The North Pole The North Pole is the northern end of the Earth's axis of rotation, that is, the point at 90° north latitude. The Arctic is the area near the North Pole within the Arctic Circle at 66°34′ north latitude. The Arctic Ocean is a vast frozen sea surrounded by numerous islands and the coastal areas of North America and northern Asia. Icy waters carry icebergs from the Arctic Ocean into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The climate in the Arctic is cold all year round. In winter, the sun is always below the horizon and the sea is completely frozen. In summer, temperatures rise above freezing, the edge of the Arctic Ocean melts, and the sun hangs in the sky for weeks on end. The Arctic Ocean has an abundance of fish and plankton, which provides a rich source of food for the millions of seabirds that nest here in the summer, as well as for seals, whales and other marine animals. Much of the area around the Arctic Ocean is relatively flat and no trees grow. In winter the land freezes over and the ground is covered with a thick blanket of snow. In summer the snow melts, the topsoil thaws, and plants grow and bloom, providing food for animals such as caribou and musk oxen. At the same time, predators such as wolves and polar bears depend on other animals to survive. The Arctic is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the world. For thousands of years, the Inuit (formerly known as Eskimos) have thrived here. More recently, oil has been discovered here, and many people have come from the south to work here.
In 1909, two Americans -- Robert Peary and Frederick -- both claimed to have reached the North Pole first, but no one could come up with strong evidence. Various studies since then have proved that Pieri reached at least a few kilometers from the pole.
The extent of the Arctic region
The Arctic is the vast area north of 66 degrees 34 minutes north latitude (the Arctic Circle), also called the Arctic region. The Arctic region includes the polar Arctic Ocean, the marginal land coastal zone and islands, the Arctic tundra and the outermost taiga. If the Arctic Circle as the boundary of the Arctic, the total area of the Arctic region is 21 million square kilometers, of which the land part accounts for 8 million square kilometers. There are also some scientists from the point of view of phenology, to the July average 10 ℃ isotherm (ocean to 5 ℃ isotherm) as the southern boundary of the Arctic region, so that the total area of the Arctic region is expanded to 27 million square kilometers, of which the land area of about 12 million square kilometers. And if the distribution of plant species to delineate the Arctic to all the taiga forest belt into the Arctic range, the Arctic area will be more than 40 million square kilometers. What exactly is the boundary of the Arctic region, the standard of the Arctic-rim countries is not uniform, but people are generally accustomed to the geographic point of view, the Arctic Circle as the boundary of the Arctic region.
The Arctic is a world of ice and snow, but because of the movement of ocean currents, the sea ice on the surface of the Arctic Ocean is always drifting, breaking up and melting, so it is impossible to accumulate snow and ice thousands of meters thick over millions of years like the Antarctic continent. Therefore, the total amount of ice and snow in the Arctic is only close to 1/10 of the Antarctic, most of which is concentrated in the continental ice cap of Greenland, while the amount of permanent ice and snow on the Arctic Ocean sea ice, other islands and the surrounding land accounts for only a small part.
The vast majority of the surface of the Arctic Ocean is covered by sea ice all year round, making it the only white ocean on Earth. The average thickness of the Arctic Ocean sea ice is 3 meters, covering 73% of the total area of the ocean in winter, about 10 to 11 million square kilometers, and 53% in summer, about 7.5 to 8 million square kilometers. Central Arctic Ocean sea ice has persisted for 3 million years, is permanent sea ice.
The winter season in the Arctic Ocean lasts six months from November until April of the following year, with May, June and September/October being spring and fall. The average temperature in January ranges from -20 to 40 degrees Celsius, while the warmest month, August, has an average temperature of -20 to 40 degrees Celsius. In January, the average temperature ranges from -20 to 40°C, while the warmest month, August, has an average temperature of -8°C only. The lowest temperature measured at a drifting station near the Arctic Pole was -59°C. The average temperature in January is between -20 and -40°C. The warmest month, August, reaches only -8°C. Due to ocean currents and Arctic anticyclones, the coldest part of the Arctic is not in the central Arctic Ocean. Minimum temperatures of -70C have been recorded in Verkhoyansk, Siberia, and -62C in Alaska's Prospekt region.
