Antarctic Paradise?

While we do know that there are at least 17 species of penguins in the Southern Hemisphere and approximately 35 species of seabirds south of the Antarctic Convergence, much of these icy lands remains a mystery. How many species live in the icy lands out of explorers’ sight? Is there a connection between what's happening in Antarctica and what's happened on Mars? The Antarctic holds many secrets still in blocks of ice. Your Best Words Forward asked for help in uncovering some clues to the Antarctic mystery, and this is what we received.

INTRODUCTIONS:

Jim Mastro
I have a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology and have worked at several biology-related jobs over the years. I was working at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego when I first learned of the Antarctic Program. In 1982, I took my first job there, a 14-month position as assistant manager and winter manager of the Eklund Biological Center at McMurdo Station. That experience put the Ice in my blood, and I ended up going back again and again, in a variety of positions, until I had spent a total of almost 72 months in Antarctica -- almost 6 years. I last went in 2005 and, although I don't rule out returning, I now spend my time as a writer. I've had three books on Antarctica published. The first is my memoir, (with photos): Antarctica: A Year at the Bottom of the World.

Matt Rosenberg
He has been a Guide to Geography on About.com since 1997. A few highlights from Matt’s extensive biography include, published two books about geography, The Handy Geography Answer Book and The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook, awarded the Excellence in Media Award from the National Council for Geographic Education for his contributions over the years to the discipline of geography, and holds a Master’s degree in geography from California State University, Northridge.

Claire Christian
I am a Campaign Associate with the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean.

Nicholas Johnson
I’m the author of “Big Dead Place: Inside the Strange and Menacing World of Antarctica” and editor of the website BigDeadPlace.com. I’ve worked 8 contracts in Antarctica, spending over 4 years total on the ice, including two winters at McMurdo Station on the coast, and one winter at South Pole in the continental interior.

Elaine Hood
After almost twenty years of teaching high school social studies, I quit my job and went to Antarctica for what I thought would be a one-season stint working for the US Antarctic Program. However, that was 11 years ago and here I am, still in love with the continent, the science and the amazing people who work there. I am now the Communications Specialist for the support contractor to the USAP. The National Science Foundation manages the program and hires various contractors to perform different functions. There are three permanent US stations: Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is located at 90 degrees south; McMurdo Station is located along the coastline "under" New Zealand; and Palmer Station is located on Anvers Island, near the Antarctic Peninsula "under" South America. There are also two research ships and many field camps that we maintain.

ABOUT THE ICE:

Nicholas Johnson
Approximately 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice.

Claire Christian
Short answer: most of the world’s ice is in Antarctica.
Here are some more details (courtesy of www.antarcticconnection.com):
- The ice is up to 3 miles deep and covers about 5.3 million square miles, or about 97.6 percent of the continent.
-This volume of ice amounts to about 6 million cubic miles - if it were returned to the oceans, it would raise global sea level about 200 feet.
- The average thickness of ice makes Antarctica the highest continent.
-Antarctic ice represents 90 percent of all the world's ice and 70 percent of all the world's fresh water.

Jim Mastro
It's a lot of ice! Imagine all of the United States and Mexico covered with ice, in some places up to 3 miles thick. That's how much ice is in Antarctica.

Matt Roseberg
Ice covers 13.72 million sq km of Antarctica and it is 2000-4000 feet thick, on average.

Elaine Hood
That would be a good mathematical question for a group of high school students. I don't have any answers at my fingertips. The continent of Antarctica is about 1 1/2 times the size of the US and the snow depth varies from 1 to 2.5 miles deep.

EQUIPMENT:

Nicholas Johnson
I take clothes, books, an audio recorder, a camera, and occasionally some sort of Halloween costume, among other things. Most anything you forget to bring can be ordered on the internet during the Austral summer, but not in the winter when there are no planes.

Jim Mastro
That depends entirely on what you plan to do there. A team studying glaciers will take different equipment than one studying bottom-dwelling sea creatures. But everyone has to have the appropriate Extreme Cold Weather clothing and other survival gear. This means a heavy, hooded parka, plenty of thick long underwear, fleece jackets, wind breakers and wind pants, thick socks, thick gloves and mittens, caps, face protectors, and heavy boots.

