On the ship’s navigation table, two nautical charts are laid out. They both show we are passing through waters that haven’t been surveyed. Our captain maintains a safe course using depth soundings. He’s been to the Antarctic many times before, yet has never sailed this particular channel. Oncoming dusk makes it harder to see, then [...]

Continue reading " Heading To The South Pole "

Now that she?s seen Antarctica, this ninety-one year old traveler has seen almost every corner of the earth. She saw Antarctica in person, not on television or in a magazine. This was her first sighting of Antarctica, though she?d been to its continent two times prior. She flew over Antarctica, though she never did land. [...]

Continue reading " Viewing Antarctica From The Air "

The southernmost animal that has ever been known to live is the tiny pink mite native to Antarctica/It eats algae and fungi and resembles a spider. An entomologist from a Hawaiian Museum recently discovered the pink mite a mere 309 miles from the South Pole. Amazingly, this same scientist found lichens only 266 miles from [...]

Continue reading " Antarctic Waters Swimming With Life "

The mountains, seas filled with blue whales, emperor penguins and leopard seals of Antarctica are all protected to preserve wildlife with an international agreement.This accord took effect in 1998, and prohibits mining and oil drilling for at least fifty years anywhere within the boundaries of the world’s most frigid and pristine ecosystem. The protection focuses [...]

Continue reading " How Antarctica Is Protected "

Antarctica is a land of immense beauty that is only topped by it harsh living.Every other continent has spilled the blood of man through war.However, this continent, with a land mass larger than America and Europe together, has been the scene of more violent deaths than natural ones, due to continuous low temperatures which keep [...]

Continue reading " The Frozen South: Antarctica "

It was just over a hundred years ago that a whaling ship named Antarctic anchored itself and then launched a longboat toward a wind-swept shore through the dangerous waters of the Ross Sea.The party with their Captain, Leonard Kristensen, leading them landed and left the very first set of human footprints on the shores of [...]

Continue reading " Will Exploration Of Antarctica Soon Be Ending? "