10 surprising facts about Antarctica

Antarctica is the most mysterious continent on earth and humans have only explored the tops of the mountain ranges that peak above the ice sheets. There are currently 70 working research stations operated by 29 different countries all trying to find out more about this strange place, but what we do know so far is worrying, to say the least. Here are 10 surprising facts about Antarctica.

1 – We have no idea whats down there

Since the ice is so thick and the glaciers are always moving we haven’t been able to drill all the way down to the ground yet to explore. Drilling too far down would cause the drill to bend and snap as the ice sheets moved, preventing us from reaching the soil on anything that isn’t a mountain. When thawed, the continent is supposed to be similar to the size of the US, which means every single tree, bird, plant and living creature that was once on the land is still down there frozen solid. There are millions of square miles of land under the ice with its own animal and plant life that not a single person on earth has any idea about.

2 – Its a desert

In order to be classed as a desert the region has to receive less than a few inches of rainfall each year, and it hasn’t rained in Antarctica for thousands of years. The air is the driest in the world as any moisture instantly freezes and falls to the ground as frost, with anything bigger coming in the form of snow instead of liquid water.

3 – It holds 70% of the planets freshwater supply

Just over 98% of the continent is covered in a giant ice sheet of which about 70% is made of fresh water. There’s enough fresh water in Antarctica to fill every single river and lake on Earth three times over.

4 – Its the coldest place on earth

The coldest temperature ever recorded on earth was taken at the Russian Vostok research facility and measured −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F). If you were out in this temperature wearing nothing but jeans and a t-shirt you’d be dead in about 30 seconds.

5 – The soil could kill us all

Soil contains an enormous amount of bacteria that serve many different functions. Some of these functions are responsible for the creation of diseases and fungi which could be devastating to a population. When European settlers first came into contact with new civilizations, they often caused countless deaths through the spread of a disease the native population had zero immunity to, often wiping out entire tribes just through contact. Since the surface area of the continent is so big, it is almost guaranteed to contain something nasty in the soil, or at least something that would have the ability to mutate into something nasty.

6 – Its the windiest place on earth

Antarctica has more high winds than anywhere else on Earth, with the highest wind speed recorded reaching close to 200 mph.

7 – If it melts we are all doomed

Off the coast of Penzance Bay in England at a very low tide, you can see the remains of ancient tree stumps that have been petrified by the salt water. There was also once a land bridge between England and France during the Stone Age which has since flooded to form the English Channel. This huge rise in sea levels was due to the melting of the glaciers over the northern hemisphere at the end of the last ice age which took away millions of square miles of land. The amount of water contained in Antarctica would raise the sea levels by around 60 meters and would put entire countries underwater forcing extreme mass over-population on what remained. If the sea was raised by 60 meters it would be literally impossible to feed half the population of earth of what remained.

8 – The ice is over 4 kilometres thick

The average thickness of the ice is thought to be just over 2km thick, but one drilling session managed to puncture an ice sheet that was 4776 m. This remains the thickest known sheet of ice on earth that has been proven, but that’s not to say it doesn’t get thicker in places we’ve yet to explore.

9 – There are only 6 types of plants on the continent

Even though there are many different species of plants that live on the continent, there are only 6 different types in total which include the following:

Moss – 100 known Species
Liverworts – 25 to 30 Species
Algae – 700 Species
Lichens – 250 Species
Fungi – unknown
Flowering plants – only 2

10 – There are no laws and next to no people

During the summer months when it is research season up to 10,000 people travel to the continent to operate the 70 permanent stations there, but during the winter this number can get as low as 500 since some of the stations are abandoned during the Antarctic winter. There isn’t a national government and no single nation has been able to claim ownership, so there technically aren’t any laws. If you were to murder someone in Antarctica you wouldn’t be breaking any laws there since there are no laws, making it seem like a very dangerous place. Fortunately the only people there are researchers instead of criminals, but just in case a group of nations created the Antarctica treaty to keep things safe.

If you visit Antarctica for any reason and you’ve come from one of the countries on the treaty, then you are bound by certain laws from your home country. These laws vary depending on where you come from and a murder situation that happened in Antarctica would be a messy and lengthy lawsuit, to say the least, but visitors are still bound to comply with their own countries’ laws and would be punished accordingly if they broke them.