Souther than South
Background Info
Antarctica is at the bottom of the globe. It is covered in ice and snow ecept for 0.4% being covered in exposed rock. It is the coldest place on earth the record of -89()C in 1997, the driest place on earth with less than the equivalent of 5cm per year, the windiest - holding the record of a wind speed at 327km per hour in 1972 and the highest as it has an average sea level height of 2500m. It is also 50 times the area of New Zealand.
Antactican Flag
Scott Base
*In 1976/77 the replacing of the original buildings with a larger and more permanent base began. Today only 3 of the 6 original buildings still stand.
*Scott Base is New Zealands Base. It is located on Ross Island in the Ross Sea area of Antarctica. It is 3932KM from Cristchurch, New Zealand.
*All the buildings were built in Rangitai, Wellington, then systematically dismantled and packed in reverse order to help with its reconstruction in the south.
The two ships, the HMNZS Endeavor and the US Army's Private John R Towle were to transport the materials down to where Scott base was to be constructed.
*The proposal for a New Zealand base in Antarctica was proposed by the Antarctic Society to the New Zealand Government in 1953. The building of the base was started in 1956.
*In 2005 Antarctica New Zealand approved plans for a two-storey, 1800 square metre heated warm store at Scott base. They named it the Hillary Feild Centre. The centre became opperational for the 2005/06 Antarctic season.
*The original Scott base was a complex of 6 buildings, each connected by a covered walkway and none being more than 7.6 metres apart.
Wonders
Wildlife
Glaciers
Antarctica has a whole host of wildlife. It has Penguins, Seals, Whales and Birds.
Glaciers are huge chunks of ice floating in the water. They are made by snow faling, then frezing into ice and then that ice builds up, forming a big block of ice that keeps growing. They are really just made up of ice, water and air. The biggest glacier in the world is 210,000 feet thick.
Vegetation
Wacky Facts
For vegetation Antarctica has 20 types of Fungi, 25 types of Liverwort, 100 types of Mosses and 300 - 400 types of Lichens. It also has a type of grass and a flower native to it.
1.If all the Antarctica ice melted, the water leval over the whole world would rise 65-70 metres
2.It is the best place in the world to find meteorites.
3. The Antarctic ice cap has 29 million cubic kilometres of ice.This 90% of the earths ice.
4.The contineint has no government oand is not owned by any country.
5.Antarctica has no actual population. This is because no one lives there permently.
Climate
Aurora
The climate is very dry - tecnically being a dessert - and it hardly ever rains. Being this dry, however, has basically no effect on the snow. On most parts of the conteinent the snow never melts.
An Aurora is when multicoloured curtain looking like lights appear in the sky. They can happen all over the world but are more common near the poles. They are extremely beautiful and are one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
History
Time Line
1928
Australian Sir Goerge Wilkins and American Carl Benjamin Eielson are the first to fly over the Antarcitca around the peninsula region. A year later American Richard E Bryd and 3 others become first to fly over south pole.
1821
The first known landing on Antarctica was made by Captain John Davis in, though it isn't acknowledged by historians.
1773
Captain James Cook was the first to cross the Antarctic circle. He didn't actually sight land, but bits of rock in ice berg made it clear a southern conteinent existed. He commented "I make bold to declare the world will derive no benefit from it."
1840's
Seperate French, American and British partys establish the status of Antarctica as a conteinent by sailing along the coast continually.
1935
Caroline Mikkelsen become the first women to set foot on Antarctica.
1909
In January, Australian Douglas Mawson reaches the south magnetic pole.
1819 - 1820
Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen, a russian navel officer in the Vostok and Mirny, circumnavigates the Antarctic, the first to cross the Antarctic since Cook.
He made the first sighting of the conteinent, describing an "icefeild covered with small hillocks" on January 27th 1820.
1st July 1957 - 31st December 1958
12 nations establish over 60 stations in Antarctica. Also the international cooperation in Antarctica and the begining of the proccess by which Antarctica becomes "non-national"
1911
December 4th, Norweigan Roald Amundsen leads a 5 man group that is the first to reach the south pole for the first time (diferent from magnetic pole). The 5 man team perishes on the way back 11 miles from the supply depot.
1961
Antarctica indepence treaty comes into effect.
![digital_frost[1]](http://static.wix.com/media/238b5f3abd8c2033cc78402be77f11c5.wix_mp)
