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Antarctic

The Antarctic (/ænˈtɑːrtɪk/ or /ænˈtɑːrktɪk/, American English also /æntˈɑːrtɪk/ or /æntˈɑːrktɪk/; commonly /æˈnɑːrtɪk/)[Note 1] is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole.

A map of the Antarctic region, including the Antarctic Convergence and the 60th parallel south
The Antarctic Plate

The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau, and other island territories located on the Antarctic Plate or south of the Antarctic Convergence. The Antarctic region includes the ice shelves, waters, and all the island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence, a zone approximately 32 to 48 km (20 to 30 mi) wide and varying in latitude seasonally.[4] The region covers some 20 percent of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5 percent (14 million km2) is the surface area of the Antarctica continent itself. All of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude are administered under the Antarctic Treaty System. Biogeographically, the Antarctic realm is one of eight biogeographic realms on Earth's land surface.

Geography edit

 
An October 2006 NASA satellite image of the Antarctic without its periphery of unattached sea ice
 
A map of the Antarctic voyages of Anthony de la Roché and others in the Southern Ocean
 
Location of the Antarctic on a map of the Earth

As defined by the Antarctic Treaty System, the Antarctic region is everything south of the 60°S latitude. The Treaty area covers Antarctica and the archipelagos of the Balleny Islands, Peter I Island, Scott Island, the South Orkney Islands, and the South Shetland Islands.[5] However, this area does not include the Antarctic Convergence, a transition zone where the cold waters of the Southern Ocean collide with the warmer waters of the north, forming a natural border to the region.[6] Because the Convergence changes seasonally, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources approximates the Convergence line by joining specified points along parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude.[7] The implementation of the convention is managed through an international commission headquartered in Hobart, Australia, by an efficient system of annual fishing quotas, licenses, and international inspectors on the fishing vessels, as well as satellite surveillance.[citation needed]

The islands situated between 60°S latitude parallel to the south and the Antarctic Convergence to the north and their respective 200-nautical-mile (370 km) exclusive economic zones fall under the national jurisdiction of the countries that possess them: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (United Kingdom), Bouvet Island (Norway), and Heard and McDonald Islands (Australia).

Kerguelen Islands (France; also an EU Overseas territory) are situated in the Antarctic Convergence area, while the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, Falkland Islands, Isla de los Estados, Hornos Island with Cape Horn, Diego Ramírez Islands, Campbell Island, Macquarie Island, Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands, Crozet Islands, Prince Edward Islands, Gough Island, and Tristan da Cunha group remain north of the Convergence and thus outside the Antarctic region.

Ecology edit

Antarctica edit

A variety of animals live in Antarctica for at least some of the year, including:[8][9]

Most of the Antarctica continent is permanently covered by ice and snow, leaving less than 1 percent of the land exposed. There are only two species of flowering plant, Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlwort, but a range of mosses, liverworts, lichens and macrofungi.[10]

Sub-Antarctic Islands edit

Biodiversity among terrestrial flora and fauna is low on the islands: studies have theorized that the harsh climate was a major contributor towards species richness, but multiple correlations have been found with area, temperature, remoteness of islands, and food chain stability. For example, herbivorous insects are poor in number due to low plant richness, and likewise, indigenous bird numbers are related to insects, which are a major food source.[11]

Conservation edit

 
The Antarctic Unit at the port in Ushuaia, Argentina
 
Moubray Bay and Mount Herschel in Eastern Antarctica

The Antarctic hosts the world's largest protected area comprising 1.07 million km2, the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protection Area created in 2012.[12] The latter exceeds the surface area of another vast protected territory, the Greenland National Park’s 972,000 km2 (375,000 sq mi).[13] (While the Ross Sea Marine Protection Area established in 2016 is still larger at 1.55 million km2, its protection is set to expire in 35 years.[14][15]) To protect the area, all Antarctic ships over 500 tonnes are subject to mandatory regulations under the Polar Code, adopted by the International Maritime Organization (in force since 1 January 2017).[16][17]

Society edit

 
The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, the geographic South Pole, with its signpost in the background
 
Ushuaia in Argentina is the most active gateway to Antarctica.

