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Conceivably Profitable: Antarctica

By: Clausing Emil

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Because only Antarctica can offer the unique scientific research sites it does, it has been set aside as a place for only science. Antarctica's most impressive characteristic is the giant ice sheet which covers almost all of the land. It also goes out hundreds of miles into the ocean in a few places. The biggest ice shelf rivals Texas in size, and it's known as the Ross Shelf Ice. Scientists have measured the movement of the ice sheets and determined that every year, the ice mass travels 1800 feet.

Not only does Antarctica contain almost 2% of the total water on the planet, it contains an impressive 90% of the world's ice. Maintaining the stability of this vast inland ice proves to be the single greatest element in controlling the levels of the seas. If this ice should completely melt, the disastrous effects would cross the globe. Seaports would disappear, and coastlines would certainly change.

Two hundred fifty feet would be added to the ocean?s levels if all that ice melted. We can surely see why it is vitally important to know how the ice shelf is doing. It doesn't really matter what the ice is doing right at the moment. In theory, this enormous sheet of ice contains a complete record of all geophysical events from today all the way back to potentially a million years.

These icy, snowy layers contain records of the first major lead smelting, the use of lead in gasoline, and nuclear explosions. Scientists have examined how much lead has particulated on the ice since 1950. Because of the increase in leaded gasoline use, the amount of lead particulates found in the ice has gone way up. Maybe at last we will begin to understand the serious danger posed by pollution.

Some penguins, fish and seals from Antarctica showed traces of DDT, but the ice shelf itself did not. Depending on where they are in the ice layers, we can determine when space particles came down and bombarded the earth, as far back as millions of years. Scientists could make better space vehicles because they see a pattern in these particulates.

In Antarctica, the majority of the plant life are lichens. The greatest quantity of land animals are springtails and mites. Flying insects cannot withstand the weather conditions in Antarctica, and the wingless fly is one of the largest land animals. In the ocean that surrounds Antarctica, you can find the flightless penguin or the Weddell seal. Amazingly, the Weddell seal can dive up to 1500 feet and stay down for a long as 30 minutes without needing to come up for breath.

Adelie penguins make their nests on ice-free spots on the coast of Antarctica and then head northward during the frigid winters. Helping them to stay on a perfect course with amazing accuracy, they possess a biological clock and capability of steering by the sun. As a study, six of the Adelie penguins were released over 2,400 miles from their natural habitat and three of them found their way back within ten months. To further this experiment, some were released at the South Pole. After they were released, the viewed their surrounds, looked for the sun's location and then set course for home.

You can even find the largest creature to ever live on Planet Earth near Antarctica. Eating nearly one ton of shrimp daily, and weighing in at five times any past dinosaur, the great blue whale is nearing extinction. The waters of Antarctica house more specifies of fish than the Arctic. An amazing 90 percent of fish that live on the ocean's bottom in the Antarctic can't be found anywhere else on the planet.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

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