Visit antarctica

Antarctica is the last continent to be discovered. This is a cold and harsh world of ice and snow, with incredible magical animals and breathtaking scenery. It is a pure land far from human civilization. Purity, remoteness and mystery were once people's imagination of the South Pole. But with the development of modern science and technology, going to the South Pole is no longer out of reach. With its pure world and unique animals, Antarctica has become a popular tourist destination.

Antarctica is the last continent that human beings have reached, also known as the "seventh continent". Antarctica is the southernmost point determined by the way the earth rotates. It usually represents the geographical Antarctic region and has a fixed position. According to the internationally accepted concept, the area south of 60 north latitude is called Antarctica, which is the floorboard of the Southern Ocean, its islands and the Antarctic continent. Antarctic continent refers to the land except the surrounding islands in Antarctica, and it is the latest continent discovered in the world. It is lonely at the southernmost tip of the earth. More than 95% of the Antarctic continent is covered with extremely thick ice and snow, which is called "white continent".

Antarctica is divided into East Antarctica and West Antarctica. East Antarctica extends from 30 west longitude to170 east longitude, including Coates, Maud, enderby, Wilkes, George V Coast, Victoria, Antarctic Plateau and Pole. Area10180,000 square kilometers. West Antarctica lies between 50- 160 west longitude, including Antarctic Peninsula, Alexandria, Ellsworth Land and Bird Land (Mary Bird Land), covering an area of 2.29 million square kilometers. There are only some researchers and whaling teams from other continents in Antarctica, and there are no settled residents.

The special geographical location and extreme natural environment of Antarctica have created the original magnificent natural landscape and various animal and plant worlds, from cold and quiet icebergs and floating ice to gorgeous and exotic aurora and extreme night, from rare snow blowing and albino weather on other lands to lovely Antarctic plants such as penguins, seals, krill and lichens. Antarctica has become a popular tourist destination.

More than two thousand years ago, ancient Greek philosophers speculated that there should be a large piece of land at the southernmost tip of the earth, and only in this way can we keep balance with the mainland in the north. They call it "the unknown southern continent". Since then, Captain Cook, Sir shackleton and countless explorers have approached the South Pole again and again, but they have always missed the Antarctic continent. Although mankind has long been fascinated by Antarctica, for a long time, Antarctica was just a white phantom printed on the map.

From the second half of18th century to the end of19th century, many explorers sailed to the southern continent. From 1772 to 1775, Captain james cook launched an exploration. Although the Antarctic continent has not been discovered this time, it has become the first time that human beings have entered the Antarctic circle. /kloc-around 0/820, some seal hunters came to Antarctica. They may be the first people to reach the South Pole. According to records, the earliest confirmed sighting of Antarctica occurred in 1820. American Nathaniel Palmer, Russian von bellingshausen and Englishman Edward Brownsfield discovered the Antarctic continent successively. 190 1 year, robert scott led a British expedition to the south pole, but failed.

1911214, the expedition of Norwegian polar explorer Roald Ya Meng Sen set out from Whale Bay and headed for Shanghai Berg Glacier, which was the first time that human beings reached the geographical south pole. Since June 1958, representatives of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union have signed "June 1 959+February1day" according to the Antarctic Treaty, and the use of Antarctica is limited to peace. Since then, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties have signed 1964 Agreed Measures for the Protection of Antarctic Animals and Plants, 1972 Convention for the Protection of Antarctic Seals and 1980 Convention for the Protection of Antarctic Living Resources. 1983 China formally joined the Antarctic treaty.

Aurora is a unique atmospheric luminescence phenomenon in the North and South Poles. Aurora is a colorful luminous phenomenon, which often appears in the atmosphere above latitude near the geomagnetic pole. Aurora is generally strip-shaped, arc-shaped, curtain-shaped and radial, and these shapes are sometimes stable and sometimes constantly changing. The aurora observed in the northern hemisphere is called the Northern Lights, and the aurora observed in the southern hemisphere is called the Southern Lights. It often appears in two banded areas near 67 north latitude and 67 south latitude. The colorful and unpredictable aurora is considered as one of the most beautiful wonders in nature.

Antarctic Death Ray: Scientists have confirmed that it has nothing to do with aurora, but it is also an abnormal weather phenomenon and one of the natural wonders of Antarctica. Due to the low density and low water content of clouds over the polar regions, the ability to absorb sunlight is weak, so when the sunlight there shines on the snow-covered ground through the gloomy sky, the light reflects back and forth between the snow and the low clouds, resulting in a kaleidoscope-like "lens tube effect". After many reflections from the "lens barrel", it produces dazzling milky light, and the sky, ground, ocean and surrounding ice and snow all reach the same brightness, which will make people lose their sense of direction.

