{"id":19407,"date":"2020-01-24T23:08:52","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T23:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=19407"},"modified":"2020-01-25T15:05:33","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T15:05:33","slug":"200-years-of-exploring-antarctica-the-worlds-coldest-most-forbidding-and-most-peaceful-continent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/200-years-of-exploring-antarctica-the-worlds-coldest-most-forbidding-and-most-peaceful-continent\/","title":{"rendered":"200 years of exploring Antarctica \u2013 the world’s coldest, most forbidding and most peaceful continent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Morgan<\/a>, Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Antarctica is the remotest part of the world, but it is a hub of scientific discovery, international diplomacy and environmental change. It was officially discovered 200 years ago, on Jan. 27, 1820, when members of a Russian expedition sighted land in what is now known as the Fimbul Ice Shelf on the continent\u2019s east side.<\/p>\n

Early explorers were drawn there by the mythology of Terra Australis<\/a>, a vast southern continent that scholars imagined for centuries as a counterweight to the Northern Hemisphere. Others sought economic bounty from hunting whales and seals<\/a>, or the glory of conquering the planet\u2019s last wilderness. Still others wanted to understand Earth\u2019s magnetic fields<\/a> in order to better navigate the seas.<\/p>\n

I am a geologist<\/a> who specializes in understanding the timing and extent of past ice ages. Much of my work focuses on the glacial history of Antarctica, and I\u2019ve been privileged to conduct five field seasons of research there.<\/p>\n

For the next two years I\u2019ll be working with a field team made up entirely of undergraduate students from Vanderbilt University to determine whether the East Antarctic Ice Sheet<\/a> changes flow patterns as it changes shape. All of the research these budding scientists conduct will be done under the auspices of the Antarctic Treaty<\/a>, a global agreement that promotes scientific cooperation and environmental protection.<\/p>\n

Frozen but abundant<\/h2>\n

Antarctica separated from South America 35 million years ago, and its climate started to change. It began to grow ice sheets<\/a> \u2013 masses of glacial land ice covering thousands of square miles. As plate tectonics shifted other continents, Antarctica became colder and drier. For the past 14 million years, it has been the frigid continent that persists today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Antarctica is mostly covered by ice sheets on land and fringed by floating ice shelves.<\/span>
\nNOAA<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Antarctica is the only continent that was literally discovered, because it has no native human population. British explorer Sir James Cook circumnavigated the continent in 1772-1775, but saw only some outlying islands. Cook concluded<\/a> that if there were any land, it would be \u201ccondemned to everlasting regidity by Nature, never to yield to the warmth of the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook also reported that Antarctic waters were rich with nutrients and wildlife. This drew sealers and whalers, mainly from England and the United States, who hunted the region\u2019s fur seals and elephant seals to near-extinction<\/a> in the following decades. This hunting spree led to the discovery of the Antarctic mainland and its ice sheets, the largest in the world.<\/p>\n

Reading the ice<\/h2>\n

Today the combined East and West Antarctic ice sheets hold 90% of the world\u2019s ice, enough to raise global sea levels by roughly 200 feet (60 meters) if it all melted<\/a>. Antarctica is the coldest, highest, driest, windiest, brightest, and yes, iciest continent on Earth. And 200 years of research has shown that it is a key component of Earth\u2019s climate system.<\/p>\n

Despite the appearance that it is an unchanging, freeze-dried landscape, my research and work by many others has shown that the East Antarctica Ice Sheet does slowly thin and thicken over millions of years<\/a>. Interestingly, my data also suggest that as the ice advances and retreats, it moves in the same patterns each time<\/a>. Put another way, the ice flows over the same land each time it advances.<\/p>\n

While East Antarctica adds and loses ice slowly, it is so large that it is a major contributor to sea level rise<\/a>. Understanding how the ice has changed in the past is key to predicting how much and how fast it will melt in the coming years.<\/p>\n

These questions are especially important in West Antarctica, where the bottom of the ice sheet is below sea level, making it very susceptible to changes in sea level and ocean temperature. By itself, the West Antarctic ice sheet has the potential to raise sea level by 16 feet (5 meters) if it collapses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As climate change raises global sea levels, parts of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet, such as the Thwaites<\/a> and Pine Island Glaciers<\/a>, are particularly vulnerable to collapse. At the end of the last ice age, parts of West Antarctica thinned by an average of 1.5 to 3 feet (0.5 – 1 meters) per year<\/a>. Today with GPS, satellite and airborne measurements, scientists are seeing parts of West Antarctica thin by 3 to 20 feet (1 to 6 meters) per year<\/a>.<\/p>\n