Elaine Hood
The company I work for, Raytheon Polar Services, provides people with everything they need to have a safe and successful season "on the Ice" as we say. The majority of people travel through Christchurch, New Zealand, where they will receive the Extreme Cold Weather clothing for safe survival outdoors. Once they arrive at McMurdo Station and before traveling out to a remote field camp, they will be issued tents, food, sleeping bags, heaters, camp stoves, etc. Scientists send us their "request checklist" months in advance, telling us what they will need. If the scientist tells us he or she will have four team members, they will be in the field for 2 months and they need to have a helicopter arrive every three days to take samples back to McMurdo, we arrange for all these things ahead of time so when the science team arrives, we have everything ready for them.

TESTING AND RESEARCH:

Matt Rosenberg
The geology of the continent, astronomical studies, atmospheric studies, biology of the continent, ice sampling for climate studies, and more.

Jim Mastro
Every kind of scientific research you can imagine takes place in Antarctica: biology, geology, paleontology, glaciology, meteorology, upper atmospheric physics, astronomy, astrophysics, medicine, human physiology, oceanography, ecology, and so on. What makes Antarctica so valuable as a scientific laboratory is that it is relatively untouched by humans, is home to large numbers of organisms that are adapted to an extreme environment, contains a climate record in the ice dating back hundreds of thousands of years, holds valuable clues to geological history and plate tectonics, exerts control over the world's weather, has the cleanest and clearest atmosphere on Earth, is a natural laboratory for high-energy particle detection, and a host of other reasons too numerous to go into here. NASA scientists study Antarctica's microorganism extremophiles (tiny creatures that live in extreme environments) for clues to possible life on Mars. Climate scientists and glaciologists look for data on Earth's climate history and clues regarding its future. Atmospheric scientists track ozone loss and recovery. The list goes on.

Elaine Hood
Every type of science imaginable is done in Antarctica. Due to the extreme dryness and 24 hours of darkness at the South Pole, astrophysics is the main science done there. The world's largest neutrino detector is under construction there. There is also a 10-meter telescope examining the origins of the universe. Also, one of the most sensitive seismic detectors on Earth is at the South Pole, able to detect earthquakes with extreme accuracy. Palmer Station's science is primarily biology. Oceanography and various benthic studies and biology are done from the ships. McMurdo Station, the largest station on the continent, hosts everything from geology, glaciology, biology, atmospheric studies, global warming....you name it.

MISSIONS:

Nicholas Johnson
According to the National Science Foundation website, Long-Duration Balloon (LDB) missions conduct astrophysical experiments from the upper atmosphere. I have helped construct and maintain the launch pad for the LDB project at Williams Field near McMurdo Station, where I once saw a seal starving to death because it is against the Antarctic Treaty to move seals back to the water, though other seals are sometimes killed for scientific studies. In any case, if you want to know more about these matters, I suggest contacting Peter West (pwest@nsf.gov) at the National Science Foundation. Send him my regards.

Jim Mastro
Physicists launch giant, high-altitude balloons with payloads containing experiments designed to measure astrophysical phenomena, such as cosmic rays or cosmic background radiation. The balloons rise to the edge of space and circle the continent, returning to very near where they were launched. This makes recovery of the scientific payload and data fairly easy, and it allows scientists to study the universe much more cheaply than with satellites or shuttle launches, while still getting above the damping effect of the atmosphere (or most of it, anyway).
An orbital mission is a satellite launch. Both satellites and balloon payloads have their advantages and disadvantages (some noted above). The bottom line is, if it can be done with a balloon, it's a lot cheaper. Some experiments absolutely require satellite launches, though.

