10 Fascinating and Fantastic Facts About ANTARCTICA.

stefan.steynberg (58)in #nature • 7 years ago

Introduction.

Antarctica is known as the seventh continent and is the least inhabited land mass on earth, not to mention that it's technically the world's largest desert. There's simply no other place like it on the planet.

Number 10.

There is a persistent rumor that anyone who goes to work and live on Antarctica must have both their appendix and wisdom teeth removed, this is actually not true, however what every polar visitor must have is a full medical check-up, that is because all the stations on Antarctica do have medical facilities but not for complex surgery. So it is true that if you are in need of root canal work or have a dodgy appendix, that you probably want those removed before of leaving for the white continent.

By the way, Australia does actually insist that it's doctors who go to Antarctica, have their appendix removed before going there.

Number 9.

Antarctica is administered by twelve different countries, namely Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa the United Kingdom. In the United States, who between them, run 50 stations on the continent, yet there is only one proper civilian village on Antarctica comprised of about one hundred inhabitants, and with its own school, post office, internet and cell phone coverage.The country belongs to Chile, in the village is called Via Las Estrellas or Village of Stars.

Number 8.

Antarctica has no time zone, that's because the continent is positioned in a way that it straddles all 24 of the world's time zones bases and stations on the vast continent, either keep time according to their home territory or even according to the supply line that feeds them. Technically, the South Pole should operate in Greenwich Meridian time or GMT, but a person can literally walk through all of the world's time zones in a matter of seconds, therefore, time is not an issue on Antarctica.

Number 7.

Slides pulled by husky dogs were an integral part of the first expeditions into Antarctica. At the start of the 20th century, the expedition of Norway's Rolad Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911, was entirely thanks to sleds and huskies, however an environmental protocol was introduced in the 1980s to protect Antarctica's wildlife, in which it banned all non-native species from Antarctica, of course humans are excluded from the span, that's why huskies so synonymous with the polar region has been banned in Antarctica since 1994.

Number 6.

In December 2013, an American scientist at the U.S. McMurdo base station in Antarctica decided to log on to the dating app 'Tinder' just for the hell of it, he wanted to see if there was any woman who might be on tinder in the most remote of places. To his utter amazement, he found that he had a match with a female researcher who happened to be a 45 minute helicopter ride away, they did meet up although she had to leave Antarctica the next day, tinder confirmed that it was probably the first ever hookup on Antarctica.

Number 5.

It seems incredible to believe but there are said to be no ants on Antarctica, it seems that they simply don't have a reason to inhabit the cold continent, which makes it the only continent on Earth that has no ants.This is confirmed by National Geographic, which also states that other parts of the world that have no ants include Greenland and Iceland, as well as parts of Polynesia and remote islands of the Indian and Atlantic oceans. That should make having a picnic on Antarctica, a little less annoying.

Number 4.

There is only one insect species that is endemic or native to Antarctica, it's a midge or a small type of flight that goes by the name of the 'Chironomid Mitch' , with the scientific name 'Belgica Antarctica'. At only 0.23 inches in length, it's tiny. The insect is only active in the summer, living most of its life in a larval state in the ice. The most amazing thing about this insect, is that as tiny as it is, it is still considered the largest purely terrestrial animal in all of Antarctica, since all other species of animals on the continent live at least some of the time in water.

Number 3.

The first human baby to be born on Antarctica was Emilio Marcos, who was born on January , 7th 1978 at 14 Sargento Cabral At the Esperanza base near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. His pregnant mother had been sent there on purpose in 1977 by the argentinian government, as a way of claiming a portion of Antarctica for Argentina. It has claimed that there have been 11 births on Antarctica to date, all of them either Argentinian or Chilean babies, no doubt about it this is one select group of people.

Number 2.

On earth, there is a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica that is absolutely massive. In fact, the whole is twice the size of Europe according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is due to special atmospheric and chemical conditions that exists there and nowhere else. On the planet, the hole is especially prevalent during springtime that wearing sunblock must be imperative in Antarctica, especially during the warmer months.

Number 1.

Antarctica is home to Mount Erebus, which is the most southern active volcano on the planet. At its summit, which reaches an elevation of over 12,000 feet, Mount Erebus has what is known as a persistent convecting lava lake, which makes it only one of five long-lasting lava lakes on earth. Mount Erebus was also the site of the tragic aviation accident of Air New Zealand flight 901, which crashed into the mountain on November 28th 1979 during one of the airline's popular sightseeing flights of Antarctica, at the time all 257 passengers on board were killed, to this day debris from the crash can be seen on Mount Erebus when snow melts during summer.