Threats to Antarctica
...hrown into the sea! Now that is a bad way to get rid of waste isn’t it? I know they have changed the way they dispose of waste now but they can’t take back what they did then can they? I think that even 20 years ago people were smart enough to realize that burning plastic was toxic I mean smell it when it burns it’s disgusting! 2.0 REPORT 2.1 Geography Antarctica is the driest continent on the planet even though it holds 70% of the planets fresh water. The resin it is the driest continent is because it doesn’t get any rain it only receives is snow and the water is all frozen. The landscape in Antarctica is mountainous and it has a lot of flat plateaus. They can be up to 500km long! Antarctica is a lot bigger than it looks considering that only 10% shows above water! (For a map of Antarctica see 5.1) 2.2 History From 1819 to 1821, a Russian expedition under the navel officer and explorer Fabian von Bellingshausen circum navigated Antarctica and discovered some offshore islands. Probably the first parties to sight the continent were those of the British navel officers Edward Bransfield and William Smith in January 1820, and of the American sealer Nathaniel Palmer in November of the same year. The first confirmed landing was made of February 7, 1821, by another American sealer, Captain John Davis. In 1823 the British whaler James Weddell Discovered the sea that bears his name and penetrated to the southernmost point that any ship had ever reached. (See 5.3 for exploration picture) 2.3 Features Antarctica consists of two main geological areas. The larger of these, East Antarctica, is located mostly in the eastern hemisphere. It is probably a Precambrian shield, over 570 million years old, covered by thousands of metres of ice. West Antarctica, lying mostly within the western hemisphere, appears to be a continuation of the Andres of South America; glaciologists and geologists speculate that West Antarctica would become an island archipelago if the ice cover were removed. (See 5.2 for picture of an iceberg) 2.4 Issues Antarctica is thought t have large deposits of valuable mineral resources. Coal in commercially attractive deposits has been found, but no other minerals are known to exist in potentially useful amounts. Large deposits of oi...