Elaine Hood:
NASA works closely with us at McMurdo to send up two or three enormous balloons every December carrying a payload of science instruments. I call these the "poor man's satellite." If a university or institution has millions of dollars, they build a satellite and send it up to space on a rocket. But most scientific institutions don't have that kind of money, so a cheaper option is to build the instrument and send it up to the stratosphere to collect data for a month. The upper altitude winds circle the continent in a perfect circle during December, so if you send up a balloon today, a week or two from now it will have circled around the continent and returned to you. You use a remote control to release the payload. Scientists study solar flares, cosmic microwave background radiation, black holes, etc. this way.

PROJECTS:

Nicholas Johnson
There have been many big projects in Antarctica. Including the original construction and ongoing upkeep of McMurdo Station, the building of the new South Pole Station, and the constant maintenance of three airfields at McMurdo (plus one at Pole), and numerous other logistical projects throughout the years. More time, expense, and people in Antarctica are dedicated to logistics, maintenance, and station or field services than are dedicated directly to science.

Jim Mastro
There have been and continue to be … large scientific projects. But I believe IceCube is the biggest.

Nicholas Johnson
I know many people who work on the IceCube project, and I have seen their large and colorful equipment when I worked at the South Pole. That it is one of the more significant Antarctic science projects in recent years.

Jim Mastro
IceCube consists of a large number of deep holes drilled into the ice at the South Pole. A string of very sensitive photo detectors is lowered into each hole. These detect the incredibly dim flashes of light that result when a neutrino collides with a water molecule. Since neutrinos hardly ever interact with matter, these flashes are rare, which means you need a lot of detectors and a lot of water (or ice) that is very dark. Antarctica has it in abundance. The cool thing about the IceCube instrument is that it is designed to detect neutrinos that have already passed through the Earth and are on their way out the other side. There is an official website for IceCube that has a lot more information than I can provide.

Nicholas Johnson
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is in charge of the project (IceCube), funded by the National Science Foundation.

Elaine Hood
Your BEST option is to visit their web site: http://www.icecube.wisc.edu/
Simply put, neutrinos are infinitely smaller than atoms...trillions of them pass through the earth, you, every second. We can't see them. We can't really measure them easily. We're not really sure what they are. But they make up most of the universe. So, this detector being built at Pole has instruments in the ice. Hundreds of these round balls are frozen a kilometer down into the ice. As neutrinos bombard the earth at the North Pole and zip through the earth and exit at the South Pole, these teeny tiny particles will occasionally hit a molecule of ice, giving off a flash of blue light. These instruments will detect that flash. That is the closest we can get to seeing neutrinos and their properties. It is all truly amazing stuff.

SPECIES:

Claire Christian
According to the Census on Marine Life, there are about 7,500 Antarctic animal species.

Jim Mastro
New species are still being discovered. Of course, the vast majority of life in Antarctica lives in the sea and largely consists of invertebrates and fish (mostly invertebrates). Four species of penguin live in Antarctica (only one of them year round on the continent), with several others living on the sub-Antarctic fringes. Several species of whale live there, but only in the summer. Five species of seal live there (but only one of them is a year-round resident) and one species of fur seal (related to sea lions). Several others frequent the sub-Antarctic fringes. There are also a few bird species besides penguins that live in Antarctica in the summer, such as McCormick's skua. The sea floor is characterized by a sponge community, and there are approximately 300 known species of sponge.

Claire Christian
Thanks to the Census of Marine Life, a multi-year, worldwide effort to survey the oceans, there is much exciting new information about Antarctic marine ecosystems, including a “brittlestar city” in which tens of millions of starfish-like creatures crowd together to take advantage of nutrient-rich water current. It is expected that some of the species surveyed by the census will be new species. Additionally, on land, many new species of bacteria have been discovered.

ENDANGERED SPECIES:

Claire Christian
There is no process for declaring species endangered under the Antarctic Treaty, which governs the continent. However, the United States has declared 7 penguin species as threatened. Six of these species were given a general designation as threatened; only part of the population of the seventh is considered threatened. These protections only apply to U.S. entities and citizens. Conservation groups have identified numerous Antarctic species as endangered or threatened. The best list is probably the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List, on which there are several species listed as endangered. They are:
-Sei whales
-Blue whales
-Fin whales
-Northern Rockhopper penguins
-Sooty albatross
-Black-browed albatross
Other species of animals such as penguins, petrels, albatrosses, fish, and others are experiencing serious population declines due to range of threats including climate change, expanded fishing, and pollution.

