Team+Antarctica

= ** Welcome to the home page of Antarctica!!! ** = = We will be your tour guide for today!!! = = **It's so amazing, spectacular, and awesome!!!** = = **Don't forget to look at the links on the bottom!** = = **﻿** = = __Credits__ =

Overview: Brian Land: Emily Bodies of Water: Shefali Mountain Ranges: Madhulika Ice Shelves: Jacob Animals: Brian, Jacob, and Shefali Pictures: Brian

Overview of Antarctica:
Antarctica is the icy continent that is around 5,339,543 square miles. It is a huge desert that does not snow or rain. Antarctica is the driest continent in the world. This huge icy mass is only 17,330 square miles ice-free. This continent has a lot of icy features, like lands (similar to states), bodies of water, mountain ranges, and ice shelves. The highest mountain in Antarctica is Vinson Massif at a towering height of 4,892 miles. The biggest ice shelf in Antarctica is the Ross Ice Shelf at the size of about France! The population of tourists is about 4,000 in the summer and 1,000 in the winter.

Lands:
The most part of Antarctica is above sea level, around 9, 200 feet (2,800 meters). In some areas, the ice is more the 13,100 feet (4,000 meter) high. Antarctica is larger than United States of America and Mexico combined and 98% of it is ice. This cold continent is surrounded by water and in winter, Antarctica triples in size. A two mile thick layer of ice is what you see on Antarctica. Actually unlike the Arctic, where ht ice floats, Antarctica has land underneath. Antarctica ice is 90% of the worlds ice and 70% of the worlds fresh water. If this ice could be divided up, every person on Earth could have a giant chunk of ice larger than the Great Pyramid. Antarctica is owned by seven different countries: the United Kingdom, Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Norway. These sections that are claimed by theses nations are pie-sliced, some larger than others. There are five different regions in Antarctica : Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica, Ross Sea, West Antarctica, and South Pole. (Link at the bottom for the regions)

The south pole is located in Antarctica. It is also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole. It Is one of the two points where the Earths axis intersects and comes to the surface. It is the southernmost point on Earths surface and lies opposite side of the North Pole. The south pole mark is always moved because the ice keeps on moving. ====

Bodies of water:
=== While it may seem like there would be any bodies of water in Antarctica, it is actually home to more than 70 lakes. All of these lake are covered by thousands of feet of ice. Lake Vostok is the largest of the lakes. It was discovered in 1996, beneath Russia's Vostok Station. ===

General Water bodies
Weddell Sea Onyx River Amundsen Sea Ross Sea Southern Ocean Lake Vostok

Mountain Ranges:
Vinson Massif is the highest mountain range in Antarctica. The highest point is Mount Vinson, named after Carl Vinson. The point is 16,066 ft or 4,897 meters. Vinson massif was first seen in 1958 and was first climbed in 1966. In February 2010, seven hundred climbers attempted to reach the top of Mount Vinson. The massif extends between Goodge Col and Branscomb Glacier to the northwest, Nimitz and Gildea Glacier to the southwest, and Dater Glacier to the east. The massif is made up of both the high central Vinson Plateau, with few peaks rising over 15,400 ft, and several side ridges. High winds and snowfall is the basic climate for Vinson. During November through January, the average temperature is -30˚C, or -20˚F. A high mountain, known as Vinson, was long suspected to be part of West Antarctica. These are some facts of the Mountain Range, Vinson Massif. The Ellsworth Mountain Range is located in Antarctica, forming a 224 miles long and 30 miles wide chain of mountains in a north to southwestern margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf. Lincoln Ellsworth found the mountains on Nov. 23, 1935. The temperature in the Ellsworth Mountains average around -30˚C or -20˚F. The best months for expeditions are November through January, which are summer months. The Highest Point is Vinson Massif. The area of Ellsworth Mountain Range is about 12, 106 square miles or 31,354 square kilometers. The graph below shows the top ten highest peaks. These are some facts about the Ellsworth Mountain Range.
 * TOP TEN HIGHEST PEAKS IN THE ELLSWORTH MOUNTAIN RANGE ||


 * RANK || PEAK NAME || METERS || FEET ||
 * 1. || Vinson Massif || 4892 || 16,050 ||
 * 2. || Mount Tyree || 4852 || 15, 919 ||
 * 3. || Mount Shinn || 4661 || 15, 292 ||
 * 4. || Mount Craddock || 4650 || 15, 256 ||
 * 5. || Mount Epperly || 4602 || 15,098 ||
 * 6. || Mount Gardner || 4587+ || 15, 049+ ||
 * 7. || Mount Anderson || 4252 || 13,957 ||
 * 8. || Mount Bentley || 4247 || 13,934 ||
 * 9. || Mount Ostenso || 4179 || 13,711 ||
 * 10. || Long Gables || 4151 || 13619 ||
 * || *http://www.peakbagger.com ||||  ||

