- Antarctica was first explored in December 1911
- humans have impacted the environment mainly from
- mineral exploration
- commercial fishing and hunting
- scientific bases
- tourism

Ice caps melting

  As the temperature rises the ice is starting to melt. We have already seen a huge loss of sea ice over the past decade and this has created warmer waters and a sea rise. Humans are the ones destroying the  rainforests and burning fossil fuels and in turn this has already created enough Co2 to start melting the ice in arctic regions. The Arctic helps regulate the global climate system and influences weather patterns across much of the northern hemisphere (Oceansnorth,2013). Extensive ice-covered areas reflect large amounts of solar energy back into space, helping to cool the planet(Oceansnorth,2013). Permafrost Is a Boggy area of ice Where remains of plants and animals have decomposed releasing methane. The methane is trapped in the ice but as temperature rises this methane is released into the atmosphere. 

The man made gasses being released into the atmosphere is making the earth warmer. This is causing the ice to melt causing animals to lose habitat and natural cycles to stop occurring. without the ice caps there is nothing to reflect the sun away from earth and this causes the atmosphere to become even warmer. it is  a downward spiral 

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Location: high altitudes (50+)   - mountainous areas

North/ south pole

Climate: - almost constant winter

• long days (18+ hrs)
• Subarctic arctic ice cap

Vegetation

• Generally stunted hardy bushes

• Able to withstand cold and lack of water tundra vegetation in Greenland

• Conifers in northern atmospheres

Soils

• Poor quality lack of organic content due to glasification

   -  shallow roots suited this soil

Topography

•  higher altitudes in northern hemisphere

• Flat due to bulldozer effect of gasification (ice sheet

• Antarctica is mountainous in places
• Deep snow drifts are common

Location: high altitudes (50+)   - mountainous areas

North/ south pole

Climate: - almost constant winter

• long days (18+ hrs)
• Subarctic arctic ice cap

Vegetation

• Generally stunted hardy bushes

• Able to withstand cold and lack of water tundra vegetation in Greenland

• Conifers in northern atmospheres

Soils

• Poor quality lack of organic content due to glasification

   -  shallow roots suited this soil

Topography

•  higher altitudes in northern hemisphere

• Flat due to bulldozer effect of gasification (ice sheet

• Antarctica is mountainous in places
• Deep snow drifts are common

Polar regions

The arctic and Antarctic are known to be the coldest and darkest places on this earth.  The Antarctic is a land mass surrounded by ocean wearers  the arctic is a group of different country's.

They are located in the north and south poles and are associated with high latitudes. The polar regions are harsh and desolate but support an important ecosystem. In these regions the sun is less direct and the energy is spread over a larger area, this is the main reason why they are cold. Another reason is because these regions are usually covered with snow and ice that reflect sunlight causing not heat to be absorbed into the earth.

The environment of these regions have changed dramatically over the last 50 years due to human activity in these places.  The growth of: commercial fishing an hunting , mineral exploration, scientific bases and tourism. Human activity is in increasing earths temperature causing ice to melt making it even more hot.

Cold climate- During the last great Ice Age, about 18,000 years ago, the Earth’s climate was radically different from that of today. The difference was larger even than is sometimes projected for future climate states under doubled CO2. Studies of bubbles in polar ice cores have shown that Ice Age atmospheric CO2 was much lower than recent pre-industrial levels, which supports a link between CO2 and climate.

Antarctica

About this blog

what up? my names chelsea and i have made this blog because i had to. It is about Antarctica and geography. YO HOMIE OUT PEACE AND POUT