Jim Mastro
If you consider only year-round residents, then I think the answer is none. That is, I don't believe there are any officially listed endangered species. However, several penguin populations seem to be declining, and among the summer visitors there are several endangered whale species (blue whale, for instance).

MAJOR THREATS:

Claire Christian
Human activity. Both climate change and overfishing threaten Antarctic environments and ecosystems. Climate change affects breeding cycles and breeding success, food availability, and habitat for numerous species. For example, because of the growing popularity of omega-3 nutritional supplements, many companies are trying to expand fishing in the waters around Antarctica for krill, a tiny shrimp-like crustacean. Although krill are very numerous, they are the base of the Antarctic ecosystem and it is not known how reduced populations will affect seals, whales, and penguins. Even as fishing increases, krill populations have declined due to the melting of sea ice, which protects krill from predators and fosters the growth of algal blooms, an important source of food for krill.

Jim Mastro
The leading risk for all Antarctic creatures right now is global climate change. Changes in winter and summer ice cover is already leading to a decline in krill populations, which is perhaps responsible for reductions in penguin populations. Declining krill stocks will also negatively affect whale populations. The permanent loss of sea ice would cause many species to go extinct.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Matt Rosenberg
Ice is breaking off the ice sheet in what seems to be increasingly larger chunks.

Claire Christian
Global warming in Antarctica has already resulted in the breakup of glaciers and major ice shelves. According to one study, the Antarctic ice sheet is losing up to 36 cubic miles of ice every year, perhaps more. While ice melting presents a more immediate problem in terms of sea level rise, the breakup of certain ice shelves could also raise sea levels because they currently prevent land ice from moving into the ocean. Once in the ocean, they could add to sea level. Additionally, warming contributes to the declining populations of some species. The loss of sea ice that affects krill necessarily affects the species who eat krill or who eat krill-dependent predators. When there are fewer krill, more animals will go hungry and die. Many animals breed on the ice and when it melts, may lose traditional nesting grounds and habitat ideal for nesting. Changing weather patterns have also been shown to impact breeding patterns and reproductive success.

Elaine Hood
We know the warmer ocean currents are melting the underbellies of ice. If you imagine a glacier coming down a slope and then moving out into the ocean...partially floating on the water. The warmer ocean current will melt it from the bottom up and then this "cork" or plug, moves away allowing more glaciers to move out into the ocean more quickly. We know West Antarctica (below the Pacific Ocean area) is melting much more quickly than the Eastern Plateau area. Something the public doesn't not always understand is that most of Antarctica is too cold to get snow. When it is -30, -60, -100 F, it is too cold to snow. Most of the new snow that falls is along the warmer coastline and then it blows to the interior part, does not melt there, building up over thousands of years. When we do see warmer temperatures, only -10 or even zero degrees, it can now snow. So warmer temperatures can mean MORE SNOW in Antarctica. Most people will hear on the news that it is snowing more and they think "oh, it isn't warming, it is getting colder" but that is not correct.

ACTION:

Claire Christian
First, we need to slow the rate at which global climate change is taking place. Antarctica is very vulnerable to even small changes in temperature. Second, we need to implement more effective regulations to protect Antarctica from other environmental threats such as pollution and overfishing. Such regulations include tighter restrictions on dumping of waste into the Southern Ocean by ships; management plans for Southern Ocean fisheries that take into account the needs of other animals in the ecosystem as well as the fact that populations may be declining due to environmental problems, and designating ecologically important or fragile marine and land areas as “protected areas” in which special rules and regulations limit human activity and keep the environment pristine.
Antarctica is the heritage of the entire world. It is a continent devoted to peace and science, and the world will benefit if it stays that way. Although most people will never get to visit, Antarctica plays a critical role in the world’s climate, and the results of scientific research conducted on the continent contribute greatly to scientific knowledge on a variety of subjects. It’s not easy to think about Antarctic environmental problems when we have to tackle so many complicated problems here at home, but we absolutely cannot ignore Antarctica if we want a healthy planet.