**Ice Shelves:**
Shackleton Ice Shelf Ross Ice shelf

An Ice shelf is a floating sheet of ice that connects to a landmass. Most of the worlds ice shelves are connected to Antarctica. There are eleven ice shelves in Antarctica. Ice form ice sheets oozes into the ocean, but it doesn't melt right away if the water is cold enough. Because ice shelves float, they don't really contribute to the water level rising. Unfortunately, ice shelves are collapsing at an unnatural rate. Climate change might be the culprit, and retreating sea ice might be part of that.

Animals:
There are many different types of animals in Antarctica. There are birds, seals, fish, whales and penguins. Each of these different animals have a unique way of living, eating, and adapting to survive in the very cold weather in Antarctica. Some Antarctic animals have very unique ways of doing things.

The first animals in Antarctica are the birds. There are many types of birds in this continent, like: terns, penguins, and more. There is the Adélie penguin, the Emperor penguin, the wandering albatross, and the Antarctic Tern. Adélie penguins breed and raise their young farther south than any other penguin, on the continent of Antarctica. In September and October—springtime in that part of the world—thousands of Adélies gather on the rocky Antarctic shoreline. The huge gatherings are called colonies. This is where the Adélies breed and raise their young. Adélie penguins build nests by scooping out areas in the ground. Then they line the depression with small stones. The female usually lays two eggs in the nest. The stones in the nest help keep the eggs dry and warm by keeping them off the bare ground. Both parents care for the eggs. While one stays behind keeping the eggs warm and safe from predators, the other parent heads out to sea to eat. They feast mainly on krill, tiny shrimplike animals, but also eat fish and squid. Adélie penguin eggs hatch in December, which is typically the warmest time of year in Antarctica. Parents take turns caring for their youngsters after they hatch—just as they did the eggs—until the chicks are about three weeks old. At that point, both parents may leave to forage for food while the chicks gather in the safety of a large group of other young penguins. These groups of young Adélies are called creches. By March, when Adélie chicks are about nine weeks old, their downy baby feathers have been replaced by waterproof adult feathers. They head to sea, plunge in, and start hunting for food on their own. In the Antarctic winter, the Adélie penguins live at sea. They usually hunt in shallow waters. Like other penguin species, Adélies are excellent swimmers. They're powerful and graceful in the water, with torpedo-shaped bodies that pierce through the water. Their modified wings help propel them through water instead of air. These birds are swimmers, not fliers. An Adelie penguin can live to be up to 20 years old. An adult Adélie penguin is about 27.5 inches (69.9 centimeters) tall, and weighs from 8.5 to 12 pounds (3.9 to 5.4 kilograms). A group of penguins is called a colony. An Adélie penguin colony can be made up of 100 to 250,000 pairs of birds. Adélie penguins were named by French explorer Dumont d'Urville. He named them after his wife, whose name was Adélie. An Adélie penguin has white rings around its eyes. The feathers at the base of its bill are also white. Its bill is red. It has a solid black head and a white belly. The black feathers on its back are tipped with blue. An Adélie penguin's tail is a bit longer than other penguins' tails. Adélie penguins often toboggan across ice. To toboggan, a penguin slides on its belly using its feet to push itself forward. Most Adélie penguins return to the colony in the place where they hatched to mate and raise their own chicks. Adélies generally begin raising their own families when they are two to four years old .-Shefali

The Emperor penguin is a penguin that lives in very cold conditions and is a bird that cannot fly. Emperor penguins are the largest of all penguins, and can withstand the harsh conditions in Antarctica.They mostly eat fresh fish in the deep, icy waters of Antarctica. Right before the harsh and cold winter of Antarctica, the female penguin will lay a single egg. During the winter, the male penguins near each other will huddle together with the egg on their feet. Meanwhile, the female penguins go to sea to find fish for herself, her chick, and the male. At the time, the males lose about 45% of their weight. -Brian

The wandering albatross is quite different. This bird is the largest bird in the world that can fly, weighing as much as 20 pounds and a wingspan of 142 inches. It flies everywhere, not just Antarctica. The albatross can also stay airborne for many months, due to its huge wings. It likes to hover around and follow ships for more than a day sometimes, occasionally diving down and coming back with a huge fish in its beak. This albatross's beak has a small hook on the bottom, to make it easier for the bird to catch fish and food from the ocean. Squid is its favorite food, but it also eats fish,small octopuses, cuttlefish, and small crustaceans also. -Brian

