Larsen Ice Shelf

We just learned about the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Another part of Antarctica is the Larsen Ice Shelf.

This is the shelf of ice that's on the Antarctic Peninsula.
An ice shelf is a big piece of ice that goes out from the land and has water underneath it.

The Larsen Ice Shelf used to be about 33,000 square miles, but because of global warming it has gotten 7,000 square miles smaller and is now 26,000 square miles.

The ice shelf is split up into parts A, B, C, D, E, F and G.

Shelf A melted away in 1995 and is gone. It was about 500 square miles, twice the size of the city of Chicago.

Shelf B is almost gone, and in 2002 over 1,250 square miles broke off and floated away. That is about the size of the state of Rhode Island. This ice shelf had not melted for over 10,000 years.

Shelf C is melting and breaking away also. It is 17,000 square miles. In 2017 a 2,200 square mile piece broke off and floated away. This iceberg was called A68, weighed more than a trillion tons, and was taller than a 70 story building.

Shelf D has not broken away so far and is about 8,000 square miles.




(from: wikipedia - larsen ice shelf)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Castillo de Coca

Antarctic Ice Sheet

We just learned about Mount Erebus.

Another part of Antarctica is the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Antarctica is almost totally covered with ice.
About 98 percent is ice, which is close to the whole thing!
The huge chunk of ice covering it all is called the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

It is over 5 million square miles total, and it weighs over 26 million gigatons, which is over 58 quintillion pounds! A quintillion is a number with 18 zeroes, so that's 58,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds of ice!

The oceans are all made of salt water, but the ice is made of fresh water.
Over half of the fresh water in the world is stored in this huge ice sheet.

In East Antarctica, the ice is sitting on top of some other land like rocks.
But on the west side, the ice goes way down below the water, over 8,000 feet!


(from: wikipedia - antarctic ice sheet)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sonora

Mount Erebus

We just learned about the Transantarctic Mountains.

Another part of Antarctica is Mount Erebus.

Antarctica is the coldest place on the earth, but it actually has volcanoes!
Mount Erebus is the second tallest volcano in Antarctica, and it is active.
That means that it spits out things like smoke or bits of rock from time to time.

This volcano has been active for over a million years, but it is still not hot enough to melt the south pole!


(from: wikipedia - mount erebus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Summer Palace

Transantarctic Mountains

We just learned about the Antarctic Peninsula.

Another part of Antarctica is the Transantarctic Mountains, sometimes just called TAM.

This mountain range goes from one end of Antarctica to the other, and splits it between the East and West sides.
It is about 3,500 kilometers long,
The high summits and low valleys of the TAM are some of the only places on the continent that are not totally covered up by ice.


(from: wikipedia - transantarctic mountains)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mysore Palace

Antarctic Peninsula

We just learned about the West Antarctica.

Another part of Antarctica is the Antarctic Peninsula.

This is the most northern part of Antarctica that sticks out toward South America.

Many countries have made scientific bases to study the continent on this peninsula, because it has the mildest climate in all of Antarctica.


(from: wikipedia - antarctic peninsula)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pena Palace

West Antarctica

We just learned about the East Antarctica.

The other part of Antarctica is called West Antarctica.

It is much smaller than East Antarctica, and is sometimes called "Lesser Antarctica".

West Antarctica has the warmest part of the continent, and actually even have parts that have no ice on them during the summer, which is in January for Antarctica.

This part of Antarctica has a long peninsula that goes north toward South America, and is the closest to any other continent to Antarctica.


(from: wikipedia - west antarctica)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Potala Palace

East Antarctica

We just started learning about Antarctica.

Antarctica is split up into two parts, Wast and East Antarctica.

The East part is the bigger part, and is sometimes just called Greater Antarctica.
It is closer to Africa and Australia, and the Indian Ocean.
The East and West parts of Antarctica are separated by a 2,000 mile long mountain range.


(from: wikipedia - west antarctica)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Forbidden City

Antarctica

We just learned about the Half Tower, and a whole lot of other types of castle Fortifications.

Let's learn about something else. The continent of Antarctica!

Even though we think of it as just a big chunk of frozen ice at the bottom of the earth, people have studied it and given names to all the parts of it from the east to the west.

There are even seas inside Antarctica, and hundreds of islands!

Some people even live down in Antarctica to study the ice and the climate.
There are some crazy animals down there too living on the land or even deep down in the cold sea.

We are trying to study it and learn more about it every year!


(from: wikipedia - geography of antarctica)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Westminster

Lake Vostok

We just learned about the lake Lake Balkhash.

Another lake is called Lake Vostok.

This is the largest lake on the continent of Antarctica, and it is actually 13,000 feet under the ice.

Scientists used lasers to find the lake, and then drilled down through the ice to try and get some water.
They want to test that water to see if it is different, because it has been trapped under the ice for a very long time.


(from: wikipedia - lake vostok)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Maryland

Antarctica

We just learned about the country of Australia.

The big frozen chunk of ice at the bottom of planet earth is called Antarctica.

(From: Wikipedia - antarctica)

It's another continent, just like North America and Australia.

Not many things can live in the frozen cold of Antarctica!
Living on the land are penguins and seals.


And living under the water are blue whales, orcas and colossal squid!