POLAR REGIONS

Introduction

O nly a few thousand scientists and helpers work in Antarctica each year. They live in comfortable buildings like the Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole. Here the ice is 1.8 miles (3,000 m) thick. Scientists have drilled into it to discover Antarctica’s history. They found that 250 million years ago it was ice free. Then, dinosaurs roamed where now there is only ice.

C ooking equipment for Antarctica

T he Antarctic ice cap creeps slowly into the sea. Great pieces break off and drift away as tabular icebergs. The largest can be 60 miles (100 km) long.

No Home for People The Southern Ocean is so wide that ancient people never reached Antarctica. If they had they would have found a land so cold that they could not have stayed. Many early explorers looking for Antarctica were lost among the ice and waves. Eventually the continent was found. Only in the last hundred years have explorers found a way of living through the winter in Antarctica. Even now nobody lives their whole life there. Only scientists and their helpers stay in Antarctica, and they only come for a year or two at the most.

A ntarctic exploration is a cold business. Thick, warm clothing must be worn.

Even then your breath freezes to your face. The bright sunlight

can damage your eyes. Any metal you touch will freeze to your skin. In winter the weather is even worse and nobody travels.

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