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. It is said that Antarctica encompasses roughly 5,000,000 square miles, and is entirely sheathed by a continental ice cover, which is the most significant anywhere on earth. Some scientists have argued the ice sheet is 2000 feet thick; other scientists think this is a conservative estimate and that it must be much thicker. Every inch of the continent, minus some coastal land and the tallest mountain peaks are covered with this ice.
Heading to the ocean, the ice moves as a giant glacier between the mountains. The South Pole, the center piece of the bottom of the earth, sits upon a broad central plateau of some eight to ten thousand feet high.
Antarctica is divided, on the map, into four separate areas. These quadrants are named for northern geographical spots. You would know them as the African,, Pacific and American quadrants. The coastlines of both the African and the Pacific quadrants haven?t truly been explored. Even the American quadrant has been investigated little. But the quadrant is relatively well-known. It contains the Ross Sea sector.
It also houses South Victoria Land, Oates Land, King George V Land, Adelle Land and Wilkes Land and is bordered on the east by the Ross Sea and the west by Queen Mary Land. The Ross Barrier forms a rim on the western Ross Sea. This is a huge sheet of shelf ice that extends over about 160 thousand square miles.
The explorer set up his base camp near the Bay of Whales. This natural harbor has been formed by the ice cliffs in the barrier itself. Two volcanoes are found near the barrier?s end. They are Mount Terror and Mount Erebus. More than 400 miles long, the barrier extends from the Ross Sea to King Edward VII Land. At 400 miles in width, it stretches from the sea to the polar route mountains.
The barrier is a great example of shelf ice, which can only be seen in Antarctica. Glaciers coming from the mountains met the Ross Sea and this created the barrier. Glaciers still send ice to the sea, via channels that range in width from one to five miles. One such channel is one hundred feet long. It is unknown if the Barrier is floating or sits on the bottom of the ocean.
The Pacific quadrant is edged by Ross Sea to the west. King Edward VII land is there, and sports spectacular rock outcroppings. Seeing the Scott Nunataks and the Alexandra Mountains, was a great reward for his first long flight from the Bay of Whales. During his flights, he also found fourteen new mountain peaks, a new island and saw vast, unexplored lands. The flights gathered lots of data about the area, and may let geographers create a definitive map of the Pacific quadrant’s coast.
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 flying over Graham Land were able to determine that it is an island, not part of the true land mass of the continent. Continental division is the major geographical issue facing Antarctica today. Weddell Sea and Ross Sea are virtually opposite each other, the former being in the American quadrant and the latter in the quadrant.
Antarctica offers the planet an area of unlimited scientific research. Maps of the complete coastal regions have yet to be finished, as well as the polar plateau and major mountain ranges.
Geologists want to be able to study the land hidden by the ice. They want to study how the glaciers have interacted with the land, too.
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