starts to break up. The loose pieces of sea ice are a danger to most boats. Only very expensive boats with icestrengthened hulls are safe. So today many of the people working in Antarctica get there by airplane. The 2,500 or so Americans who work in Antarcticaor on the iceget around in many ways. They use helicopters; track vehicles called Sprytes, ships, boats, airplanes, and even snowmobiles!

Just a few years ago, anyone who wintered in Antarctica was cut off from the outside world for months at a time. But life there isnt as hard today. Giant cargo planes sometimes drop fresh food and supplies by parachute. (Planes almost never land in Antarctica in the winter because of the darkness and cold weather.) Communication with the rest of the world is also much better now because of satellites and other modern technology. Using electronic mail on the Internet, you can make a roundtrip to Antarctica in seconds. Being able to communicate with friends back home this way makes the world seem a little smaller and life on the chilliest continent a little bit easier.

BELOW: Food and supplies are sometimes delivered by airplane or helicopter.

1. An Icebreaker plows through sea ice. 2. In summer, the sea ice breaks up. 3. Snowmobiles are better here than station wagons! 4. The tracks on the Spryte grip the ice.

PHOTOS NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, OFFICE OF POLAR PROGRAMS

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

ALKING ROUND HE WALKING AROUND THE ORLD WORLD

Most maps have North at the top and South at the bottom (above). But from the South Pole, every direction is North! Walk around the South Pole (right) and you walk around the world!

alking around the world in which you live would be almost impossible. You would have to cross oceans, and it would take a very long time. In Antarctica, you can walk all the way around the world without crossing any oceans, and if you walk around close to the South Pole, it is fast. Just walk around the Pole, and you have walked around the world!

ILLUSTRATIONS PETER SPACEK

TIME ZONES
Walking around the world is also walking around the clock. There are many time zones set up around the world, and, at the same moment, the time in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Tokyo is different. But all of these time zones come together at the South Pole. When you move around Antarctica, you often rapidly move from one time zone to another. You would have to keep resetting your watch if you wanted to know what time it is. And you cant tell time by the sun, because Antarctica has as much as 24 hours of sunlight in summer and 24 hours of darkness in winter. So, in

order to keep on the same schedule, some people in Antarctica, especially aviators, use a special time, called Zulu time, all over the continent. Zulu time is the time found in the time zone that runs through Greenwich, England. So, when it is 12:00 noon in England, it can be noon everywhere on the large continent of Antarctica. Directions are also a little strange in Antarctica. When you are at the South Pole, every direction is North. How can that be? If you look at a compass or a map you normally place North (N) away from you and then South (S) is toward you, East (E) is to your right and West (W) is to your left. Now, go back to your imaginary trip to the South Pole and look at the map carefully. Every direction is North. What an interesting place to be!

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

FROZEN DESERT A
ntarctica is 5,400,000 square miles in areaas big as the U.S. and Mexico combined. Thats a lot of land at the bottom of the world. But 98 percent of it is covered by a thick layer of ice and snow. The other 2 percent of Antarctica is free of ice and snow. Dry valleys make up much of that landand they are very dry. Rain or snow there is less than in most deserts. The climate in the dry valleys is more like the climate on Mars than any other place on Earth! But even the areas that are covered with ice and snow are still desert. The huge interior of Antarctica is drier than the Sahara desert in Africa. Thats because it gets only a few inches of snow each year. So where does all the ice come
DOUG ALLAN/EARTH SCENES

from? Any snow that does fall rarely melts. New snow piles on older snow and packs the snow below ituntil it becomes ice. This process has been going on for millions of years. In millions of years, a lot of ice builds up. Scientists say the thickest part of the ice is 15,000 feet deep. Thatsthree miles thick! And in most places

ABOVE: Glaciers are rivers of ice. Icebergs are the huge chunks that break off where these rivers flow into the ocean.

the ice is around 7,000 feet deep, more than a mile thick. The ice may be deep and heavy, but it doesnt stay still. It actually moves. The ice flows from the center of the continent to its edges. Along the way

NTARCTIC ARCTICA THE ICE COVERING ANTARCTICA: A THICK BL ANKET

CONTINUED ON FOLLOWING PAGE

ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

LEFT: Scientists sometimes spend three months camping in the dry valleys, collecting rocks and studying their history. BELOW: Icebergs float on sea water, but most of the iceberg is hidden beneath the surface.

ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

ED ATKINS

it passes through mountain ranges and becomes glaciers. Glaciers are slow-moving rivers of ice. When the ice gets to the sea it breaks off from the glaciers and makes icebergs. Some icebergs can be really big. One berg measured by satellite was twice the size of Rhode Island. If engineers could have towed it north,

the iceberg could have supplied the city of Los Angeles with water for 1,000 years! Of course, not all icebergs are as big as Rhode Island. But they all have a similar structure. New icebergs are flat on top and rough on the bottom. About 85 percent of a berg lies below the surface of the ocean. So look out below!