Jim Mastro
An immediate reduction to near zero global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel.

Matt Rosenberg
Reduce human impact on global warming.

TRAVELERS:

Jim Mastro
I believe the first to cross the continent was the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955-1958 -- and it was on ice, not land! The first group to penetrate inland to any appreciable degree was Robert F. Scott's Discovery Expedition of 1901-1902.

Nicholas Johnson
Thousands of people in Antarctica have trekked to the South Pole and other places, but actual crossings of the entire continent are more rare. Notable expeditions to this end include those of Børge Ousland, Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud, and Eirik Sønneland and Rolf Bae ( for an interview with them, see here: http://bigdeadplace.com/sonneland01.html).

Elaine Hood
Vivian Fuchs made the first transcontinental journey in 1957-58 using tractors.

Nicholas Johnson
In the American program, travel to Antarctica most commonly occurs by aircraft, though at Palmer Station, on the Antarctic Peninsula, travel is by ship.

Jim Mastro
Over 20,000 tourists go to Antarctica every year. Most countries access their Antarctic bases via ship, but the U.S. has the most people in Antarctica at any given time, and most U.S. researchers and support personnel travel by airplane to McMurdo Station.

Elaine Hood
Transcontinental journeys are done, but not commonly. They are mostly done by adventurers who are hoping to achieve a record (first woman, first Chinese, first done on skis, first done ...). There are many shorter traverses done by the various nations who conduct science in Antarctica. For example, the French will haul supplies from the coastline to their base at Dome C. The past two austral summers saw a US-Norwegian traverse from the Norwegian Troll Station to the South Pole and back to Troll, collecting ice core samples.

Nicholas Johnson
The flight typically lasts from 5 to 10 hours, depending on which type of military aircraft you’re on. This time does not include boomerangs, in which you fly halfway down, the weather turns ill, the plane turns around to deposit you at your starting point, and then you wake up the next day to try again.

Claire Christian
It often depends on the sometimes brutal weather, but under ideal conditions it would take about two or three days from Ushuaia, Argentina or Puntas Arenas, Chile (two common departure points for ships) to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Jim Mastro
A cruise ship gets from the tip of South America to the Antarctic Peninsula in a couple of days. From New Zealand to McMurdo Station by air is about 5 hours by jet and 8 hours by turboprop.

Elaine Hood
If you are talking about those of us who work there....this is how it works.
Most people are flown to Denver to attend a 2-day orientation. So, if you live in New York, let's say you leave home on Sunday and fly to Denver. You attend an orientation on Monday and Tuesday and fly Tuesday evening from Denver to LA. From LA you fly to New Zealand and since you cross the International Dateline, you will skip a day and arrive on Thursday morning in Auckland and then take another flight to Christchurch where you will arrive around noon. Friday you will be issued your cold weather clothing. Saturday you will get up around 4 to be at the aiport at 5 so your US Air Force jet cargo flight can leave around 7 am, flying 5 hours to McMurdo Station, arriving around noon on Saturday. So, the whole process takes about a week.

PARADISE FOUND:

Jim Mastro
Scientists have found many clues to plate tectonics. Rocks, fossils, and geologic formations is many areas of Antarctica exactly match those in Africa, South America, and Australia, making it quite clear that those land masses were once connected.

While it wasn't exactly a tropical paradise, 65 million years ago Antarctica had thick forests and a thriving animal population -- mostly dinosaurs. To get to tropical paradise status, you'd have to go back a lot further, to when Antarctica was part of Pangaea and was located nearer to the equator. (Of course, it wasn't really "Antarctica" yet!) Even after the dinosaurs went extinct, there was still substantial terrestrial life in Antarctica.

