1
1. The world’s natural environment
27
9. THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OF ANTARCTICA
The continent of Antarctica is covered by a
great mass of ice
. The thickness of the ice
reaches to over 4 000 m in some places (it contains 80% of the fresh water on the planet).
Enormous
icebergs
and
ice shelves
9
break off from this mass and form platforms of ice.
There are some mountains on Antarctica, such as Mount Vinson (4892 m).
The Antarctic was the last continent to be discovered and explored. The Norwegian Roald
Amundsen was the first explorer to reach the South Pole (1911). It is the only uninhabited
continent, apart from some scientific missions and observations. The
Antarctic Treaty
,
signed in Washington in 1959, protects the continent from occupation and exploitation.
Antarctica has an
extreme polar climate
, with very little precipitation and extremely low
temperatures (on Mount Argus –93.2 ºC has been registered, the lowest temperature on the
planet). Seals, penguins, sea lions, whales, and orcas (killer whales) are the characteristic fauna.
100º E
120ºE
140ºE
160º E
180º
160º W
140º W
120º W
100º W
80º W
60º W
40º W
20º W
0º
20º E
40º E
60º E
80º E
60º S
60º S
80º S
80º S
Cape Ann
Adare Cape
Weddell
Sea
Amundsen
Sea
Sea of
Ross
Antarctic
Peninsula
T
R
A
N
S
A
T
L
A
N
T
I
C
M
O
U
N
T
A
I
N
S
SOUTH POLE
I
N
D
I
A
N
O
C
E
A
N
A
T
L
A
N
T
I
C
O
C
E
A
N
P
A
C
I
F
I
C
O
C
E
A
N
A
n
t
a
r
c
t
i
c
C
i
r
c
l
e
c
í
r
c
u
l
o
p
o
l
a
r
a
n
t
á
r
t
i
c
o
S
O
U
T
H
E
R
N
O
C
E
A
N
Palmer
Land
Queen
Maud Land
Enderby
Land
Princess
Elisabeth Land
Marie
Byrd land
Victoria
Land
W
i
l
k
i
e
s
’
L
a
n
d
Erebus
3 794
Vinson
5 140
Ross
Shelf
1 000 km
0
1:61 519 000
N
Mount Vinson (Antarctica)
Penguins
9
ice shelf:
sheet of ice connected to a
land mass
Understand
30.
Listen and answer true or false. Correct the false
sentences in your notebook.
Analyse
31.
South Island in New Zealand has fiords. What are they
and what formed them? Why did they appear here?
32.
Put the archipelagos of Polynesia, Melanesia and
Micronesia on a blank map of Oceania and explain
the meaning of the different names.
Create
33.
Some of the animals in Australia are marsupials.
Find out what the main characteristics of this type of
animal are. Write some descriptions and give some
examples.
34.
Find out about atolls. How do they form? What
advantages does the water in their interior have?
What is the activity of the inhabitants of these
islands? Write a short report.