South Pole

Polar Plateau

Depth of ice: (in feet) 9000 6000 3000 Sea Level -3000 -6000

Elevation 15,000 feet

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

E
NDIS, NSF JOSH LA

arlier we talked about an iceberg bigger than Rhode Islandnow imagine one even bigger. It would be the largest floating object in the world! In the spring of 2000 just such a huge iceberg broke off from the Antarctic ice. It was 25 miles wide by 170 miles long! Icebergs are given letters and numbers instead of names, and this one is called B-15. B-15 is so large that it could cause trouble if it drifted into shipping lanes. The break-off of B-15 is being watched carefully. The ice on Antarctica is thousands of feet thick, and Antarctica is very, very large. If much of its ice broke off or melted and ran into the ocean, the level of the oceans would rise and flood many areas of the world.

MORE ICE ORE CE

The B-15 iceberg is so large that you cant see the other side of it.

TRY THIS! Here are some big scientific questions that you can solve by doing a simple experiment at home or in school. QUESTION 1. If all the ice in the Arctic Ocean melted, would it raise the ocean levels very much? QUESTION 2. If all the ice in Antarctica melted or slid into the ocean, would the sea level go up very much?
In the Antarctic winter, new ice forms in the oceans around Antarctica and spreads out for hundreds of miles. In the summer, most of this sea ice melts.

1. Take two large water

glasses and four ice cubes. Stick two ice cubes together by pressing them together with your hands.

2. Put the large ice cube that you

have made upright in one of the glasses and slowly pour water into the glass until the water is right at the top of the glass. This is like the ice in the Arctic Ocean around the North Pole. Now, set the glass aside and let the ice melt. Does the glass overflow?

3. Make a second large ice cube just

like the first one. Fill the second glass to the very top with water, but do not put in the ice cube yet. (Remember that most of the ice in Antarctica is on land and not floating in the water, as it is in the Arctic.) Now, drop the ice cube into the full glass of water. Oops! What happened?
2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP
ILLUSTRATIONS PETER SPACEK

FROM THE MOON ROM HE OON AND MARS ND ARS

One way to find meteorites is with robots. They dont get cold! Below: look but dont touch! Meteorites are numbered, put in plastic bags, and then kept frozen until they can be studied for signs of life from other planets.
COURTESY OF ANTARCTIC SEARCH FOR METEORITES PROGRAM

COURTESY OF NASA AND CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

Scientists believe that bits and pieces of the moon and Mars were knocked off when they were hit by large objects, such as meteors. Some of the meteorites found in Antarctica may be from these collisions. Because of this, Antarctica turns out to be a good place for scientists to study the solar system and outer space!

M
8

COURT ESY

eteorites fall on the earth from time to time. Many are never found because they fall in the ocean or in thick vegetation or in deserts, where they look like other rocks and so are never found. The meteorites that fall on Antarctica are trapped in ice and snow. In some places, these meteorites are brought to the surface by the moving ice and the effects of the wind, and the scientists working there find them. More meteorites have been found in Antarctica than in all the rest of the world put together!

OF AN TARCT IC SEA RCH F OR ME TEORIT ES PRO GRAM

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

STAYING ALIVE AT TAYING LIVE T ELOW 80 BELOW

PETER MILLER

TOP: Geologists camp in the dry valleys in pyramidshaped tents. Each tent has a stove for cooking and heating. ABOVE: Debra Shapiro, a cast member of 3-2-1 Contact, practices getting out of a crevasse, one of the dangers of Antarctica.

heres a good place to chill out? How about Antarctica? During its winter (which is summer in the northern hemisphere), the temperature can drop to a very chilly 127 degrees below zero. Along the coast, the temperatures warm up a bitto minus 20 degrees F. If you want to visit during the summer when its warmer, you can expect an Antarctic heat wave: Temperatures skyrocket to the minus 30s and 40s inland, and can creep above freezing along the coast. Sure, Antarcticas cold. But wait, theres more! Its windy. Winds can gust up to 200 miles per hour. So how do you stay alive at 80 degrees below zero when the winds are howling? You have to dress for it! Its all a matter of putting on the right kinds of clothesin layers. This helps to keep your body heat in so you dont freeze. Layering is important because it helps keep you from sweating. If you sweat and get wet, you freeze. Layeringespecially with wool clotheshelps you to control how warm you need to be.

ER PETER MILL

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

 PETER MILLER

BRRRRRR! Even with a fur hood, this visitor to Antarctica finds it hard to stay warm.

When you start to heat up from working on the ice, you take off some layers, so you dont get wet. When youre finished, you put the layers back on. So what does a visitor to Antarctica wear? Heres a checklist of handy items that you cant live without: Long underwear (tops and bottoms), wool shirts, wool pants, wool mittens, wool hats, face masks, and wool scarves. Down vests, heavy cotton wind pants, leather overmittens, goggles, and really warm boots are also part of the gear. Finishing off your Antarctic outfit is a down-filled parka with a hood that has fur around it. To stay alive at 80 below, you have to pay careful attention to your face, feet and hands. People lose a lot of heat through these parts of the body. These freeze first and most easily. Warm clothesand lots of them help protect workers from frostbite. And protecting exposed skin from the wind is important, too. Thats why parkas have warm, soft, fur trimto help protect the face. Visitors to Antarctica also need to protect their eyes from the glaring sun. In Antarctica, the air is crystal clear, and the sun shines 24 hours a day during the summer. The brightness reflects off the ice, so without sunglasses or goggles, people could go snowblinda very painful condition. In Antarctica, people eat a lotmore than twice what theyd eat anyplace else. People need the energy in the food to produce enough heat to keep the body warm. Remember, clothes keep the cold out and the heat in. But its your body that produces the heat in the first place. Drinking a lot of fluids is also important. Even though its bitter cold, your body still loses a lot of water through evaporation when you breathe.