People edit

The first recorded sighting of Antarctica is credited to the Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla, who reported seeing distant southern snow-capped mountains in 1603. The first Antarctic land discovered was the island of South Georgia, visited by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675. Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis ("Southern Land") date back to antiquity, the first confirmed sighting of the continent of Antarctica is commonly accepted to have occurred in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny.

The Australian James Kerguelen Robinson (1859–1914) was the first human born in the Antarctic, on board the sealing ship Offley in the Gulf of Morbihan (Royal Sound then), Kerguelen Island on 11 March 1859.[18][19] The first human born and raised on an Antarctic island was Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen born on 8 October 1913 in Grytviken, South Georgia.[20]

 
South Georgia Museum, Grytviken

Emilio Marcos Palma (born 7 January 1978) is an Argentine man who was the first documented person born on the continent of Antarctica at the Esperanza Base.[21] His father, Captain Jorge Palma, was head of the Argentine Army detachment at the base. While ten people have been born in Antarctica since, Palma's birthplace remains the southernmost. In late 1977, Silvia Morella de Palma, who was then seven months pregnant, was airlifted to Esperanza Base, in order to complete her pregnancy in the base. The airlift was a part of the Argentine solutions to the sovereignty dispute over territory in Antarctica. Emilio was automatically granted Argentine citizenship by the government since his parents were both Argentine citizens, and he was born in the claimed Argentine Antarctica. Palma can be considered to be the first native Antarctican.

The Antarctic region had no indigenous population when first discovered, and its present inhabitants comprise a few thousand transient scientific and other personnel working on tours of duty at the several dozen research stations maintained by various countries. However, the region is visited by more than 40,000[22] tourists annually, the most popular destinations being the Antarctic Peninsula area (especially the South Shetland Islands) and South Georgia Island.

In December 2009, the growth of tourism, with consequences for both the ecology and the safety of the travellers in its great and remote wilderness, was noted at a conference in New Zealand by experts from signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. The definitive results of the conference were presented at the Antarctic Treaty states' meeting in Uruguay in May 2010.[23]

Time zones edit

Because Antarctica surrounds the South Pole, it is theoretically located in all time zones. For practical purposes, time zones are usually based on territorial claims or the time zone of a station's owner country or supply base.[24]

List of offshore islands edit

 
A Norwegian cruise ship at Petermann Island with Kyiv Peninsula of Graham Land in the background

North of 60°S latitude edit

South of 60°S latitude edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ The word was originally pronounced without the first /k/, but the spelling pronunciation has become common and is often considered more correct. The pronunciation without the first k sound and the first t sound is however widespread and a typical phenomenon of English in many other similar words too.[1] The "c" was added to the spelling for etymological reasons and then began to be pronounced, but (as with other spelling pronunciations) at first only by less educated people.[2][3]

References edit

  1. ^ American Heritage Dictionary 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Crystal, David (2006). The Fight for English. Oxford University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-19-920764-0.
  3. ^ Harper, Douglas. "Antarctic". Online Etymology Dictionary. from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
  4. ^ "Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research website". SCAR. from the original on 14 December 2013.
  5. ^ "The Antarctic Treaty | NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  6. ^ "Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources - Department of Agriculture". www.agriculture.gov.au. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  7. ^ Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources 2010-05-05 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Polar Wildlife". British Antarctic Survey. Natural Environment Research Council. from the original on 1 August 2023.
  9. ^ Vanessa Woods (14 October 2011). . Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  10. ^ "Plants". British Antarctic Survey. Natural Environment Research Council. from the original on 26 September 2023.
  11. ^ Chown; Gremmen; Gaston (1998). "Ecological Biogeography of Southern Ocean Islands: Species-Area Relationships, Human Impacts, and Conservation". The American Naturalist. 152 (4): 562–75. doi:10.2307/2463357. ISSN 0003-0147. JSTOR 2463357. PMID 18811364.
  12. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2016.
  13. ^ . Statistics Greenland. 2009. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010.
  14. ^ CCAMLR Website
  15. ^ Slezak, Michael (26 October 2016). . The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  16. ^ "Shipping in polar waters". IMO. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  17. ^ "The Polar Code, One Year On". The Maritime Executive. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  18. ^ Robinson, James (1906). . In Cerchi, D. (ed.). Reminiscences (Report). Hobart, Tasmania, AU: Archives Office of Tasmania. pp. 98–99. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012.
  19. ^ L. Ivanov and N. Ivanova. The World of Antarctica. Generis Publishing, 2022. 241 pp. ISBN 979-8-88676-403-1 (2014 Bulgarian edition of the book)
  20. ^ Headland, Robert (1984). The Island of South Georgia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521424745.
  21. ^ "Emilio Palma, argentino y "Adán" de la Antártida | Información General".
  22. ^ "IAATO tourist statistics 2007/08" (PDF).
  23. ^ Antarctic Nations Considering New Controls On Ships Amid Tourism Explosion. 2012-01-18 at the Wayback Machine Ray Lilley, The Associated Press, 8 December 2009.
  24. ^ Society, National Geographic (14 August 2012). "South Pole". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 9 April 2022.

