5 OhMyGod Facts About Antarctica

Blue Whale in Antartica

It has been estimated that during the feeding season in Antarctica, a full grown blue whale eats about 4 million krill per day (krill are small shrimp-like creatures), that’s 3600 kg or 4 tons – every day for 6 months. Having laid down a layer of fat from this feeding activity in Antarctica, they then starve for several months; this daily intake would feed a human for about 4 years.

It is estimated at the height of the feeding season in Antarctica an adult blue whale consumes 3-4% of their own body weight in krill per day.

Antarctica Sea-ice

When the Antarctic sea-ice begins to expand at the beginning of winter, it advances by around 40,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometres) per day, and it eventually doubles the size of Antarctica, which adds up to an extra 20 million square kilometers of ice around the land mass,that’s one and a half USA’s, two Australia’s or 50 UK’s worth of ice e area that forms, then breaks up and melts each year.
According to research ,sea ice around Antarctica has expanded at a rate of around 100,000 sq kms (38,610 sq miles) a decade since the 1970s and it is due to hole in the ozone.

Antarctica and Meteorites

Antarctica is the best place in the world to find meteorites. Dark meteorites show up against the white expanse of ice and snow and don’t get covered by vegetation. In some places, the way the ice flows concentrates meteorites there. The ice makes them gather in one place,it is believed that the first meteorites were discovered by a Japanese science team sent to Antarctica to study glaciers.

According to scientists, (meteorite found in Antarctica contains Martian fossils and organic chemicals) and it is believed that it contains important traces of life on mars.

Ice Cap at Antarctica

Ninety per cent of the world’s ice and approximately 80 per cent of its fresh water is locked up in the Antarctic ice sheet; the ice cap at Antarctic contains 29 million cubic kilometers of ice. This constitutes nearly between 60 – 70% of all of the fresh water in the world. If all the ice were to melt, the level of the world’s oceans would rise by nearly 60 m. However, the response of the ice sheet to global warming is the largest unknown in projecting future sea level over the next 100–1000 years.

Weight of the Ice at Antarctica

If the weight of the ice were removed it is estimated that the underlying rock would rise on average by 1000 m. This process – known as isostatic uplift – would take many tens of thousands of years. Without the ice we would see the single mass of East Antarctica and a smaller archipelago of rugged mountainous islands – West Antarctica.