The Strange Continent of the World

Hey readers, today we will talk about one of the strange continents in the world, Antarctica. For us, we consider Antarctica to be the most extraordinary and dangerous. If you want to know why Antarctica is dangerous and extraordinary, please read more.


Please read the passage together with the photos. If so, you would understand clearly.

Antarctica is the world’s southernmost continent and also the site of the South Pole. Its area is 5.5 million square miles (14.2 million square km). Antarctica is the fifth largest continent in the world after Asia, Africa, North America and South America. 98% of Antarctica is covered with ice sheets and the area is twice the size of the Australia Continent.


Its ice sheet’s thickness is about 1.2miles on average 1.2mile. The rest 2 % is the place with lichens, mosses and algae. Since Antarctica is ice land, there are no trees or shrubs and only two species of flowering plants can be found. The following pictures are some species of nonflowering plants.

If all the ice of Antarctica were to melt, the world sea level would rise about 70 meters and nearly all parts of the world’s land would be flooded. Soon we have to know via satellite that there are melting ice rivers and lakes under the ice sheet of Antarctica.


The warmest temperature of Antarctica is 18.3’C and the coldest temperature is -89.6’C. The temperature of the refrigerator in your house is only about -15’C. But nowadays, there is an increase of 3’C in Antarctica temperature because of the continuous melting effect. Therefore, the scientists are worried that it could cause the rise of the world’s sea level and the world’s climate change and flooding.

Now, you might also be inquiring as to who discovered this extraordinary continent, Antarctica. By 1820, Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen who was a German naval officer, Royal Navy officer Edward Bransfield and an American captain first discovered Antarctica. But in 1821 , sealer and explorer John Davis was the first one who stepped on Antarctica continent.


Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest and highest continent in the world. There are no permanent residents in Antarctica but there may be around 1000 to 5000 scientists in research stations. Most of them are scientists from over 30 countries. Among them, there is also a burmese-american female scientist in a research station in Antarctica.


You can observe the Southern Lights in Antarctica. (Since it is the site where the South Pole exists.)

Moreover, Antarctica is the war free zone in the world. Military activities and weapons testing are banned in Antarctica. 49 countries signed an agreement to ban nuclear testing in Antarctica.


Besides, no one owns Antarctica. Antarctica is the public continent governed by a group of nations in a unique international partnership. For some countries, no visa is needed to visit antarctica. And if you fortunately traveled there, you could not take any from Antarctica and had to seriously care that nothing would be destroyed because of you.So if you have a chance to visit there, please care about that.


Also now, we will talk about other extraordinary things about Antarctica. These are about the animals and world biggest Ross Ice Shelf ,Blood waterfall and other wondrous things. I am sure you will never regret it after you read this.

Animals in Antarctica


There are almost 300 animal species in Antarctica. Most are Penguins .Moreover, you can see other animals like whales, seals and albatross.Look at the pictures!


Besides, non-vertebrates and other underwater animals can be seen in Antarctica. World has such a magic to create such animals to adapt to that kind of extreme cold place. Such animals cannot survive in places that are hotter than Antarctica. They can only adapt to conditions like Antarctica. In 1970, scientists discovered by radar detection that there are over 400 underwater pools. Those pools are situated 300 meters deep. To such depth, wondrous underwater animals can survive. As they are so wondrous, they’re also extremely dangerous. Besides fossils of microorganisms, giant sea spiders, and giant cuttlefish, you can find billions of other fossils. Following pictures are some underwater animals.


In Antarctica there are also rules to see animals like guidelines for animals approaching distances, not allowing fishing , extreme care not to hit others when boarding outsides and so on.

Ross Ice Shelf


The size of the Ross ice shelf is as large as France. This ice shelf is emitting very strange noises. The wind and melting ice produce strange sounds. These sounds cannot be heard by human ears. Scientists used sensitive seismic sensors to study the crust and mantle beneath Antarctica. From these sensors, they unexpectedly observed that strange noises were emitted from the ice shelf. The researchers can measure the melting of ice from the vibration of the sound.


Furthermore, you can observe big holes,strange volcanoes in Antarctica and the animals fossils from 20 millions years ago. By testing these fossils, Antarctica was warm those times. Antarctica is such a place which is full of wonders.

Blood waterfall


Blood waterfall is another extraordinary situation in Antarctica. There is a blood waterfall flowing from the tongue of Taylor Glacier. But it is not real blood water. At first, scientists believed that this was because of the red algae.

But later, they found out the answer why it is blood colour by Randar scanning. There is a lot of iron in Taylor Glacier. Those iron oxidized with Oxygen and turned the red colour. When we were young, we learned that there are four main oceans in the world. But there is another ocean called the Southern Ocean that encircles Antarctica. It is the fourth largest ocean in the world.

If some mistakes are found in this content, this is because of our faults. Thanks for reading till the end , please be strong and healthy.