What happened was this: About 40 million years ago, Antarctica finally separated from South America. This opened up what is now known as the Drake Passage and allowed the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to begin. This current, which circles the continent, effectively isolated Antarctica thermally from the rest of the world and it began to cool down.

Elaine Hood
Fifty years ago many of the scientists in the US and Europe did not believe in plate tectonics and the idea that we were once a supercontinent. It was several scientists from New Zealand and Australia, I believe, who were pushing this theory and it was their research in Antarctica fifty years ago that showed conclusive evidence that the various continents used to be connected. Scientists have since discovered many fossils of ferns, plants, dinosaurs and other forms of life showing Antarctica was once very tropical....when it was farther north.

http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/antarcticsun/science/documents/dinos.pdf


THAT’S RIGHT, MARS.

We are more likely to learn more about Mars from Antarctica than the other way around, which is why NASA scientists go to Antarctica frequently and why studies such as this one of the Dry Valleys take place.

POSTCARD:

Nicholas Johnson
An intriguing community working on an industrial project against an insane backdrop.

Jim Mastro
Watching the sun dip down lower each day as winter approaches. Temperatures getting colder, storms more frequent, blown snow drifting around buildings, and nights getting longer. But on the upside, the sunsets are spectacular, with the sun taking several hours to set, and each moment the colors in the sky are reflected off the ice shift and change, from brilliant gold to orange to deep, blood red.

Matt Rosenberg
Cold. At the end of March, Antarctica is about to enter into its winter.

Elaine Hood
I've spent my life traveling the world and I have never seen any place as stunningly beautiful as this. It is breathtakingly beautiful!

RECOGNITION:

Elaine Hood
We have a wealth of resources your readers can access. Everything can be reached through our web site: www.usap.gov
At the bottom of the main page is The Antarctic Sun newspaper which is updated every week with new stories about the science being conducted. http://antarcticsun.usap.gov Just above that is the Antarctic Photo Library containing over 4,000 photos available for anyone in the world to use:
http://photolibrary.usap.gov The Participant's Guide is a book we provide for deploying personnel to help them know what to pack and what to expect when they get to their final destination. http://www.usap.gov/travelAndDeployment/contentHandler.cfm?id=541 And if anyone is interested in spending the austral summer (Oct-Feb) working in Antarctica, they should check out this page: http://www.usap.gov/jobsAndOpportunities/ OTHER REFERENCES:

AMANDA and IceCube. (2008, November 26). Index. Retrieved from IceCube: Neutrino Observatory: http://icecube.wisc.edu/

Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. (2009). Home: ASOC. Retrieved from Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition: http://www.asoc.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

Antarctic Connection. (n.d.). Retrieved from AntarcticConnection.com: www.antarcticconnection.com

British Antarctic Survey. (2007). About. Retrieved from Natural Environment Research Council: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk//about_antarctica/geopolitical/treaty/

Johnson, N. (2009, February 27). Index: Big Dead Place . Retrieved from Big Dead Place: http://www.bigdeadplace.com

Mastro, J. (2002). Antarctica: A Year at the Bottom of the World. Boston: Bulfinch Press.

MastroMedia. (1998-2009). Home: Antarctica Online. Retrieved from The Premier Source for Antarctic Images and Information: http://www.antarcticaonline.com/antarctica/home/home.htm

National Science Foundation. (2009, January 9). News: Press Release 09-002. Retrieved from NSF, NASA Successfully Flight-Test New Balloon Over Antarctica: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112956

National Science Foundation. (2008, July 10). OPP - PRSS - McMurdo Station. Retrieved from Office of Polar Programs: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/support/mcmurdo.jsp

Office of Marine Programs. (2009). Index. Retrieved from Census of Marine Life: Making Ocean Life Count: http://www.coml.org/

Rosenberg, M. (2009). Geography. Retrieved from About.com: http://geography.about.com/

Rosenberg, M. (May 2002). The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook. Prima Pub.

Rosenberg, M. (October 1998). The Handy Geography Answer Book. Visible Ink Press.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography. (2009). Index: SIO.USCD. Retrieved from Global Discoveries for Tomorrow's World: http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/