Adults will typically weigh from 6.25–12 kg (13.8–26 lb). The length of the body is about 107–135 cm (3.51–4.43 ft) with females being slightly smaller than males. Of the 21 species of albatrosses recognised by the IUCN, 19 are threatened with extinction. Numbers of albatrosses have declined in the past due to harvesting for feathers, but today the albatrosses are threatened by introduced species such as rats and feral cats that attack eggs, chicks and nesting adults; by pollution; by a serious decline in fish stocks in many regions largely due to overfishing; and by. Long-line fisheries pose the greatest threat, as feeding birds are attracted to the bait, become hooked on the lines, and drown. Identified stakeholders such as governments, conservation organisations and people in the fishing industry are all working toward reducing this bycatch. -Shefali

The Antarctic Tern has a huge blood-red beak, red legs, white bellies, and gray wings. They mostly live on the Antarctic Peninsula and mostly diving into the icy waters, looking for small fish, plankton, and krill. When the tern lays its eggs, she lays them in a long colony, spread out. She then hovers high in the air, to prevent egg eaters to know where the eggs are. If something has spotted them and the eggs are at a vulnerable stage, she will "dive-bomb" towards the animal going to her eggs. She then gives a call so high pitched, it hurts like crazy to try to scare the animal away. -Brian

The Antarctic Tern is a small bird at 31-38 cm (12-15 inches) long. Its bill is usually a dark red or blackish. It is mainly pale grey and white, but has a black cap when breeding. In non-breeding plumage it has a grizzled crown and white forehead. The tips of this tern's wings are greyish black. The plumage of juveniles is white on the belly, foreneck, forehead, and breast. The back is grey and the bill is black. Immature birds have plumage similar to adult terns. -Shefali



The second animal is a seal. The Weddell Seal lives most to the south on Antarctica. Not including the small number of Weddell Seals on South Georgia Island, there are mainly near the coast in Southern Antarctica. The Weddell Seal is huge. This seal is 9 feet long that weighs around 1000 pounds! This seal has a big oxygen storage, so the seal can stay submerged in the water for a long period of time, like an hour. That is a decent time to dive down to as much as 1,300 feet. -B﻿rian

Male and female Weddell seals are generally about the same size, though females can be slightly larger. However, male seals tend to have a thicker neck and a broader head and muzzle than the females. The Weddell seal face has been compared to that of a cat due to a short mouth line and similarities in the structure of the nose and whiskers. Their upturned mouths that give them the appearance of smiling. The Weddell seal grows a thin fur coat around their whole body except for small areas around the flippers. The colour and pattern of the coat varies, often fading to a duller colour as the seal ages. This coat moults around the beginning of summer. Adults are generally brown, with lighter ventral (belly) pelage. They are mottled with large darker and lighter patches, those on the belly being silvery white. Adult males usually bear, most of them around the genital region. -Shefali



The third animals are whales.The first one is the blue whale. Despite being the largest mammal on the planet, blue whales were nearly hunted to extinction. There are only about 10,000 left in the wild. They are still in Antarctica though, and are almost 100 feet long and weight about 150 pounds. Blue whales are baleen whales, which means they have baleen, like a little filter, as teeth. it is used like a strainer for the krill. During the summer, they eat almost 8 tons of krill daily!! they usually travel in pods, and can live anywhere form 80-90 years! When a blue whale sprays water from it's blowhole, it can reach a height of 30 ft! -Jacob

An adult blue whale can eat up to 40 million krill in a day. The whales always feed in the areas with the highest concentration of krill, sometimes eating up to 3,600 kilograms (7,900 lb) of krill in a single day. This daily requirement of an adult blue whale is in the region of 1.5 million kilocalories. Because krill move, blue whales typically feed at depths of more than 100 metres (330 ft) during the day and only surface-feed at night. Dive times are typically 10 minutes when feeding, though dives of up to 20 minutes are common. The longest recorded dive is 36 minutes. The whale feeds by lunging forward at groups of krill, taking the animals and a large quantity of water into its mouth. The water is then squeezed out through the baleen plates by pressure from the ventral pouch and tongue. Once the mouth is clear of water, the remaining krill, unable to pass through the plates, are swallowed. The blue whale also incidentally consumes small fish, crustaceans and squid caught up with krill. -Shefali



The Orca, or Killer Whale, is found both in the arctic and antarctic. it is closely related to dolphins, and lives in groups called pods. They normally hunt seals, other whales, and penguins.
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All About Antarctica -Shefali

[|More Facts] -Shefali

Fun Facts on Antarctica -Shefali

Game on Geography -Brian

Antarctic Mountains -Brian

Antarctic Wildlife -Brian antarctic facts -Brian

[|map] -Emily