The closer you get to the pole, the more pronounced the polar weather and climate characteristics become. There, the year lasts only one day and one night. Even in midsummer, the sun hangs far above the southern horizon, glowing bleakly white. The sun never rises higher than 23.5°, and it moves slowly and silently around this boundless white world. After a few months, the sun's orbit gradually approaches the horizon, and the Arctic twilight season begins.
In the Arctic the sun never rises higher than 23.5 degrees, even in midsummer. Annual precipitation in the Arctic is typically 100-250 millimeters, and in Greenland's waters it can reach 500 millimeters. Precipitation is concentrated offshore on land, where it is most predominantly in the form of summer rains.
A Brief History of the Arctic
Ancient Chinese in the Arctic
Following the migration of the ancient Eskimos to the north, the people of the ancient civilizations that developed in the middle and lower latitudes gradually began to think about what the world they inhabited was really like. The oldest map that has been found in the world today is a clay tablet map of the Babylonians unearthed by archaeologists. The map depicts what the world looked like in the Babylonian human heart day 2800 BC. Ringed rivers surrounded a rounded earth, and Babylon was at the center of the world.
Ancient Chinese people also experienced the stage of "self-centeredness", the Han people worshiped Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor of Xuan Yuan Clan, as their ancestor, and then there was a big flood, and his grandson, Jiu Ji replied, "Jiu Ji is the father of the son, he is the father of the son. Jiu Ji son Yu continues to fulfill his mission. Jiu Ji's son, Yu, continues to fulfill his father's task, which is what the famous story of "Dayu Healing the Water" tells. However, in Chinese mythology, Yu is not only a hero who treats water for the people, but also an explorer who travels around the world. After completing his water-control project, Yu sent Tai Zhang, the god of the sky, to measure the earth with his feet. Tai Zhang walked from the East Pole to the West Pole and measured the length of 233,500 miles and 75 steps. Dayu also sent the god of heaven, Shihai, to walk from the North Pole to the South Pole, and measured the earth with a 6-inch-long bamboo piece called "counting", and the result was exactly the same as the east-west distance. It was clear that the earth where people lived should be square, and since he was in the center of the square earth surrounded by the four seas, he logically called himself "the central country", i.e., China.
Later, Dayu went on a personal expedition to the heavens, conducting diplomacy in the process. He traveled east to Fusang, where the sun rises, to the wilderness of Kujin and Qingqiang, and climbed high mountains to Tortugu and Heikoku. "He climbed high mountains to the Land of Tobiya, the Land of Black Tooth, and the Land of Green Hills, where the nine-tailed fox is found. He traveled southward to "Jiaotong", crossed the extremely hot Jiuyang Mountain, and went to the "Kingdom of the Feathered People", the "Kingdom of the Naked People", and the "Kingdom of the Immortals". "The Kingdom of the Feathered Man, the Kingdom of the Naked People and the Kingdom of the Immortal. To the west, he went to the "Three Dangerous Mountain Country" where the three green birds of the Queen Mother of the West lived, and saw people who only drank dew and did not eat grains; he also went to the "Pile of Gold Mountain" which was full of gold, and saw the "Strange Brain Man", "The man with one arm and three faces. He traveled northward to the "Land of Rinzheng" and the "Land of Injun", and then crossed the Jishi Mountains to the North Sea to visit Yujian, who was both the god of the sea and the god of the wind. After bidding farewell to Yujiang, Da Yu intended to go home, but he got lost in the snow and wind, and traveled further and further north, finally arriving at a place called the "Land of the End of the North". This "final north country", may be China's written records of the Arctic exploration of the first and only record. Although this record is from a myth, although the footprints of Dayu may be far from the shore of the Arctic Ocean, but this is after all the children of the Yellow Emperor 5000 years of civilization in the history of the North Pole related and worth sighing.
Ancient Greeks at the North Pole
Most historians agree that civilized mankind's gaze on the North Pole first began in ancient Greece.
For, it is said that the Arctic Circle was first identified by the ancient Greeks. They discovered then that the stars in the sky could be divided into two groups, one of which was in the northern part of the world and visible all year round. The other group was near the zenith and to the south, and they only appeared in cycles with the seasons. The dividing line between these two groups of stars is a circle drawn by the constellation Ursa Major, which happens to be the circle of latitude 66°33′ north, the Arctic Circle.