DAVID CAIN

ED ATKINS

LEFT. Crampons spiked iron plates on the bottoms of shoeshelp keep people from slipping on the ice. Ropes are tied around people walking together on the ice to keep them from getting lost. ABOVE: Layers of long underwear, pants, heavy wool shirts and vests help keep people warm. Glasses help protect visitors eyes from dangerous ultraviolet light.

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LIFE
I
M. A. CHAPELL / ANIMALS ANIMALS ED ATKINS

t may sound incredible, but there is plant and animal life in cold, windswept Antarctica. Wildlife is found mainly along the edges of the continent, where ice and land meet the open sea. Even though the waters that surround Antarctica are the coldest in the world, they are still much warmer than the land so food and animals can survive. Antarcticas cold waters are a great place for algae a kind of plant that grows in water. Algae are the beginning of an important food chain. In the summer, the sun shines 24 hours a day, producing a thick soup of algae. But even where theres pack ice covering the ocean, algae can still grow in cracks in the ice. When the ice melts, all the algae end up in the sea. There they are eaten by long, shrimp-like creatures called krill. There are more krill than any other animal on Earthbillions and billions of them live in the ocean.

Krill are eaten by bigger animalsfish, penguins and seals. Krill are one of the most important food sources for animals on Earthespecially those that live in the oceans around Antarctica. Even the biggest whales feed on krill, eating tons of the creatures every day! Most of Antarcticas wildlife depends upon the ocean for life. Birds that fly, such as the skua and the giant petrel, and birds that dont, such as the penguin, rely on the ocean for support. So do seals and whales, Antarcticas mammal life. As for land animals, there are some mites, which are microscopic bugs, and the wingless fly. (Flies on this continent would never survive if they had wings, since its so windy.) Plants grow in only a few places. On the Antarctic Peninsula, the point of land nearest to South America, visitors can find grasses or flowering plants. Moss and lichen can grow inland.

LEFT. These baby birds are skuas. They are scavengers. (An adult skua flies over page 12.) RIGHT: Krill are 2-inch-long shrimplike creatures. They make tasty dinners for whales and seals.

CHRIS GILBERT / BAS / ANIMALS ANIMALS 2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

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 PETER MILLER

DOUG ALLAN / ANIMALS ANIMA LS

ABOVE: Some plant and animal life in Antarctica include 1. starfish, 2. a yawning leopard seal, 3. small plant life such as moss and lichen, and 4. crabeater seals.

All the plants and animals that live in Antarctica have adapted to living in cold and windy conditions. Some animals, such as seals, whales and penguins have a thick layer of fat called blubber. The blubber helps keep their body heat in. These animals have a heavy and closely packed outer layer of fur or feathers to help keep them dry. Even fish have adapted to the cold. They have a natural anti-freeze in their body fluids. The antifreeze keeps the fishs body from freezing in the

28 degree water. The wildlife in Antarctica has evolved over millions of years. The animals developed in a place where there are no natural enemies on landand where people were not present until recently. So the animals arent afraid of people, which once made them easy targets for hunters. At one time, the populations of many of the animals had been greatly reduced because of this. Hunting for seals and penguins and other marine life is now controlled by international treaties.

3
DOUG ALLAN / ANIMALS ANIMALS

4
DOUG ALLAN / ANIMALS ANIMALS

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 MARION BACON / ANIMALS ANIMALS

PENGUINS
Gentoo Chinstrap

RENEE LYN, PHOTO RESEARCHERS

T
FRITZ POLKING / PETER ARNOLD

Emperor penguin father incubating egg on his feet.

here are 18 different species of penguins and they all live south of the Equator. There are no penguins in the Arctic, but four species of penguins live on the continent of Antarctica. Other penguin species live on islands around Antarctica, and one

species lives as far north as the Galapagos Islands. Penguins, like all other birds, have feathers and lay eggs. Their feathers are small and closely spaced, to help keep them warm. Penguins have wings, but they cannot fly. They use their wings for swimming underwater. Their streamlined bodies and powerful wings allow them to swim very fast. Gentoo penguins have been clocked swimming underwater at over 22 miles per hour. The largest penguin is the Emperor penguin. Emperor penguins hatch their chicks in the middle of the Antarctic winter, when it often gets as cold as 77 degrees F below zero with high and fierce winds.

The female Emperor penguin lays only a single egg, and the male incubates it. He must keep the egg at a temperature of 93 degrees for eight to nine weeks, without allowing it to cool off at all! He does this by holding the egg between his legs on top of his webbed feet and covered by a warm fold of skin and feathers. The father Emperor penguin
MARK A. CHAPELL / ANIMALS ANIMALS

BRUNO F. ZEHNDER / PETER ARNOLD

Adelie penguins on pebble nest.

