A Path to Antarctic History
A Path to Antarctic History
A Path to Antarctic History
The huge land mass at the bottom of the world is little known and some, including an American explorers has focused some attention upon this isolated place. Antarctica measure about five million square miles and is completely covered by an ice sheet. It's the world's largest ice mass. The thickness of this ice sheet isn't really known. Some scientists suggest it may be 2000 feet thick, others say it is much thicker. With the exception of certain mountain peaks of the highest elevation and a few sections of volcanic rock at the coast, the ice covers the entire continent.
Just like a glacier, the ice passes in valleys between the high mountains as it heads to the sea. If you are seeking the South Pole, you'll need to visit the central plateau. This impressive land feature stretches some eight to ten thousand feet above sea level.
Map makers have cut Antarctica into four separate areas named for northern seas or lands. The quadrants are called the African, Australian, Pacific and American. The African and Pacific quadrant coastlines have not been explored. Just a small section of the American quadrant's coast has been explored, but the Australian quadrant is very well known. It includes the Ross Sea area.
Wilkes Land, Adelle Land, King George V Land, Oates Land, and South Victoria Land, which have boundaries on the west by Queen Mary Land and the east by the Ross Sea encompasses the Australian quadrant. The Ross Barrier, which measures about 160, 000 square miles, can be found in the mountainous area near the western rim of the Ross Sea.
The barrier region, close to the Bay of Whales, features a harbor on the edge of the ice at the commencement of the shelf, where the adventurer established his exploration launching point. Mount Terror and Mount Erebus are the two volcanoes that fill Ross Island. The island is located at the western end of the barrier. Crossing the Ross Sea to King Edward VII land, the barrier is over 400 miles long. It is over 400 miles wide from the sea to the mountains that flank the polar ice route.
Shelf ice can only be found in Antarctica, and the barrier is the largest available example. It resulted from glacier outgrowths that spilled out from the mountainous regions to overtake the covered part of the continent in the Ross Sea region. Ice is still discharged from glaciers into the Ross Sea. It descends through glacier channels that are one to five miles wide, and one is even one hundred miles long. It is unknown if the Barrier is floating or sits on the bottom of the ocean.
There is a deposit of rocks extending outward in King Edward VII land which is one of the boundaries along with the Ross Sea for the Pacific Quadrant. This sector was penetrated by the explorer during his first long flight from the Bay of Whales and it is here that he observed the Scott Nunataks and the Alexandra Mountains. He found fourteen more mountain peaks, a new island and lots of unexplored area in subsequent flights. The information gathered by his flights has proved invaluable, and may even let geographers finally create a clear map of the Pacific quadrant coastline.
One area of the American quadrant that is well explored is the Weddell sea area, which cuts into the continent. The Coats Land, Charcot Land and Graham Land areas are included in the quadrant. Explorers discovered Graham Land to be an island, rather than part of the continent, during air investigation. A major geographical issue is the chance that the continent could be split. Adding further evidence to the question is the fact that the Ross Sea in the Australian Quadrant is sitting almost directly across from the Weddell Sea in the American Quadrant.
Of major geographical concern is that the continent itself could very well be divided.. Geographers want to finish mapping the coastline. Then they can finalize the mountain ranges and polar plateau.
Geologists are busy trying to study the land beneath the ice and understand how the glaciers have affected the land itself.
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