Scott and four other men reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, thirty-four days after Amundsen. Sand and silts were laid down in what is now the Ellsworth, Horlick and Pensacola Mountains. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then. Parts of this ice sheet form moving glaciers known as ice streams, which flow towards the edges of the continent. However, there is some evidence of antarctic marine glaciation during the Cretaceous period.[65]. [148], This large collection of meteorites allows a better understanding of the abundance of meteorite types in the solar system and how meteorites relate to asteroids and comets. A sun dog, a frequent atmospheric optical phenomenon, is a bright "spot" beside the true sun. Glaciologists in Antarctica are concerned with the study of the history and dynamics of floating ice, seasonal snow, glaciers, and ice sheets. Endemic Antarctic fungi also include certain dung-inhabiting species which have had to evolve in response to the double challenge of extreme cold while growing on dung, and the need to survive passage through the gut of warm-blooded animals. Antarctica is defined as all land and ice shelves south of 60° S for the purposes of the Treaty System. Mean annual temperature at the South Pole is –49.5 °C (–57.1 °F).[38]. The most valuable resources of Antarctica lie offshore, namely the oil and natural gas fields found in the Ross Sea in 1973. [40] The first women to set foot on Antarctica did so in the 1930s with Caroline Mikkelsen landing on an island of Antarctica in 1935,[41] and Ingrid Christensen stepping onto the mainland in 1937. [11] The first landing was probably just over a year later when American captain John Davis, a sealer, set foot on the ice. A lower air temperature of −94.7 °C (−138.5 °F) was recorded in 2010 by satellite—however, it may be influenced by ground temperatures and was not recorded at a height of 7 feet (2 m) above the surface as required for the official air temperature records. 2012, found that different satellite methods for measuring ice mass and change were in good agreement and combining methods leads to more certainty with East Antarctica, West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula changing in mass by +14 ± 43, −65 ± 26, and −20 ± 14 gigatonnes (Gt) per year. [182], Coordinates: 90°S 0°E / 90°S 0°E / -90; 0, This article is about the continent. [81], The aurora australis, commonly known as the southern lights, is a glow observed in the night sky near the South Pole created by the plasma-full solar winds that pass by the Earth. Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent, leaving the centre cold and dry. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, and certain animals, such as mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. The frozen surface of the lake shares similarities with Jupiter's moon Europa. Large animals such as some cetaceans and birds make the round trip annually. [citation needed], The Antarctic fur seal was very heavily hunted in the 18th and 19th centuries for its pelt by sealers from the United States and the United Kingdom. It used to be ice-free until about 34 million years ago, when it became covered with ice. West Antarctica is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. [42][43][44], It was not until 31 October 1956, that anyone set foot on the South Pole again; on that day a U.S. Navy group led by Rear Admiral George J. Dufek successfully landed an aircraft there. The only anomalous area of West Antarctica is the Ellsworth Mountains region, where the stratigraphy is more similar to East Antarctica. It has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 80), following a proposal by Norway to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. As Gamme traveled alone he thus simultaneously became the first to complete the task solo. Models of the changes suggest that declining CO2 levels became more important. The orbital distance contributes to a colder Antarctic winter (and a warmer Antarctic summer) but the first two effects have more impact. In 1914 Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out with the goal of crossing Antarctica via the South Pole, but his ship, the Endurance, was frozen in pack ice and sank 11 months later.

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