Emperor penguins with partly grown chick.

can waddle around a bit while he is incubating the egg, but he cant go in the water and so he cant eathe must live off the fat already stored in his body. During this time, Emperor penguin fathers often lose up to 25 percent of their weight. Some way to lose weight! The other species of penguins in Antarctica make nests of pebbles on the bare ground and hatch their eggs during the short Antarctic summer.

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

13

S EALS
S
LISTER OSF / ANIMALS ANIMALS

CARLETON RAY, PHOTO RESEARCHERS

Ross seal

ART WOLFE

eals have dense fur and a thick layer of blubber (fat) underneath their skin to help hold in their body heat. Seals spend a lot of time in the water but come up on the ice or the shore to get a rest and to have their babies. Seals are mammals, so they have live births and feed their babies milk. Mostly, they stay underwater for only a few minutes at a time, but they can sometimes stay longer. One species, the Weddell seal, has been timed for 73 minutes underwater! There are four species of seals that live on Antarctica: crabeater seals, Weddell seals, leopard seals, and Ross seals. Fur seals and elephant seals are also found on the islands around Antarctica.

Crabeater seal
FRANCOIS GOHER, PHOTO RESEARCHERS

CRABEATER s EALS are the

most numerous large mammals in the world. Not much is known about them because they live on the drifting pack ice around Antarctica and are hard to study. However, we do know that they dont eat crabs! They eat krill (tiny shrimp-like sea creatures) that they filter out of the sea by forcing the seawater through holes in their lobed teeth.

Leopard seal

RICK PRICE / ANIMALS ANIMALS

Weddell seal
ALLAN D. OSF, ANIMALS ANIMALS

WEDELL SEALS are very large, weighing about 1000 pounds as

adults. They are found on the shores and on the ice connected to the continent. These seals eat mainly fishlots of fish! EOPARD LEOPARD SEALS are also very large seals. They eat some krill, like crabeater seals, but they also eat young crabeater seals and penguins. ROSS SEALS are less common than the other seals in Antarctica. They eat squid and fish.

Leopard seal eating a penguin

14

2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

nother group of mammals lives in the cold but food-rich oceans that surround Antarcticawhales. Whales are the largest animals that have ever lived, and several species spend their summers feeding along the coast of Antarctica. The Blue whale, which reaches 80 feet long and weighs 85 tons, lives almost entirely on tiny shrimp-like sea creatures called krill that they eat by a filter system. The whale takes large mouthfuls of water and then forces it out through a thin fringed structure that hangs

WHALES

down from the top of its mouth. This structure acts as a filter and, after the water is forced out, the krill are left in the whales mouth and can be swallowed. Ten species of whales, including the Blue whale, are filter feeders and eat this way. The other 65 whale species are toothed whalesand some have very large, sharp teeth indeed! Orcas, sometimes called killer whales, are perhaps the best known of these. They eat larger sea creatures. Penguins and seals, for example, have very few enemies on land, but in the ocean they have to be on the lookout for hungry killer whales!
2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

15

The North Pole and the South Pole are both fascinating places. In some ways they seem the same, but they are actually very different from each other. Check out these differences. First look at the words. Arctic comes from arktos, the Greek word for bear. The NORTH POLE is in the Arctic, and there are polar bears in the Arctic. The SOUTH POLE is in the Antarctic. Antarctic means the opposite of Arctic (think of the prefix anti). And in Antarctic there are no polar bears.

QUIZ 1. A large land continent that is covered with ice. 2. You can find polar bears there. 3. It is light for six months. 4. The ice is thousands of feet thick. 5. There are mountains buried beneath the ice. 6. You might find penguins there. 7. It is dark for six months. 8. There is water under nearly all the ice.

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2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

NORTH POLE OLE SOUTH POLE OLE

Antarctica [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

[ [ [ [ [ [ [ [

Arctic

] ] ] ] ] ] ] ]

[ [ [ [ [ [ [ [

Both

] ] ] ] ] ] ] ]

ILLUSTRATIONS PETER SPACEK

Answer on page 20

WHITE OUT
A OF AMERIC Y SCOUTS NCAN / BO SCOTT DU
SCOTT DUNCAN / BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

Snow in Antarctica is often packed hard and carved into unusual shapes by the wind.

ILLUSTRATIONS PETER SPACEK

Forty thousand Adeli penguins live in this busy colony at Cape Bird. The total penguin population of Antarctica is over 180 million! Food-rich waters and a lack of land enemies support these creatures in their icy home.

A
Antarctica (in white) is larger than the United States of America (in green). The continent gets even larger in the Antarctic winter, when very thick ice forms on the oceans around it.

ntarctica is as far as you can get from the worlds factories, cars, trucks and cities. Its the cleanest place on Earth! But even in Antarctica, tiny amounts of pollution, like carbon dioxide (C02), lead and PCBs, have been detected by scientists specialized equipment. When the rest of the world cleans up some of its pollution, scientists will be able to see the results in Antarctica. Less pollution will arrive from those places, so even Antarctica will be cleaner than it is today. Measuring pollution there is valuable because it helps keep track of pollution all over the world. Theres another kind of pollution right in Antarctica itself. Garbage. Early Antarctic research teams couldnt

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17

ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

SCOTT DUNCAN / BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

Pollution might start anywheremaybe from car exhaust in North America, a smokestack in Europe, or from a locomotive in Asia. Then it travels to Antarctica through the atmosphere and the ocean. It takes a long time for pollutants to drift all the way to Antarctica, and by the time they get there, they have all mixed together. So its hard to tell where they came from.

haul away all their stuffjust staying alive was hard work in those days! So they left it there. Today, people are picking up trash that was left behind years ago. But now that more and more people get to Antarctica, theres an even greater chance that visitors could pollute it. So both tourists and researchers must be very careful to keep the continent from getting dirty. The Antarctica Treaty has rules to prevent pollution. And there are rules against disturbing the plants and animals, too. Antarcticas beautiful landscape and wonderful creatures are part of a unique and delicate system. If visitors are careful not to disturb that system, we can enjoy its treasures forever.