Further reading edit

  • Krupnik, Igor; Michael A. Lang; Scott E. Miller (eds). Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar Year Science. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2009.

External links edit

  • British Services Antarctic Expedition 2012
  • Committee for Environmental Protection of Antarctica
  • Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty
  • CCAMLR Commission
  • International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators
  • The South Atlantic and Subantarctic Islands
  • Ushuaia is the most popular gateway to Antarctica

90°00′S 00°00′W / 90.000°S -0.000°E / -90.000; -0.000

antarctic, this, article, about, region, continent, other, uses, disambiguation, ɑːr, ɑːr, american, english, also, ɑːr, ɑːr, commonly, ɑːr, note, polar, region, around, earth, south, pole, opposite, arctic, region, around, north, pole, region, including, conv. This article is about the region For the continent see Antarctica For other uses see Antarctic disambiguation The Antarctic ae n ˈ t ɑːr t ɪ k or ae n ˈ t ɑːr k t ɪ k American English also ae n t ˈ ɑːr t ɪ k or ae n t ˈ ɑːr k t ɪ k commonly ae ˈ n ɑːr t ɪ k Note 1 is a polar region around Earth s South Pole opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole A map of the Antarctic region including the Antarctic Convergence and the 60th parallel southThe Antarctic PlateThe Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica the Kerguelen Plateau and other island territories located on the Antarctic Plate or south of the Antarctic Convergence The Antarctic region includes the ice shelves waters and all the island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence a zone approximately 32 to 48 km 20 to 30 mi wide and varying in latitude seasonally 4 The region covers some 20 percent of the Southern Hemisphere of which 5 5 percent 14 million km2 is the surface area of the Antarctica continent itself All of the land and ice shelves south of 60 S latitude are administered under the Antarctic Treaty System Biogeographically the Antarctic realm is one of eight biogeographic realms on Earth s land surface Contents 1 Geography 2 Ecology 2 1 Antarctica 2 2 Sub Antarctic Islands 3 Conservation 4 Society 4 1 People 4 2 Time zones 5 List of offshore islands 5 1 North of 60 S latitude 5 2 South of 60 S latitude 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External linksGeography edit nbsp An October 2006 NASA satellite image of the Antarctic without its periphery of unattached sea ice nbsp A map of the Antarctic voyages of Anthony de la Roche and others in the Southern Ocean nbsp Location of the Antarctic on a map of the EarthAs defined by the Antarctic Treaty System the Antarctic region is everything south of the 60 S latitude The Treaty area covers Antarctica and the archipelagos of the Balleny Islands Peter I Island Scott Island the South Orkney Islands and the South Shetland Islands 5 However this area does not include the Antarctic Convergence a transition zone where the cold waters of the Southern Ocean collide with the warmer waters of the north forming a natural border to the region 6 Because the Convergence changes seasonally the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources approximates the Convergence line by joining specified points along parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude 7 The implementation of the convention is managed through an international commission headquartered in Hobart Australia by an efficient system of annual fishing quotas licenses and international inspectors on the fishing vessels as well as satellite surveillance citation needed The islands situated between 60 S latitude parallel to the south and the Antarctic Convergence to the north and their respective 200 nautical mile 370 km exclusive economic zones fall under the national jurisdiction of the countries that possess them South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands United Kingdom Bouvet Island Norway and Heard and McDonald Islands Australia Kerguelen Islands France also an EU Overseas territory are situated in the Antarctic Convergence area while the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Falkland Islands Isla de los Estados Hornos Island with Cape Horn Diego Ramirez Islands Campbell Island Macquarie Island Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands Crozet Islands Prince Edward Islands Gough Island and Tristan da Cunha group remain north of the Convergence and thus outside the Antarctic region Ecology editSee also Antarctic realm Antarctic microorganism and Wildlife of Antarctica Antarctica edit A variety of animals live in Antarctica for at least some of the year including 8 9 Seals Penguins South Georgia pipits Albatrosses Antarctic petrels Whales Fish such as Antarctic icefish Antarctic toothfish Squid