In fact, Pythagoras (582-500 BC) and his school despised the idea that the earth was square or rectangular, and their philosophical thinking led them to believe that the earth was perfect only if it was spherical, in order to conform to the "harmony of the universe" and the need for "number". The number" is the need of the hour.
Aristotle (384-322 BC), a student of Plato's, laid the groundwork for the concept of the Earth. He even considered that there should be a continent in the southern hemisphere in order to balance the large land mass in the northern hemisphere. Moreover, in order to avoid the embarrassing situation of the Earth being "top-heavy", with its big head (the North Pole) pointing downwards, the area around the North Pole should be a relatively light ocean.
So a Greek named Pythias bravely pulled up the sails more than 2,000 years ago, and began the first-ever assault on the North Pole by civilized mankind. He completed the voyage in about six years, reaching as far north as Iceland or central Norway, possibly entering the Arctic Circle. In 325 B.C., Pythias returned to Masseria (modern Marseille, France).
Discovery of Iceland, Greenland
1,200 years after Pythias, an ancient Scandinavian nobleman named Ottar made his first voyage around the northernmost cape of Scandinavia, turning the Kola Peninsula and entering the White Sea in 870 AD. At about the same time as Ottar, another Norwegian named Froggie was sent to the northwest in search of new lands, and discovered Iceland.
And the discoverer of Greenland was a Norwegian pirate called Red-faced Alec. He was deported after two consecutive killings in Iceland, which was already under Norwegian jurisdiction at the time. With no way out, he had to load his family and all their belongings into an uncovered boat and rowed hard west with a glimmer of hope. After a rather grueling voyage, he finally saw a patch of land. The climate was in the optimal climatic phase of the Little Global Warm Period (known to Europeans as the "Medieval Warm Period"), which could have made even high latitudes like Greenland suitable for life. Red-faced Alec lived there for three years, thought it was a great land, and decided to go back to Iceland to recruit settlers. To make the place sound even more attractive, he came up with the catchy name Greenland, the green earth. Of course, it may well have been true that the southern coast of Greenland was a lush green in the summer at that time. Sure enough, immigrant after immigrant came across the sea with their homes and livestock.
After that, Greenland flourished and flourished, and in its heyday, with more than 280 settlements, thousands of people, and 17 churches, not only did it have commercial relations with Europe, but the Pope even sent people to collect parish taxes.
However, 500 years later, around 1500 A.D., with another fluctuation in the world's climate (into the Little Ice Age), the weather there became cold, so this once-prosperous paradise, gradually into a state of silence. This period of human activity in the Arctic can be called the period of spontaneous territorial discovery.
The Period of the Arctic Route
The Discovery of the Northeast Arctic Route and the Northwest Arctic Route
Because of Marco Polo's trip to China, westerners believed that China was a paradise on earth where gold was everywhere, jewels were mountainous, and beautiful women were like clouds. As a result, Westerners began to look for the shortest route to China - the Maritime Silk Road. Europeans at the time believed that as long as the Norwegian Sea from the Norwegian Sea to the north, and then east or west along the coast has been sailing, you will be able to reach the East China. Thus, the history of Arctic exploration expeditions in the Middle Ages is inseparable from the discovery of the Northeast and Northwest Arctic routes.
In 1500, the Portuguese Cottrell brothers, along the west coast of Europe, sailed north all the way to Newfoundland. The next year, they continued north, hoping to find the road to China, but never returned, and became the first explorers to die for the "Northwest Passage".
From 1594, Dutchman Barents began his three voyages to the North Pole. 1596, he not only discovered Spitsbergen, but also reached a latitude of 79o49′, creating a new record of human northward progress, and became the first batch of Europeans in the North Pole wintering. 1597, June 20, at the age of 37, Barents died of illness due to the cold and hunger on a piece of floating ice. of floating ice.
In 1610, Hudson, an Englishman employed by the Commercial Exploration Company, launched his ship, Discovery, into the Northwest Passage, where they reached the bay that would later be named in Hudson's honor. Unfortunately, nine of the 22 explorers froze to death, five were killed by Eskimos, one died of disease, and only seven made it back to England alive.
In the spring of 1616, Baffin took command of the tiny Discovery and headed north once again, the 15th time the small ship had entered the uncharted waters of the Northwest, discovering open Baffin Bay.