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NSF PHO TO

McMurdo is Antarcticas largest research station. About 1,200 people work there in summertimesome even stay year-round. People at McMurdo are very careful about pollution.

BY LAC TH ORBURN , USN / R NZAF

OUNTAINS OLC ANOES MOUNTAINS & VOLCANOES

LEFT: Mt. Erebus is an active volcano in Antarctica. Its 12,444 feet high. ABOVE: Ice streams form when some ice melts and the ice above it starts sliding downhill.

team, red-hot lava, and ash in Antarctica? Yes, recently active volcanoes were discovered under the ice! The lava and steam melt some of the ice. That makes some of the remaining ice start to slide. This is called an ice stream. If these volcanoes became much more active, giant pieces of ice could slide off Antarctica. There is so much ice in Antarctica that if many large pieces ever do slide off, the ocean level would rise and the worlds climate would change.

pretty good since the average American city recycles only about 17 percent of its garbage. The garbage that cant be recycled is sent back to the United States for disposal. Recycling is important in Antarctica since things do not break down, rust, or rot because of the cold. Even food and supplies left by explorers in 1911 are still edible. After all, theyre in natures deep freeze.
Garbage from U.S. stations and camps all over Antarctica is collected at McMurdo. Once a year a big ship carries the waste to Washington state for recycling or disposal.

NATURES DEEP FREEZE

The southernmost city in the world is McMurdo, in Antarctica. McMurdo is a research base built on bare land on Ross Island. Its run by the United States, and more than 1,200 people from many different countries spend the summer there. McMurdo has power lines, water pipes, telephone systems, stores, clubs, and even a firehouse. Its residents keep Antarctica clean. They recycle 70 percent of the garbage they generate. Thats

PHOTOS NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, OFFICE OF POLAR PROGRAMS 2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

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LONG DAYS, ONG AYS LONG NIGHTS ONG IGHTS

ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

ring the summer near the South Pole, if you dont go to sleep until it gets dark youll be pretty pooped, because daylight lasts for six months! And when its summer at the South Pole, its winter at the North Pole, and the North Pole is dark for six months! How can that be? As the Earth moves around the sun, it follows a path called its orbit. It takes a year for the Earth to go around the sun once. The Earth is tilted so that at one side of the orbit the South Pole is pointing partly toward the sun; this is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. You can see in the picture that in this posi-

LONG DAYS DEMO

You can set up a demonstration to see how this works. Youll need a slide projector or a powerful flashlight, a globe, two stick-on dots, and a friend. Set the flashlight up on a table. Put a dot on the place you live and one on the South Pole. Have a friend hold the globe on an angle in the center of the flashlights beam as in the illustration. Imagine it is December 21 or 27, the first day of winter in the United States (also called the winter solstice). Slowly spin the globe from west to east the way the Earth spins. Notice that Antarctica remains light all day and the Arctic remains dark all day. What happens to the countries in between?

tion the North Pole does not get any light; this is winter in the Northern hemisphere. Then, at the opposite side of the orbit, the North Pole points partly toward the sun and the South Pole away from the sun, which makes it summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern. While all this is happening, the Earth also spins around once every twenty-four hours, creating day and night for most of the planet. However, the light from the sun cant reach the Pole that faces farthest away from the sun so its dark there all day, while the Pole closest to the sun gets sunlight twenty-four hours a day.

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Quiz Answers from page 16: 1. Anatarctic 2. Arctic 3. Both 4. Antarctic 5. Antarctic 6. Antarctic 7. Both 8. Artic
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ost of the people who visited Antarctica in the early days were explorers. Today, scientists from countries around the globe come to study what some people call the biggest laboratory in the world. Here's a look at some of the types of scientists who visit Antarctica-and what they do. Biologists study living things. They come to this frozen continent to find out how animals survive in the

SCIENCE
Antarctica is a good place to study Earths atmosphere. Balloons send back information about weather conditions and Earths ozone layer.

growing below the rocks surface! Biologists go scuba diving in fresh water lakes that are covered with 10 to 20 feet of ice. During the summertime, the sun heats these lakes and temperatures go up to the 70s. This makes it possible for algae, a type of water plant, to grow there.
Antarctica is a frontier that scientists are mapping, surveying and studying.

