Geographical+Features+-+Natalie


 * ==** Geographical Features: ANTARCTICA **== ||
 * ==Introducing Antarctica == ||


 * [[image:zironiumantarctica/Antarctica map.jpg width="267" height="243" align="left"]] || =====Antarctica is 14,200,000 square kilometres in size, and is approximately twice the size of Australia, which is only 7,682,292 square kilometres and yet is the coldest place on Earth. It contains about 90% of the world's ice and 70% of Earth's freshwater. Antarctica was once a tropical rainforest during the[[image:zironiumantarctica/gondwana.jpg align="right" caption="Gondwana Period"]] Gondwana period, which was 180,000,00 years ago, but then the continent began to move south it became cold. It is located in the southern hemisphere and is opposite to the North Pole, Antarctica is sometimes named as the South Pole whereas the North Pole can be called the Arctic. Antarctica is one huge piece of ice land mass with islands scatted around it which are called 'Sub - Antarctic Islands': South Orkney Island, South Shetland Island, South Georgia Island, Scott Island and Balleny Island.=====

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The fifth largest continent and has been claimed and shared amongst Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, United Kingdom and Norway. The closest continent to Antarctica is South America where Argentina and Chile are the closest countries. ===== ||  ||

 Mountains

 * ===//Mount Vinson Massif //===

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Mount Vinson Massif, the highest mountain in Antarctica is 4,892 metres tall, 20 kilometres long and 13 kilometres wide is located near the Antarctic Peninsula (West Antarctica). Mount Vinson was named after a man called Carl G Vinson who was a member of the US Congress and was discovered in 1958. Vinson's neigbouring mountains are Mount Tyree, which is 52 metres lower (4,840 metres) and Mount Byrd towering only 810 metres tall. Mount Vinson is one of the most climbed mountains in Antarctica.===== || ===== ===== ||
 * ===**//Mount Erebus// **===

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Mount Erebus, the second highest mountain and largest active volcano in Antarctica, is 3,794 metres high and is one of the 20 top sized volcanoes in the world. This volcano mountain has been continuously active since 1972 and was last erupted in 2011. Erebus is Antarctica's well-known volcano is located on the Ross Island and was first discorvered by Sir James Clark Ross. During 1908, a party from Sir Ernest Shackelton's //Nimord// expedition (1907-1909) were the first to climb Mount Erebus. ===== ||  ||

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Transantarctic Mountain chain (TAM) separates Antarctica into two regions, East Antarctica and West Antarctica. The Transantarctic ranges stretch more than 3,500 kilometres long from the Victoria Land to the Weddell Sea. It was first sighted by Captain James Ross but Ernest Shakelton and his men were then first to climb the Transantarctic mountains. The highest point of the Transantarctic Mountains is Mount Kirkpatrick, which is 4,528 metres high, in the Queen Maud Mountains. =====
 * [[image:zironiumantarctica/photo_mnts.jpg width="367" height="264" align="left" caption="Transantarctic Mountains"]] || [[image:zironiumantarctica/fig1.jpg width="393" height="270" caption="Transantarctic mountains which separates Antarctica into two regions."]] ||

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 Antarctica has about 25 volcanoes and the current active volcano is Mount Erebus which is located west of Ross Island though its eruptions are usually small, Mount Erebus was last erupted in 2011. Volcano eruptions were common about 25 million years ago, now most of them are extinct but some are still active like Deception Island, Mt Erebus and South Sandwhich Island. =====

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Antarctica's highest volcano is Mount Sidley towering up to 4,285 metres, it is one of the 'Volcanic Seven Summits'. Volcanic Seven Summits are the highest mountains and summits in all seven continents in the world. Sidley is now a shield volcano, it's located in the West Antarctica and near the Ross Ice Shelf (SW of Antarctica). In 1990 a New Zealander named Bill Atkinson was the first to climb Mt Sidley. =====
 * [[image:5568529382_b6041888e0.jpg width="304" height="183" align="left" caption="Mount Sidley"]] || [[image:zironiumantarctica/untitled.png width="354" height="171" align="left" caption="Climbing Sidley"]] ||


 * ==Glaciers ==

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Glaciers are made up of ice, air and water. They are formed by lots of snow toppling over each other and then turning it into ice, then more ice sheets lay over. After a thousand years later all the ice transformed into a glacier. Continental and valley are two different types of glaciers. Valley glaciers are thin and slim and fill the valley in mountains. Continental glaciers are very thick and are know as 'Ice caps'. Every day glaciers move about 30 centimetres. Glaciers hold 75% of Earth's water and its ice wipes out 98% of Antarctica. All glaciers end up melting into the ocean whereas some reach the ocean and crack into an iceberg. ===== || ||

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">There are very few plant life that grow down in Antarctica because of freezing weather conditions. Plants that grow in Antarctica are usually grown in summer when the ice melts and the sun is shinning. Antarctica is home to almost 400 species of lichens, more than 100 species of mosses and liverworts, two flowering plants - a type of grass and a plant named //Colobanthus// and many species of algae. Animal life would not exist in Antarctica if plants were not growing there because they are in every food chain. There are no trees, bushes or shurbs that grow in the Antarctica continent like we see them here in Sydney but there are some lichen, moss and algae living there. =====