In January 1725, Peter the Great appointed Bering, a Dane, as captain of a Russian expedition to accomplish the difficult task of "determining whether the continents of Asia and America are connected. Bering and his 25 members left Petersburg and traveled more than 8,000 kilometers from west to east across Russia to the Pacific coast, from where they embarked on a voyage to the northwest. Over the next 17 years, Bering completed two extremely difficult exploratory voyages. On the first voyage, he charted Kamchatka and successfully passed through the channel between Alaska and Siberia, now known as the Bering Strait. On his second voyage, which began in 1739, he reached the west coast of North America and discovered the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. It was his discoveries that led to the recognition of Russia's territorial claims to Alaska. However, more than 100 people died on these two expeditions before and after***, including Bering himself.
In 1819, the Englishman Captain Parry insisted on storming the frozen winter Arctic waters, narrowly missing the Northwest Passage. They failed, but discovered the vitally important fact that the Arctic ice cap turned out to be constantly moving. They spent 61 days on the ice floes, suffered a lot, walked 1600 kilometers, but actually only moved forward 270 kilometers. This was because the ice cover was moving in the opposite direction of their progress, and while they were traveling north, the ice was carrying them south. As a result, they only reached latitude 82°45′ north.
On June 1, 1831, the famous British explorers John Ross and James Ross discovered the North Magnetic Pole.
On May 19, 1845, the Admiralty of the British Empire sent another experienced Arctic explorer, John Franklin, to embark on a third voyage to the North Pole. The entire team of 129 men died of cold, starvation and disease during the grueling three-year journey. This expedition with no survivors was the greatest tragedy in the history of Arctic exploration, while Sir Franklin's heroic behavior and dedication to the spirit of posterity is immensely admired.
In 1878, the Finnish Swedish Navy Captain Louis Panlendel led a Russian, Danish and Italian naval personnel composed of **** 30 people of the international expedition, by the "Vega" and other four exploration ship for the first time through the Northeast route.
In 1905, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who later conquered the South Pole, succeeded in opening the Northwest Passage. Their success capped the search for the Arctic's Eastern Route.
Existing conditions
The phenomenon of global warming has already melted Arctic glaciers at a rapid rate, disconnecting the glaciers of the Arctic Ocean from the continents of Asia, Europe and the Americas one step at a time. While this could be a good thing for ocean transportation, as it allows for new routes between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the melting of Arctic glaciers could also spark a territorial dispute between Canada and the United States. According to experts from the United Nations and the Canadian government, temperatures near the Arctic are currently rising twice as fast as in other parts of the planet, and by 2050 ships could be able to navigate northern Canada in the summer.
This scenario could reduce the sea voyage from London to Tokyo to 16,000 kilometers. It takes 21,000 kilometers to sail from London to Tokyo via the Suez Canal, and 23,000 kilometers to route through the Panama Canal. From the 15th to 17th centuries, many ocean explorers tried to travel northwest from the polar ocean regions to Asia and lost most of them, but now the global greenhouse effect is threatening to open up new shipping lanes, and more and more of the polar ocean zones no longer exist without ice.
Exploration
Until the end of the 19th century, while many navigators attempted to reach the North Pole, they did so not as a direct goal at the time, but only as a necessary route to the East. But the conquest of the Pole was, after all, their greatest dream of glory, and the realization of this dream became even more urgent with the opening of the Arctic route. In the new competition for the conquest of the North Pole, national honor and the spirit of sporting adventure have taken precedence over commercial interests. More importantly, modern scientific research activities have begun to permeate the Arctic expedition. The honor of conquering the North Pole on foot goes to the American explorer Robert Peary. He made several expeditions to the Arctic over a period of 23 years and finally planted the American flag on the sea ice at the North Pole on April 6, 1909 at 10 a.m. In 1937, two Soviets landed at the North Pole for the first time in an airplane. The period from the opening of the Arctic Route to the conquest of the North Pole can be called the period of the North Pole Expedition.
How the North Pole got its name
As you travel further north from the equator, you'll notice the stars in the sky hanging higher and higher above your head. Until you realize that the largest constellation in the northern hemisphere sky, Ursa Major (known in China as the Big Dipper), hangs just above your head, and you are standing at the North Pole. That's why the ancient Greeks always associated the North with arktos, the bear. The name of the North Pole, "arctic", means "the place where the bears stand on top of their heads".