UNDER THE SEA

scuba dive beneath the frozen oceans of Antarctica, looking for jellyfish and other forms of life. They are trying to figure out how these animals can live in water that would normally freeze most creatures. Scientists have discovered that fish in Antarctica have a kind of anti-freeze in their bodies to keep them from freezing. Paleontologists study fossils. In Antarctica, theyve discovered lots of fossils such as tree ferns and the remains of Lystrosaurus (an early reptile). These fossils are clues that Antarctica wasnt always cold and covered with ice. Some 200 million years ago when dinosaurs
Marine biologists
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harsh, cold climate of Antarctica. Biologists study large animals and small ones, toofrom leopard seals and killer whales to rock mites and wingless flies, from anti-freeze in fish, to blubber in penguins, from animal navigation to animal reproduction. (Think about baby penguins and seals being exposed to subfreezing temperatures moments after birth!) Some biologists have found tiny plant-like organisms growing inside rocks. The plants get enough sunlight to grow, but are protected from the harsh climate by

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roamed the Earth, they were in Antarctica, too! Geologists are scientists who study rocks as clues to the history of the Earth. In Antarctica, geologists not only study rocks, but they study how ice shaped and moved the rocks, as well. Their work tells them a lot about the history of Antarctica and how its related to the rest of the world. For instance, many of the rocks found in Antarctica are found in other places, like Africa, Australia, and India. This means that millions of years ago Antarctica was connected to other land masses. And it wasnt always at the bottom of the world! Minerals Geologists have also discovered many minerals and ores in Antarctica. Theyve found small amounts of silver, copper, gold and uranium, and larger amounts of coal and iron here. There are some signs that natural gas and petroleum may also be buried beneath the ice, snow, land and oceans of Antarctica. Geologists use radar and sonar to find out what the land looks like beneath all the ice and snow. Theyve discovered whole mountain ranges that are covered in ice. And theyve even discovered that Antarctica is made up of two big pieces of landone east and one westconnected by a thick layer of ice. Glaciologists are geologists who study ice. They drill deep holes into the thick layer of ice that covers Antarctica. The samples of ice taken from these holes give scientists lots of information about the past climate of Antarctica and the Earth. The samples, or cores, are like tree rings. Each years growth of ice can be measured. It shows just how warm or cold the year was. So, by looking back through millions
A diver wearing extra-warm gear goes below the surface to study underwater life.

ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

Drilling into the ice helps scientists learn more about Earths past.

of years of ice, scientists can figure out how Earths climate has changed. Ice also holds clues about the air that surrounds the Earth. Tiny air bubbles are trapped in the ice. These bubbles show what was in the air thousands of years ago and show how the various gases that make up the atmosphere have changed since then. The Ozone Zone Physicists come to Antarctica to study things such as air and the southern magnetic pole. Theyve been studying a hole in a thin layer of ozone 7 to 15 miles above Earth. The ozone layer protects the Earth from harmful radiation from the sun. Natural and human-made chemicals attack ozone and turn it into another gas, oxygen, that gives no protection. Astronomers study stars and other heavenly bodies including the sun. In summer, they can track the sun for days at a time because it stays up 74 hours a day! Some astronomers come to Antarctica to collect meteorites, little pieces of rock that come from space. Some meteorites are from the moon, and a few seem to have come from Mars! No one is sure how the Martian meteorites got here. Scientists are making discoveries all the time about Antarctica and the Earth. They come from all over the world to work here. Theres lots of international cooperation as scientists explore different things in a very cold place.

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2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

SCREEN

ZONE OZONEE
FOR THE

ARTH

ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

Ozone in the air around the world acts as a sunscreen, letting in visible light and stopping most of the dangerous ultra-violet light.

f you stay in the bright sun for too long, you will become sunburned. Mixed in with the light from the sun that lets you see things are several kinds of light that you cant see. One of these kinds of light is called ultra-violet light, and this is what causes sunburn. Ultraviolet light, or UV light, can cause even worse things. It can cause skin cancer in people, and over-exposure can also kill other animals and plants, particularly in the worlds oceans.

Normally most of the UV light from the sun is stopped from reaching the Earth by a layer of ozone that surrounds the Earth high up in the sky and acts as a natural sun screen. Ozone is a special kind of oxygen (we breathe another kind of oxygen). In the 1970s, scientists began noticing that the protective layer of ozone that was over Antarctica was thinning, and it has become thinner and thinner in the years since then, creating what some call a hole in the ozone layer. This hole was caused by
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COURTESY OF OZONE PROCESSING TEAM AT NASAS GOODARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

S
This computer-generated picture shows the ozone hole over Antarctica. The ozone gets thicker as shown by the different colors moving away from the center.

VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE LIGHT

unlight is a mixture of colors or wavelengths of light. If this light passes through a prism, the different colors separate. You will see these as reds, greens, blues, and so forth. On each end of the visible group of light (those you can see) are wavelengths that you cannot see. The light called ultra-violet, or UV light, is one that cannot be seen by people, and it is the one that can give us sunburn or worse. This is why it is important to be careful about too much exposure to the sun without protection.