 * ===<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">**//Lichen//** ===

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Antarctica has three major types of lichens plants: Crustose lichens, Foliose lichens, and Fruticose lichens. Lichens grow very slow, they enlarge only 1 centimetre every 100 years. With harsh conditions they even grow much slower with only 1 centimetre per 1000 years. Crustose lichens grow a flat suface whlie the foliose lichen forms like a leaf and the fruticose lichens. Most lichen plants that grow in Antarctica grow on rocks and stones. ===== ||


 * = <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[[image:fruit.jpg width="295" height="174" caption="Fruticose lichens"]] ||= <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[[image:zironiumantarctica/9.png align="left" caption="Crustose Lichen"]] ||= [[image:zironiumantarctica/pic 1.jpg width="253" height="194" align="center" caption="Foliose Lichen"]] ||


 * ===<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">**//Algae//** ===

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">In Antarctica and mainly in the Antarctic Peninsula, snow there can be splashed with colours like green, yellow and commonly red. Colours that are splashed onto the snow are formed by a single-celled algae. The algae sucks in the sun light and then their pigments (colours in their plant tissues) release and stain the soft white snow. Some species of algae live inside rocks, a type of algae, Snow algae, can be called ' Watermelon Snow ' because they are sometimes red, green, orange or yellow in colour.===== || ||
 * ===**// Antarctic Pearlwort //**===

Scientific name: //Colobanthus Quitensis//
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">The Antarctic Pearlwort plant can be found in Mexico, the Antarctic Penisula, South Orkney Island and South Shetland Island. **Colobanthus Quitensis** is one of the flowering plants that grow in Antarctica and has white or yellow flowers that grow up to 5 centimetres high. || ======== ||
 * ===//**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Antarctic Hair Grass **//===

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Scientific name: //Deschampsia Antarctica//
<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Antarctic hair grass are fine leaves of grass. The leaves fold and are light green in colour when the plant is young and as it grows they uncurl and their colours become darker. The **Deschampsia Antarctica** plant grow in small groups between rocks and cracks and next to moss on the South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctic hair grass is able to adapt temperatures under zero Celsuis and ae mostly found near places with lots of soil. || =====<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ===== ||


 * == Climate ==

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Antarctica is the coldest and windiest place on Earth. Earth is titled on a 23.5 axis; this is how the world gets its seasons. Temperatures in Antarctica are always freezing cold. The highest temperature ever recorded was 15 Celsius and the lowest was -89.4 Celsius. It has 6 months of daylight and 6 months of pitch black for a whole year. Summer is the time when the Sun never sets for six months and winter is when it is always dark. When it comes to summer in South Pole it is winter in the North. ===== || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> ||
 * =====<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">The average temperature in winter is minus 34.4 Celsius. Antarctica is sometimes referred as a polar desert because it has very little rain. Scentists who conduct scentific research in Antarctica use helium balloons to record the weather outside.The months between January and June are the time when the Antarctic’s surrounding waters start to melt down. Antarctica is always covered in snow and ice. Antarctica’s surrounding waters freezes during the beginning of July(start of winter). The continent enlarges by 100 percent when the surrounding waters of Antarctica become frozen. It then shrinks back to its normal size when it comes to the end of December. During summer temperatures struggle to get above 0 Celsius, but are usually bellow. What happens if Antarctica's ice melts? If Antarctica's ice sheet melted the water level would rise. This is caused by global warming. Cities around coastlines (such as New York, Venice) will then be flooded by water because of the sea level increases.===== || =====[[image:zironiumantarctica/Measuring the weather.jpg align="right" caption="Scientists using helium balloons to measure the weather"]]===== ||


 * ===<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">//**Aurora Lights**// ===

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<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Aurora lights show at night, they happen in the north and south magnetic poles. The Aurora Australis are lights that occur down in the south magnetic pole in Antarctica whereas in the north magnetic pole the Aurora Boealis appear in the sky. In Latin Australis and Borealis means 'Southern Lights' and 'Northern Lights'. Aurora lights only occur at the magnetic poles on Earth. The Aurora Australis lights are mostly seen near the UK base Halley V. The most common colour that can be seen is green, which is the brightest, red, blue and purple. Both northern and southern lights are almost identical when they shine, people who see them are very fortunate because the aurora australis is mostly darkend by the full moon shinning. ===== || || = =
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 * **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">REFERENCES **

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">URLs:
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 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">General Information || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/environment]
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Climate || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[]

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[]
|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[] || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[] || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[] || [|[[http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/wildlife/plants/lichenshttp://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/wildlife/plants/|[[http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/wildlife/plants/] [|[[http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/wildlife/plants/lichenshttp://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/wildlife/plants/|[[http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18704332]
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Mountains || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[]
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Volcanoes || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[]
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Glaciers || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[]
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Plants || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/wildlife/plants/lichens]

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[]
|| <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Antarctica, //Lonely Planet, 1st published in 2008//
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Videos || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[] ||
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Books: || <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Antarctica, //John Baines, 1st published in 1997//

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Journey to Antarctica, //Meredith Hooper, 1st published in 1997//
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