Inhabitants The Eskimos, whose ancestors came from the north of China, crossed the Bering Strait from Asia to the Americas about 10,000 years ago, or traveled by land bridge through the frozen strait. Eskimos belong to the eastern Asian peoples, and American Indians are different in having more Asian characteristics, they and their Asian contemporaries have some of the same cultural characteristics, such as the use of fire, dog taming and some special rituals and medical treatment, respectively, living in the society of the territorial group as a unit. The chiefs are mostly shamans and are monogamous. Houses are made of stone, wood and snow. Half of the house is sunk into the ground and the doorway is extremely low. Dogs are usually kept for sledding. Mainly engaged in hunting on land or at sea, supplemented by fishing and reindeer husbandry. The main source of livelihood is hunting: meat for food, furs for clothing, tallow for lighting and cooking, and bones and teeth for tools and weapons. Men hunted and built houses, women made skins and sewed. Modern fishing and hunting gear was used, as well as hunting at sea in motorboats and trading in furs. Increasingly influenced by white culture, 80% of the people in Greenland have moved to small towns; there is a division between rich and poor, and there are individual capitalists among the American Eskimos.
From the Bering Strait to Alaska, northern Canada, through Greenland around the Arctic Circle, living in the Arctic Circle, a group of the Mongolian race. Physically, culturally adapted to life in the Arctic. The face is broad, the cheekbones are significantly prominent, the creases of the eyes are well developed, the limbs are short, and the torso is large, not only with this form, but also physiologically adapted to the cold. However, the external nose is more prominent, the upper and lower jaw bones are strongly spread horizontally, and the facial mold is pentagonal because the midline of the skull is raised like a keel. It has attracted attention in anthropology for overcoming extreme environmental life.
Ethnic history
The Eskimos are the most geographically widespread of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, inhabiting an area that extends from the east coast of Asia eastward to Labrador and Greenland, with a major concentration on the North American continent. Usually Westerners divide Eskimos into Eastern Eskimos and Western Eskimos. Western Eskimos refer to the Inuit-speaking inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands, northwestern Alaska, and the Mackenzie Delta region of northwestern Canada. The Eskimo cultures of these regions were heavily influenced by the Asian and American Indian cultures of neighboring regions.
Eastern Eskimo refers to the Inuit-speaking inhabitants of the central and eastern Arctic regions of North America. They are typically Eskimo to Western eyes. The eastern Eskimo distribution area accounts for 3/4 of the entire Eskimo settlement area but only 1/3 of the population. because the eastern region of the natural resources are not as rich as the west, so today's western region of the Eskimo's material standard of living and cultural level are higher than the eastern region. The Eskimos live in dispersed areas and there are great regional differences, so there are also great cultural differences. When people indiscriminately and generically call them Eskimos, they do not realize that these Eskimos actually speak different languages. Of course, these languages belonged to the same language family, which is now known as Esklantics. It is believed that this language family is related to some of the languages spoken in East Asia, it is just that not enough evidence has been found to suggest this.
The word "Eskimo" was first called by the Indians, "eaters of raw meat". Because of the historical conflict between the Indians and the Eskimos, the name is obviously derogatory. Therefore, the Eskimos do not like this name, and call themselves "Inuit (Inuit)" or "Inupiat (Inupiat)" people, in the Eskimo language, that is, "the real person " in the Eskimo language, meaning "true man".
The Eskimos are short, yellow-skinned, and dark-haired, and their appearance is fairly consistent with the Mongolian race. Genetic studies in recent years have found that they are closer to Tibetans.
The Eskimos were brought to the Arctic by two great migrations from northern China. It took more than 14,000 years of history. The Eskimos, whose ancestors came from northern China, arrived in the Americas about 10,000 years ago by crossing the Bering Strait from Asia, or by land bridges over frozen straits. They shared some of the cultural characteristics of their Asian contemporaries, such as the use of fire, the taming of dogs, and certain special rituals and medical practices. Due to the harsh climate and environment, they are basically struggling on the line of death, and it is a miracle that they have survived and prospered so far. They must face up to several months or even half a year of darkness, against dozens of degrees below zero Celsius cold and blizzards, summer running in the surging sea, winter struggles in the drifting ice floes, only with a light boat and simple tools to go and the earth's largest whale fight, with a pike or even bare hands to go and one of the most ferocious animals on the land and polar bears to compete, once you can't hunt, the whole family, the whole village, and even the whole village, and even the whole village, and even the whole village, and the whole family, and even the whole village, and even the whole village, and the whole village, and even the whole village, and the whole village. the whole family, the whole village, and even the whole tribe would starve to death. Therefore, it should be said, in the world family of nations, the Eskimos are undoubtedly the toughest, most tenacious, most courageous and most resilient people.