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ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

industrial chemicals such as chloroflurocarbons, or CFCs, that got into the air and traveled to Antarctica. These chemicals were once used in refrigerators and other machines. CFCs, along with other chemicals used in industry and agriculture, escaped into the atmosphere and caused the hole in the Antarctic ozone layer when they attached to beautiful clouds found mainly over Antarctica that are called polar stratospheric clouds. Scientists now carefully watch what is going on with the ozone layer to discover any new problems early. The hole is mainly over Antarctica, but CFCs are reducing the ozone layer somewhat all over the world. Ozone, the Earths natural sunscreen, is very important to all of us. Even though CFCs are not made anymore, the hole in the ozone layer is still very large and it may take many years for it to close up and become normal againif it ever does. We can see from this that pollution can have far-reaching affects and can cause problems that are hard to see in the beginning. Other chemicals in the air can also effect the ozone layer and need to be monitored. We need to take care of our home, the Earth. Antarctica is one place that provides a good laboratory for monitoring the health of the Earth.

F RONTIERING
SCOTT DUNCAN / BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

On the sea ice at McMurdo Sound, Eagle Scout Scot Duncan tags a seal pup while Scots companion keeps its mother busy. Scot worked closely with Weddell seals during his stay. Tagging helps researchers learn aboutand keep track ofthe seals. The first Boy Scout to visit Antarctica was Paul Siple. He joined Admiral Byrds historic expedition in 1928.

ho will be the Antarctic scientists of tomorrow? One of them could be you! If youd like to go to Antarctica someday, the time to get started is now. Fewer than 100,000 people have ever been there, and theres lots of competition over who gets to go. For one thing, Antarctica is very expensive to get to. Thats because its so far away. Besides that, the land and climate are very harsh, which makes many things we take for granted very expensive. For example, we all need water, right? Well, just to get a glass of drinking water in Antarctica, people have to use costly

technology. In fact, a glass of water costs 15 times more in Antarctica than in the United States. First, only salty sea water is available because everything else is frozen. It must be taken to a plant where expensive fuel runs machines that get the salt out. Specially insulated pipes transport water to keep it from freezing. And thats only water! Theres also food, equipment and lots of other stuff that must be brought from far away. Because its so expensive, trips are planned carefully, long in advance. Only top experts and the best workers are chosen to go.

There are things you can do to get ready. One is to stay healthy so youll be fit for Antarcticas tough climate. And studying math and science courses can be a big help. Some organizations and groups help by giving money to Antarctic scientists. Scientists also take research assistants to help in Antarctica. The assistants are often top math and science students at universities where Antarctic scientists do research. To get there and pay for the stay, the assistants can sometimes get money from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other agencies. Both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts can try for the chance to spend a few months there. Competition is very stiff. However, the prize is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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COURTESY OF GIRL SCOUTS OF THE USA

COURTESY OF GIRL

SCOUTS OF THE

USA

RIGHT: It really wanted to go! said Girl Scout Julie Hagelin of that big yellow weather balloon. Balloons carry lots of high tech equipment to gather information about the air above Antarctica. Julie held on to this one until the exact moment when all its equipment was ready to start. ABOVE: Then she monitored it from inside McMurdo station, measuring things like winds and temperature. Science is true discovery, and Antarctica is the major frontier for us on Earth, said Julie.

The winner visits several research projects for about a week each. For example, scouts have tagged seals, observed penguins and collected 400million-year-old fossils. NSF also has a pretty amazing program. Their Young Scholars get to do specialized field research in

Antarctica. Catherine Anne Blish, 18, studied algae that live in sea ice, and Kevin Engle, also 18, did gamma ray astronomy! Lots of people who arent scientists go to Antarctica, too. After special training, high school graduates can find jobs flying aircraft, fixing or

COURTESY OF GIRL SCOUTS OF THE USA

Robin Moyle journeyed south for the first Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. trek to the bottom of the world in 1985. One of her new friends was this sled dog. Today, new rules keep all non-native animals out of Antarctica, including sled dogs.

driving special land vehicles, working in research labs and doing many other important tasks to help out. The Antarctic environment is so challenging that lots of people are needed to support the research teams. The competition is stiff, and its a lot of hard work. So if you want to go to Antarctica, start working now. Someday you could be an Antarctic expert! Contact these organizations directly to find out more about Antarctic science opportunities for young people: Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. in New York, NY; Boy Scouts of America in Irving, TX; and the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA. And good luck!

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 BETTMAN ARCHIVE / BBC HULTON

EXPLORERS
1830. From then on,visits by explorers and whalers became more frequent. But the sea ice made landing on the continent difficult. In 1821, Captain John Davis claimed to have set foot on Antarctica itself. Another 74 years were to pass before anyone else landed there. Exploration to that frozen world continued, however. In 1838, Charles Wilkes, an American, led an expedition that explored much of the Antarctic coast. At the same time, Dumont DUrville, from France, spent just over three years exploring much of the same part of the coast. DUrville was the first to write about his trip 32 books in all! Adrien de Gerlache, an explorer from Belgium, led a group that spent the winter in Antarctica. (They lived on a boat frozen in the sea ice.) He did this from 1897 to 1899.

BETTMAN ARCHIVE / BBC HULTON

Robert Scott died on his way back from the South Pole.