including the colossal squid Antarctic krillMost of the Antarctica continent is permanently covered by ice and snow leaving less than 1 percent of the land exposed There are only two species of flowering plant Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlwort but a range of mosses liverworts lichens and macrofungi 10 Sub Antarctic Islands edit Biodiversity among terrestrial flora and fauna is low on the islands studies have theorized that the harsh climate was a major contributor towards species richness but multiple correlations have been found with area temperature remoteness of islands and food chain stability For example herbivorous insects are poor in number due to low plant richness and likewise indigenous bird numbers are related to insects which are a major food source 11 nbsp Isla de los Estados Argentina nbsp Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Chile Conservation edit nbsp The Antarctic Unit at the port in Ushuaia Argentina nbsp Moubray Bay and Mount Herschel in Eastern AntarcticaThe Antarctic hosts the world s largest protected area comprising 1 07 million km2 the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protection Area created in 2012 12 The latter exceeds the surface area of another vast protected territory the Greenland National Park s 972 000 km2 375 000 sq mi 13 While the Ross Sea Marine Protection Area established in 2016 is still larger at 1 55 million km2 its protection is set to expire in 35 years 14 15 To protect the area all Antarctic ships over 500 tonnes are subject to mandatory regulations under the Polar Code adopted by the International Maritime Organization in force since 1 January 2017 16 17 Society edit nbsp The Amundsen Scott South Pole Station the geographic South Pole with its signpost in the background nbsp Ushuaia in Argentina is the most active gateway to Antarctica People edit The first recorded sighting of Antarctica is credited to the Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla who reported seeing distant southern snow capped mountains in 1603 The first Antarctic land discovered was the island of South Georgia visited by the English merchant Anthony de la Roche in 1675 Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis Southern Land date back to antiquity the first confirmed sighting of the continent of Antarctica is commonly accepted to have occurred in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny The Australian James Kerguelen Robinson 1859 1914 was the first human born in the Antarctic on board the sealing ship Offley in the Gulf of Morbihan Royal Sound then Kerguelen Island on 11 March 1859 18 19 The first human born and raised on an Antarctic island was Solveig Gunbjorg Jacobsen born on 8 October 1913 in Grytviken South Georgia 20 nbsp South Georgia Museum GrytvikenEmilio Marcos Palma born 7 January 1978 is an Argentine man who was the first documented person born on the continent of Antarctica at the Esperanza Base 21 His father Captain Jorge Palma was head of the Argentine Army detachment at the base While ten people have been born in Antarctica since Palma s birthplace remains the southernmost In late 1977 Silvia Morella de Palma who was then seven months pregnant was airlifted to Esperanza Base in order to complete her pregnancy in the base The airlift was a part of the Argentine solutions to the sovereignty dispute over territory in Antarctica Emilio was automatically granted Argentine citizenship by the government since his parents were both Argentine citizens and he was born in the claimed Argentine Antarctica Palma can be considered to be the first native Antarctican The Antarctic region had no indigenous population when first discovered and its present inhabitants comprise a few thousand transient scientific and other personnel working on tours of duty at the several dozen research stations maintained by various countries However the region is visited by more than 40 000 22 tourists annually the most popular destinations being the Antarctic Peninsula area especially the South Shetland Islands and South Georgia Island In December 2009 the growth of tourism with consequences for both the ecology and the safety of the travellers in its great and remote wilderness was noted at a conference in New Zealand by experts from signatories to the Antarctic Treaty The definitive results of the conference were presented at the Antarctic Treaty states meeting in Uruguay in May 2010 23 Time zones edit Main article Time in Antarctica Because Antarctica surrounds the South Pole it is theoretically located in all time zones For practical purposes time zones are usually based on territorial claims or the time zone of a station s owner country or supply base 24 List of offshore islands edit nbsp A Norwegian cruise ship at Petermann Island with Kyiv Peninsula of Graham Land in the background