Antarctica nature
antarctica is a huge continent,
thousands of kilometers around the southpole ... it is
almost completely covered with ice, and exposed to
extremely harsh weather - very cold and also very windy …
this made its exploration a truly difficult task … the
maps below show how hard it is to reach the actual
continent which is surrounded by pack ice even in summer
…
the first folks to stay there for
half a year and to 'over-winter' was the expedition of
borchgrevink (norway) in 1899 … the first explorer to
reach the south pole was amundsen (norway) in 1911 …
antarctica was never settled and there are no towns, yet
over the last hundred years about 30 research stations
have been established, being staffed seasonally (summer)
or year-round …
seven picture galleries are prepared, with photos of the incredible landscapes (snow-roofed mountains, glaciers, huge icebergs and ice-covered fjords), photos of the animals living in this rough environment (above all penguins and birds and seals), and photos of exploration endeavours. my visits: done two antarctic voyages, in 2010 and in 2013.
note:
there are several "sub-antarctic" islands, including south
georgia (uk), macquarie (australia) and campbell island
(nz); these are (or will be) presented elsewhere.