Death ray will make the surrounding landscape suddenly "disappear", whether it is the distant ocean, iceberg, or the nearby coast, snowfields, tents, flags and so on. Will disappear without a trace, everywhere is white, forming a milky white sky. Death ray is the enemy of polar explorers, scientists and polar aircraft. Even experienced polar explorers are doomed to death. The skier who is skiing will suddenly fall down, the moving vehicle will suddenly overturn and cause trouble, and the plane in flight will crash out of control.

Death icicles: Death icicles are natural phenomena at the poles of the earth and the seabed. When the temperature of seawater drops to a certain extent, the salt in seawater precipitates, and the seawater freezes and extends to the seabed in a column shape. Wherever we go, marine life freezes to death, which is called death icicles.

More surprisingly, scientists who visited Antarctica found that there were many ice sculptures on a huge floating iceberg. These ice sculptures are giant, about 50 meters high, with huge figures, such as dolphins, sea lions, penguins and other animals.

Antarctic Penguin: Antarctic Penguin is the most representative animal in the Antarctic continent and is regarded as the symbol of the Antarctic. There are 2/kloc-0 species of penguins in Antarctica, which are widely distributed, but most of their main communities live in the area of 45-55 south latitude. In the high latitudes of Antarctica, there are Adele penguins, emperor penguins and neck penguins. Emperor penguins, rockhoppers and macaroon penguins are common on islands around the temperate Antarctic continent.

Antarctic seals: At least six species of seals live in the sea ice near the Antarctic coast and on sub-Antarctic islands. Seals have lived in seawater for a long time. They can swim very fast and dive. Because seals need to breathe air, they can't stay underwater for long. Most kinds of seals live near the water surface and feed on krill, fish and squid.

Although there are only six species of seals in the Antarctic, there are 32 million, accounting for 90% of the total number of seals in the world. The output ranks first in the world. There are six kinds of seal families: sawtooth seal, Weddell seal, Ross sea leopard, elephant seal, leopard seal and sea lion, which constitute the seal family in Antarctica.

The blue whale in Antarctica is 37.8 meters long and is the largest known animal in the world. In the 1950s, some countries' fleets went to the waters near Antarctica to kill a large number of blue whales, which greatly reduced the number of blue whales.

A characteristic of Antarctic waters is that plankton, such as crustaceans, are abundant, among which krill reserves are 65.438+100 million tons to 5 billion tons. Some scientists believe that the annual capture of100000 tons to10.5000000 tons will not affect the ecological balance of the southern ocean.

There are other birds living on many islands in Antarctica, including snow birds, albatrosses, seagulls and terns. There are only over 340 species of plants left on the Antarctic continent, mainly lichens, mosses and umbrellas. Only some microorganisms and invertebrates live in plants, lichens and swamps on the Antarctic continent.

In addition, Antarctica is vast and rich in mineral resources, mainly including coal, oil, natural gas, platinum, uranium, iron, manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt, chromium, lead, tin, zinc, gold, copper, aluminum, antimony, graphite, silver and diamond. Non-ferrous metal minerals in Antarctica are mainly distributed in the Andean metallogenic areas in West Antarctica, including the Antarctic Peninsula, Ellsworth Land and Mary Bird Land.

Antarctica is the fourth highest continent in the world, separated from Gondwana, with an average elevation of tens to hundreds of meters. The mountains across the Antarctic divide the Antarctic continent into two parts. These two parts are quite different in geography and geology. Antarctica is the only polar region with land in the world. Antarctica is the highest continent in the world with an average elevation of 2350 meters. The highest point in Vinson is 5140m above sea level.

Antarctica, located at the southernmost tip of the earth, is almost in the Antarctic circle, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and is the continent with the highest geographical latitude in the world.

Antarctica is the only unpolluted continent in the world, and its primitive natural environment provides scientists with the widest natural laboratory to conduct scientific research in meteorology, glaciers, geology, ocean and biology. Up to now, more than 20 countries have established 150 scientific research bases and numerous scientific research stations in Antarctica, which can be roughly divided into three categories according to their functions: perennial scientific research stations, summer scientific research stations and unmanned automatic observation stations.

Antarctica, for hundreds of millions of years, has become the last undeveloped "virgin land" on earth because of the lack of human footprints. However, the quiet and clean Antarctic environment is being threatened, because in recent years, the in-depth tourism exploration projects started by tourists in Antarctica are affecting every corner of Antarctica. Polar tourism has inevitably become the latest tourism hotspot, and the increasingly popular "polar tour" in Antarctica has aggravated global warming. However, caring for the ecological environment here is an important prerequisite for every tourist to maintain the sustainable development of polar tourism.

Sun Bo and Sun Keqin wrote articles and Sun Bo took photos.

refer to

Sun Keqin, edited by Sun Bo, 20 17, World Tourism Culture (2nd Edition). Beijing: Peking University Publishing House.

Brief introduction of the author

Sun Bo, female, founder of Daydream Travel Agency, Master of EMBA from Cambridge University, visiting professor in beijing international studies university, has visited Antarctica twice and traveled all over the world 160 countries.