North of 60 S latitude edit nbsp Bouvet Island Norway nbsp Heard Island and McDonald Islands Australia Heard Island McDonald Islands nbsp Kerguelen Islands France nbsp South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands United Kingdom South Georgia Islands Shag Rocks South Georgia South Sandwich Islands South of 60 S latitude edit nbsp Balleny Islands Antarctic Treaty System nbsp Peter I Island Antarctic Treaty System nbsp Scott Island Antarctic Treaty System nbsp South Orkney Islands Antarctic Treaty System nbsp South Shetland Islands Antarctic Treaty System See also editAntarctic Circle Antarctic ice sheet History of AntarcticaNotes edit The word was originally pronounced without the first k but the spelling pronunciation has become common and is often considered more correct The pronunciation without the first k sound and the first t sound is however widespread and a typical phenomenon of English in many other similar words too 1 The c was added to the spelling for etymological reasons and then began to be pronounced but as with other spelling pronunciations at first only by less educated people 2 3 References edit American Heritage Dictionary Archived 2015 12 08 at the Wayback Machine Crystal David 2006 The Fight for English Oxford University Press p 172 ISBN 978 0 19 920764 0 Harper Douglas Antarctic Online Etymology Dictionary Archived from the original on 11 January 2012 Retrieved 16 November 2011 Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research website SCAR Archived from the original on 14 December 2013 The Antarctic Treaty NSF National Science Foundation www nsf gov Retrieved 7 October 2020 Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources Department of Agriculture www agriculture gov au Retrieved 7 October 2020 Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources Archived 2010 05 05 at the Wayback Machine Polar Wildlife British Antarctic Survey Natural Environment Research Council Archived from the original on 1 August 2023 Vanessa Woods 14 October 2011 Antarctic wildlife Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Archived from the original on 14 December 2013 Retrieved 20 November 2012 Plants British Antarctic Survey Natural Environment Research Council Archived from the original on 26 September 2023 Chown Gremmen Gaston 1998 Ecological Biogeography of Southern Ocean Islands Species Area Relationships Human Impacts and Conservation The American Naturalist 152 4 562 75 doi 10 2307 2463357 ISSN 0003 0147 JSTOR 2463357 PMID 18811364 SGSSI Marine Protection Area Management Plan PDF Archived from the original PDF on 29 October 2016 Greenland in figures 2009 Statistics Greenland 2009 Archived from the original on 28 April 2010 CCAMLR to create world s largest Marine Protected Area CCAMLR Website Slezak Michael 26 October 2016 World s largest marine park created in Ross Sea in Antarctica in landmark deal The Guardian Archived from the original on 28 October 2016 Retrieved 28 October 2016 Shipping in polar waters IMO Retrieved 2 August 2021 The Polar Code One Year On The Maritime Executive Retrieved 2 August 2021 Robinson James 1906 Appendix B Log of the Offley In Cerchi D ed Reminiscences Report Hobart Tasmania AU Archives Office of Tasmania pp 98 99 Archived from the original on 6 February 2012 L Ivanov and N Ivanova The World of Antarctica Generis Publishing 2022 241 pp ISBN 979 8 88676 403 1 2014 Bulgarian edition of the book Headland Robert 1984 The Island of South Georgia Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521424745 Emilio Palma argentino y Adan de la Antartida Informacion General IAATO tourist statistics 2007 08 PDF Antarctic Nations Considering New Controls On Ships Amid Tourism Explosion Archived 2012 01 18 at the Wayback Machine Ray Lilley The Associated Press 8 December 2009 Society National Geographic 14 August 2012 South Pole National Geographic Society Retrieved 9 April 2022 Further reading editMain article Bibliography of Antarctica Krupnik Igor Michael A Lang Scott E Miller eds Smithsonian at the Poles Contributions to International Polar Year Science Washington D C Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press 2009 External links editBritish Services Antarctic Expedition 2012 Committee for Environmental Protection of Antarctica Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty CCAMLR Commission Antarctic Heritage Trusts International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators Map of the Antarctic Convergence The South Atlantic and Subantarctic Islands Ushuaia is the most popular gateway to Antarctica Portal nbsp Geography 90 00 S 00 00 W 90 000 S 0 000 E 90 000 0 000 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Antarctic amp oldid 1194312181, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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