Eskimos in the past few thousand years, although they live freely, and no outsiders to disturb, but its development is also extremely slow, no money, no goods, no writing, and even the metal is extremely rare, is a kind of closed self-sufficiency, a real natural economy, and human history of the Neolithic era almost. It wasn't until the 16th century that Western gun-toting hunters discovered them. As a result, fur traders, whalers and missionaries arrived, and the Arctic, which had been so cold and quiet, became a hive of activity, with the name "Eskimo" appearing frequently in newspapers around the world.
These outsiders brought two things that had a profound impact on Eskimo society. Money, which caused a profound change in Eskimo values, and disease, which decimated the Eskimo population.
Now, the total number of local residents north of the tree line (the line, rather than the Arctic Circle, which some people use as the boundary of the North Pole because of the cold climatic conditions that make it impossible to grow trees any farther north) is less than 100,000***, while the number of foreign residents is growing. The Eskimos living in the North Slope Borough of Alaska are really the lucky ones, as there are two of the largest oil fields in the United States, and they get a sizable annual income from the oil companies. Nonetheless, they still live a subsistence lifestyle, living primarily from hunting. Some of them, even though they have a job and can have a good paycheck, still have to rely on hunting to feed their family. Although they sometimes ate cooked food, they always felt that raw meat tasted more flavorful, both to fight the cold and to feed the hungry.
The Eskimos have modernized their lives. They used to live in the igloo (igloo) igloo long gone, replaced by a wooden house equipped with sewers and heating equipment; made of seal skin boat Umiak (Umiak) has also entered the museum, and for the replacement of the water motorcycle; dog sledding has been rarely used, the dogs are out of business, because most of the people use the car; in order to withstand the cold of the winter, animal skins, although still essential, but the outside is covered with the skin of the animals. To protect against the cold of winter, animal skins, though still essential, were covered with very beautiful nylon cloth. The children could go to school close by until they graduated from high school, and the adults could sit at home and watch television and listen to the radio while they worked. In short, the Eskimos have leapt from a rather primitive traditional life into a modern civilization in these few decades, and the speed and magnitude of the change cannot but be described as a miracle in history.
The Eskimos and the Aleuts (Aleut) are the closest in origin, and the two ****together constitute the main component of the indigenous population of the Arctic and near-Arctic regions, which range from Greenland, Alaska, Canada to the easternmost tip of Russia (Siberia).
The earliest known Eskimo culture appeared at a site on Umnak Island in the Aleutian Islands about 3,018±230 years ago, and at the end of the twentieth century it was estimated that the number of people who identified themselves as Eskimo was about 117,000, with 51,000 in Greenland and Denmark, 43,000 in Alaska, and 21,000 in Canada. 000 in Greenland and Denmark; 21,000 in Canada; and the balance of about 1,600 in Siberia.
Antarctica
Antarctica is popularly known as the seventh continent, the last continent on Earth to be discovered and the only one not inhabited by indigenous people. The total area of the Antarctic continent is 13.9 million square kilometers, equivalent to the combined area of China and the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent, ranking fifth among the world's continents. The entire Antarctic continent is covered by a huge ice cap with an average elevation of 2,350 meters. Antarctica contains more than 220 kinds of minerals.
Antarctica is a huge natural "cold storage", is the world's important reservoir of fresh water, with about 30% of the earth's fresh water resources.
Antarctica was originally the core of the ancient continent of Gondwana. About 185 million years ago, the ancient Gondwana continent was split into the African South American plate, the Indian plate, the Australian plate and successively detached from it. About 1.35 billion years ago, the African South American plate split into two, forming the African plate and South American plate. About 55 million years ago, the Australian plate finally broke off from the ancient Gondwana continent and drifted northward, leaving only Antarctica. The East South Pole is geologically very different from the West South Pole. The East South Pole is an ancient shield, about 3 billion years old. The Southwest Pole, on the other hand, is made up of a number of plates, and is far younger in geologic age than the Southeast Pole.
