Antarctica is an unexplored world all its own, which is why it is a great place to conduct international science research.The great ice sheet of Antarctica is amazing because it covers most of the land and also provides hundreds of miles of permanent ice shelves over the ocean. As big as the entire state of Texas, Ross Ice Shelf is the grandest of them all.Studies of this ice mass combined with recent measurements have concluded that this shelf is moving north approximately 1800 feet every year.

Two percent of the planet's water and ninety percent of the world's ice are found in Antarctica.The most critical facet of maintaining ocean levels revolves around the great inland ice shelf's stability.If most of the shelf were to melt to water, this would dramatically raise the sea level, to the point of being a disaster for the seacoast cities and all seaports.Contact this website if you require information on antarctica cruise deals.

Sea levels would rise 250 feet across the globe, if all ice was to melt.That's why it is so important for us to find out exactly what is going on with the Antarctic icecap's health. It doesn't really matter what the ice is doing right at the moment.Providing geophysical history for over a million years is one aspect of the ice shelf.

It has been proven that these layers of ice can tell us about nuclear explosions or even when lead was used in gasoline. Scientists have tested how much lead has precipitated on the ice over 60 years. Lead concentration has rapidly increased on the ice shelf. The increased use of leaded gasolines most likely perpetuated this.This could give us some indication into how bad pollution really is.

DDT, in trace amounts, could be found in some fish, seals and penguins in the area, but none were found in the Antarctic ice.The location in the ice of space particulates lets scientist know when they hit the earth. Such items are hitting us all the time.By looking at the space particulates, scientists may be able to better understand any available patterns. This could benefit rockets and space ships of the future.For further insights on adventure antarctica cruises be sure to visit that site.

The most common type of vegetation in Antarctica are lichens. Springtails and mites prove to be the most common land animals.No flying insects dwell here, and the greatest sized land animal proves to be a fly without wings.The southernmost mammals, the Weddell seal as well as the flightless penguin, live in the encircling seas.The Weddell seal has impressed his researchers in diving as deep as 1,500 feet and staying under water for as long as 30 full minutes while hunting for food.

Adelie penguins like to nest on iceless areas on Antarctica?s coasts. When winters approaches, they migrate north.Using the sun and their own biological traits, they can maintain a very straight course to their next destination.Amazingly, three Adelies took only ten months to travel the 2400 miles back to their rookery. Some were taken by researchers and released in the South Pole. When they were released, they recognized that their surroundings were unfamiliar, located the sun, and set off for their home rookery on a straight and exact course.

You can even find the largest creature to ever live on Planet Earth near Antarctica.Five times bigger than the largest recorded dinosaur, the almost extinct great blue whale eats one ton of shrimp a day.Compared to the Arctic, Antarctic seas contain a much greater diversity of fish.An astounding fact is that 90% of the Antarctic bottom dwelling fish are not found anywhere else in the entire world, which proves how effective Antarctic Convergence really is.