This was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has been credited with popularising the transfer of the name Terra Australis to Australia. Douglas Mawson, who assumed the leadership of the Magnetic Pole party on their perilous return, went on to lead several expeditions until retiring in 1931. The main mineral resource known on the continent is coal. [16] Eventually Antarctica was adopted as the continental name in the 1890s—the first use of the name is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. Look at the map of Antarctica, there are no countries on this continent! On top of this base are coal and various modern rocks, such as sandstones, limestones and shales laid down during the Devonian and Jurassic periods to form the Transantarctic Mountains. Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent, leaving the centre cold and dry. [39] One month later, the doomed Scott Expedition reached the pole. [99], About 1,150 species of fungi have been recorded from Antarctica, of which about 750 are non-lichen-forming and 400 are lichen-forming. [7] The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) (or even −94.7 °C (−135.8 °F) as measured from space[8]), though the average for the third quarter (the coldest part of the year) is −63 °C (−81 °F). As a result of continued warming, the polar ice caps melted and much of Gondwana became a desert. [161][162][163] However, increased ice outflow has been suggested in some regions. The first meteorite was found in 1912 and named the Adelie Land meteorite. Almost all of the continent's land is covered by a thick layer of ice.On average the ice is 1.9 km/6,200 ft deep. Robertson Land, Wilkes Land, and Victoria Land. If the sheet were to break down, ocean levels would rise by several metres in a relatively geologically short period of time, perhaps a matter of centuries. Antarctica is noted as the last region on Earth in recorded history to be discovered, unseen until 1820 when the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny sighted the Fimbul ice shelf. Africa separated from Antarctica in the Jurassic, around 160 Ma, followed by the Indian subcontinent in the early Cretaceous (about 125 Ma). [177], In February 2020, the region recorded the highest temperature of 18.3 °C (64.9 °F), which was a degree higher than the previous record of 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) in March 2015. [180] Ozone absorbs large amounts of ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere. New claims on Antarctica have been suspended since 1959, although in 2015 Norway formally defined Queen Maud Land as including the unclaimed area between it and the South Pole. By the start of the Devonian period (416 Ma), Gondwana was in more southern latitudes and the climate was cooler, though fossils of land plants are known from this time. More than 170 million years ago, Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. The Weddell seal, a "true seal", is named after Sir James Weddell, commander of British sealing expeditions in the Weddell Sea. More surprising are small forms of life such as sea cucumbers and free-swimming snails found in both polar oceans. [113] It set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, established freedom of scientific investigation and environmental protection, and banned military activity on Antarctica. The Roman authors Hyginus and Apuleius (1–2 centuries CE) used for the South Pole the romanised Greek name polus antarcticus,[12][13] from which derived the Old French pole antartike (modern pôle antarctique) attested in 1270, and from there the Middle English pol antartik in a 1391 technical treatise by Geoffrey Chaucer (modern Antarctic Pole). [148], In 2006, a team of researchers from Ohio State University used gravity measurements by NASA's GRACE satellites to discover the 500-kilometre-wide (300 mi) Wilkes Land crater, which probably formed about 250 million years ago. [133][134][135] As of 2015, there are two Wells Fargo ATMs in Antarctica.[136]. Second, the Arctic Ocean covers the north polar zone: the ocean's relative warmth is transferred through the icepack and prevents temperatures in the Arctic regions from reaching the extremes typical of the land surface of Antarctica. Several research stations have been established around the continent by various countries for scientific and research purposes. Charles Wilkes, and a separate French expedition under Jules Dumont d'Urville. Since Antarctica is largely uninhabited, the continent is not officially divided up into time zones. For other uses, see, The word was originally pronounced with the first, John George Bartholomew and the naming of Antarctica, CAIRT Issue 13, National Library of Scotland, July 2008, ISSN 1477-4186, and also, Russian State Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resources, International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, "Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica", "The World at a Glance: Surprising Facts", "Coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth in Antarctica: -94.7C (−135.8F)", "Antarctic Explorers Timeline: Early 1800s", "Women in Antarctica: Sharing this Life-Changing Experience", "Dates in American Naval History: October", "Børge Ousland: How I crossed Antarctica alone", "O'Brady's Antarctic Crossing: Was It Really Unassisted? (an extensive forest may have flourished about 3 million years ago)", "In 30 years the Antarctic Treaty becomes modifiable, and the fate of a continent could hang in the balance", "CO2Snow Deposition in Antarctica to Curtail Anthropogenic Global Warming", "Antarctica records unofficial coldest temperature ever", "Antarctica temperature exceeds 20C for first time", "Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for first time on record", The Earth's Elliptical Orbit Around the Sun – Aphelion and Perihelion, "Flock of Antarctica's Orthodox temple celebrates Holy Trinity Day", "The power games that threaten world's last pristine wilderness", "Questions to the Sun for the 2002–03 season", Antarctic volcanoes help preserve life in the freezer – The Conversation, "Antarctic Bestiary – Terrestrial Animals", "Genome sequencing of the winged midge, Parochlus steinenii, from the Antarctic Peninsula", "The different breeding strategies of penguins: A review", "Non-lichenized fungi from the Antarctic region", "Survival of Black Fungi in Space, Preliminary Results", "Bacteria Found Deep Under Antarctic Ice, Scientists Say", "Conservation issues for Antarctic fungi", "Norge utvider Dronning Maud Land helt frem til Sydpolen", "Greenpeace applauds Antarctic protection victory", "Antarctica: exploration or exploitation? 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