Antarctica's continental coastline is about 24,700 kilometers long.
Marginal Seas and Islands Antarctica's marginal seas include the Belinskogen Sea, the Ross Sea, the Amundsen Sea, and the Weddell Sea in the South Atlantic Ocean. The main islands are the Auckland Islands, Bouvet Island, South Shetland Islands, South Orkney Islands, Adelaide Island, Alexander Island, Peter I Island, South Georgia Island, Prince Edward Islands, South Sandwich Islands.
Topography: the Transantarctic Mountains divide the Antarctic continent into two parts. East Antarctica, a larger area, is an ancient shield and quasi-plain, with the Transantarctic Mountains stretching across the edge of the shield; West Antarctica, a smaller area, is a folded belt, consisting of mountains, plateaus and basins. Between the eastern and western parts is a sunken zone that extends from the Ross Sea to the Weddell Sea. With an average elevation of 2,350 meters above sea level, the continent of Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth. The highest point, Mount Vinson in Mary Bird Land, is 5,140 meters above sea level. The continent is almost entirely covered by ice, and the average thickness of the ice
is 1,880 meters, with the thickest reaching more than 4,000 meters. There are many tall ice barriers and icebergs on the ocean around the continent. Only 2% of the continent's land is not covered by permanent ice, known as the Antarctic ice sheet "oasis", is the main habitat of plants and animals. There are peaks, cliffs, lakes and volcanoes on the "oasis". There are two active volcanoes on the Antarctic continent***, the Deception Island Volcano on Deception Island and the Erebus Volcano on Ross Island (also known as Erebus Volcano). Deception Island volcano in February 1969 had erupted, so that the scientific research station located there in a flash into ashes, until now, people are still afraid of this.
Antarctica's climate is characterized by cold, windy and dry. The continent's average annual temperature of -25 ℃, the average temperature of the inland plateau -56 ℃ or so, the lowest extreme temperature had reached -89.8 ℃, the world's coldest land. The continent's average wind speed of 17.8 m / s, along the ground wind speed often up to 45 m / s, the maximum wind speed of up to 75 m / s or more, is the world's strongest wind and the most windy areas. The vast majority of areas less than 250 millimeters of precipitation, only the edge of the continent up to 500 millimeters or so. The average annual precipitation of the whole continent is 55 millimeters, the continental interior annual precipitation is only about 30 millimeters, almost no precipitation near the pole, the air is very dry, there is a "white desert" called.
Seasons and Days and Nights Antarctica has two seasons every year, the cold season from April to October and the warm season from November to March. Near the pole, the cold season is polar night, when the glowing aurora borealis often appears near the Antarctic Circle; the warm season, on the contrary, is polar day, when the sun always shines at an angle.
The South Magnetic Pole and the Hard-to-Reach Pole The South Magnetic Pole is the south pole of geomagnetism, and in 1985 it was located at about 139° 24′ east longitude and 65° 36′ south latitude. The "hard-to-reach pole" is a highland area centered around latitude 82°S and longitude 55°-60°E. Because of the high terrain, it has become a major ice separation line for the outflow of continental glaciers, and it is an area that is difficult to approach or reach.
According to the International Antarctic Treaty adopted in June 1961, which froze the territorial sovereignty claims of the above nine countries over Antarctica and stipulated that Antarctica should be used only for peaceful purposes, it can be said that Antarctica does not belong to any one country now; it belongs to all mankind. The People's Republic of China formally acceded to it in 1983.
Scientific Research Stations
At present, 26 countries have set up scientific research stations in Antarctica, and more than 150 scientific research bases have been established in Antarctica, and these numerous stations can be roughly categorized into three types according to their functions: year-round scientific research stations, summer scientific research stations, and unmanned automatic observatories. Among them, there are more than 50 year-round scientific research stations, and China's Kunlun Station, the Great Wall Station in Antarctica and Zhongshan Station are all year-round scientific research stations; there are about 100 summer scientific research stations in Antarctica, and there are about 70 to 80 of them in regular use, and China does not have any summer scientific research station in Antarctica.
...... are too many. Antarctica is not too complete, you can refer to Baidu encyclopedia Antarctica