Ernest Shackleton got within 97 miles of the South Pole.

ho discovered Antarctica? The answer to that question isnt so easy. After all, Antarctica is far from where most people live. Its oceans are ice-filled and dangerous. So Antarctica was not discovered until modern times. In 1774, the famous explorer Captain Cook was the first person to sail into Antarctic waters. Another Englishman, William Smith, discovered the South Shetland Islands in 1819. But it was an American, Captain Nathaniel Palmer, who may have been the first person to actually sight Antarctica, in November 1820. Two Englishmen, Captains Edward Bransfield and John Biscoe also sighted Antarctic land in 1821 and

Roald Amundsen, the first to reach the South Pole.

The first person to winter on land was Carsten Borchgrevink. He was a Norwegian who was part of a British team. In 1899, he and three scientists spent an entire winter on the continent. Still, by the beginning of the 20th century, no one had gone very far inland. And no one had gone to the South Pole itselfthe very bottom of the world. Several explorers became key players in the race for the South Pole. They were Ernest Shackleton and Robert Scott of England, and Roald Amundsen of Norway. From 1906 to 1922, these three men led various expeditions to try to reach the Pole. All the expeditions for the South Pole started from base camps on the Ross Ice Shelf or on Ross Island about 800 miles from the Pole.
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 1988 U.S. POSTAL SERVICE ILLUSTRATION PETER SPACEK

Scott led the first expedition south in 1902, but he didnt get too far. In 1906, he led another trip, but he still didnt make it to the Pole. In 1908, Ernest Shackleton got within 97 miles of the South Pole. But he was forced to turn back because he was running out of food. He and his men walked 700 miles back to where they started. Even though he hadnt made it all the way to the Pole, Shackleton returned to England a hero. On October 19, 1911, Roald Amundsen left his base camp at the Bay of Whales with four companions and his dogsleds for a dash to the bottom of the world. Scott and his team left two weeks later from Ross Island. Amundsen beat Scott to the South

The lines show the routes that each of the explorers took on their way to the South Pole. Scott and Amundsen arrived, but Shackleton had to turn hack. Above the map are U.S. postage stamps which honor other explorers to Antarctica.

Pole. He got there on December 14, 1911. Scotts team finally made it to the South Pole too, about three weeks after Amundsen. But they were not in good shape. They had not taken enough supplies for five people. Scott and his men struggled back through bad weather and with rapidly disappearing supplies. Hungry and sick, they froze to death out on the ice. Scott and his men died because they were poorly prepared for the dangers of polar travel. Fifteen years later, Admiral Richard E. Byrd, an American, began the

modern era of polar exploration. He is best known for having flown over the North and South Poles. But he also headed four U.S. expeditions to Antarctica that led to a long-term scientific presence there. His teams discovered many mountains and mountain ranges, glaciers and ice shelves. During the 1950s and 60s, scientists from many countries set up permanent bases to study Antarctica. Since then, the old explorers have been replaced by scientists who share their sense of adventure and discovery. Today, the United States has the largest scientific presence on Antarctica, with more than 2,000 people coming to the continent each summer for research.

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2001 SESAME WORKSHOP Reprinted with permission from SESAME WORKSHOP

G OND W ANAL AND

A
ntarctica hasnt always been by itself at the bottom of the world. It was once connected to what is now Africa, South America, India and Australia. Scientists call this giant continent Gondwanaland. Scientists think that about 180 million years ago, Gondwanaland started to break apart. It may have taken Antarctica many millions of years to move to its present position. Scientists have discovered the fossil remains of plants and animals in Antarctica, including ferns, the reptile Lystrosaurus, a small mammal and even a 25-foot-long dinosaur! From this and other evidence, scientists know that Antarctica hasnt always been cold. In fact, the climate was once subtropical.
The arrows show how millions of years ago, giant chunks of land broke off from Africa and eventually drifted to their present positions.

ILLUSTRATIONS PETER SPACEK

AFRICA

INDIA

SOUTH AMERICA

AUSTRALIA

ANTARCTICA

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OWNERSHIP
Anarctica is not owned or ruled by any one country. Forty-two nations have signed a treaty which keeps all human activity there dedicated to peaceful purposes, including scientific research. Originally, 12 nations signed the treaty when it was made in 1959. You can see their flags on this page!

ILLUSTRATIONS PETER SPACEK

I
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ce is ice, right? Wrong! In Antarctica, ice comes in many forms. After all, Antarctica has 90 percent of the worlds ice, and thats 70 percent of the worlds fresh water. Heres a look at Antarctic ice. Ice sheets are formed by falling snow, so they are made of fresh water. The sheets cover most of Antarcticas land. Glaciers and Ice Streams are actually frozen rivers of ice that come
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A SLICE

OF

from the ice sheets. They move slowly towards the sea. Ice shelves are made of glacier ice that is attached to the land. But the shelves are actually floating on the surface of the sea. Ice shelves can be hundreds of feet thick. The Ross Ice Shelf is as big as France. Icebergs are glacier ice that has broken loose from Antarctica. Bergs drift north to warmer seas where they melt. Sea ice is frozen sea water. It almost never gets thicker than about 10 feet.

ICE

There are many types of sea ice. Fast ice is sea ice attached to the shore. Pack ice is sea ice that has broken into pieces. Pancake ice are broken sea ice pieces that have bumped into each other. They look like pancakes. Every year, new sea ice freezes, making an area of sea ice equal to 8 million square mileseven bigger than Antarctica itself. In summer, all but 1 million square miles melts away.

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