Adrien de Gerlache

We just learned about the Antarctic Territories.

The first human to ever try to make it to the South Pole in Antarctica was Adrien de Gerlache.

In 1897 AD, a sailor from the country of Belgium named Adrien de Gerlache got 18 people together to try and make it to the south pole.
One of the sailors on the ship was Roald Amundsen from Norway, and another was Frederick Cook from America.

Their ship called the Belgica got down to the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, and then the water turned to ice and their ship got stuck.

They were stuck there for a whole year, trying to survive in the cold by hunting penguins and seals.

From May through July, they had to live in total darkness because of the long winter!

A few people died and some others went insane, but people got really sad when their cat Nansen died, and they buried him in Antarctica.

In March of 1899 they finally got loose from the ice and sailed back home.
They didn't make it to the south pole, but they could tell everyone what it was like to live for a year in Antarctica.



(from: wikipedia - adrien de gerlache)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cairo Citadel

Antarctic Territories

We just learned about the Marie Byrd Land.

Another part of Antarctica is the Antarctic Territories.

Whenever there is land to be discovered, someone always wants to plant their flag on it and call it their own.

Antarctica has 11 different territories that are claimed by different countries, like France, Argentinia, Australia, Britain, Chile, Norway, New Zealand, Brazil and Uruguay.

Most of the territories start at the south pole and go out like a triangle shape toward the edge of the water.
Australia has the biggest one called the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) that covers over 5 million square kilometers.

The only place that is not claimed is Marie Byrd Land.
Even though the land is claimed by a country, there might only be 200 or so people living in the whole area all year long.


(from: wikipedia - australian antarctic territory)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Castillo de Colomares

Marie Byrd Land

We just learned about the Ross Sea.

Another part of Antarctica is Marie Byrd Land.

This is part of West Antarctica, and it is about 620,000 square miles.

A lot of parts of Antarctica have research stations or areas where countries of the world have said they own, but this part of Antarctica is not owned by anyone.

Because of this it is the biggest piece of land in the whole world that is not owned by anyone.

There have been some camps set up out in the middle of this land area to try and study it, and usually to try and drill very far down into the ice to see what it is like far below the surface.



(from: wikipedia - marie byrd land)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Chillon Castle

Ross Sea

We just learned about the Weddel Sea.

Another part of Antarctica is the Ross Sea.

This sea is on the other side of Antarctica from the Weddel sea, and it is about 246,000 square miles.
Because it is further away from other land, many scientists see this place as the last place on earth that has not been hurt by pollution.

There are many scientists who go to the Ross sea to try and study the animals and ice there, without making any changes to the Ross Sea just so we can study what the earth was like a long time ago.

A lot of animals live in this area too, like penguins, whales and seals.
Because this place has not really been touched by humans, there are a lot of people trying to keep it safe and make sure it does not get polluted or ruined.


(from: wikipedia - ross sea)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Kilkenny Castle

Weddel Sea

We just learned about the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.

Another part of Antarctica is the Weddel Sea.

This is the water just to the East of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Some scientists believe this to be the clearest sea water in the whole world, and people have been able to see things down in the water over 250 feet deep.

The sea is about 1,200 miles across, and some sailors have said that it was the most dangerous sea on earth.
As people have taken their boats into this sea, sometimes the ice will flash freeze, and then melt again, and sometimes the ice will crush or tip over ships.

There are many animals who live in this sea, like the Weddell seal, killer whales, humpback whales, minke whales, leopard seals and crabeater seals.

There are also some penguins that live on the land in this area and swim in the sea.



(from: wikipedia - weddel sea)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Conwy Castle

Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf

We just learned about the Ross Ice Shelf.

Another part of Antarctica is the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.

This shelf is about 430,000 square kilometers, which is bigger than the state of California.
It is about 600 meters deep, and below the shelf the water goes down another 1,400 meters.

In 1998 an iceberg named A38 split off from the ice shelf that was over 22,000 square kilometers.



(from: wikipedia - filchner-ronne ice shelf)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Château de Chambord

Ross Ice Shelf

We just learned about the Larsen Ice Shelf.

Another ice shelf in Antarctica is the Ross Ice Shelf.

This is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica.
It is about 500 miles wide, and 600 miles long, almost as big as the country of France.

It sticks up above the water up to 160 feet high, but most of the shelf is actually underwater.
In some parts it os over 2,000 feet thick, which is about half a mile.

Just like the Larsen Ice Shelf, this shelf sometimes has icebergs break off.
In the year 2000, the largest iceberg ever measured in the world broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf.
It was called Iceberg B-15, and it was about 183 miles long and 23 miles wide, about the size of the island of Jamaica.



(from: wikipedia - ross ice shelf)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Royal Palace of Madrid

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

Half Tower

We just learned about the Caltrop spikes in the ground.

Another type of fortification is a Half Tower.

This is a tower in a castle that is open in the back or on the sides.
It is usually open to the inside of the castle so that people can get in and out easily, but still be protected from the outside.


(from: wikipedia - half tower)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mortizburg Castle

Caltrop

We just learned about the Czech Hedgehog.

Another type of castle fortification is a Caltrop.

These are kind of like the Czech Hedgehogs as they are spikey things on the ground, but they are a lot smaller.
Caltrops would be put out over where enemies would be marching, so that they had to walk slowly and carefully to try and not step on one of the spikes.


(from: wikipedia - caltrop)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Catherine Palace

Czech Hedgehog

We just learned about the Dragon's Teeth used to stop tanks.

Another type of fortification is a Czech Hedgehog.

These were iron bars that were welded together in criss cross patterns and then put out on the ground to stop tanks.
The tanks couldn't drive over them, and they were too heavy to push around.
They also could not be knocked over, because even if they were tipped over they would still make the same kind of X star shape that tanks couldn't drive over.

They were called Czech Hedgehogs because they are spikey like a hedgehog, and they were first used in Czechoslovakia to protect them from German tanks during World War II.


(from: wikipedia - czech hedgehog)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Predjama Castle

Dragon's Teeth

We just learned about the Witch Tower.

Another type of fortification is Dragon's Teeth.

Much later than the old times of swords and arrows, one of the most powerful weapons in war was the tank.

Tanks were pretty much just armored cannons on wheels, and could not be destroyed by soldiers or simple guns.
So people made other ways to stop them, like putting giant spikes into the ground that tanks could not drive over.


(from: wikipedia - dragon's teeth (fortification))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Bellver Castle

Witch Tower

We just learned about the Trou de Loup trap.

Another part of a castle is a Witch Tower.

This was a tower in a castle that was used as a prison.
In the old times if the people thought someone might be a witch they would keep them locked up in the tower, which is where it got its name.


(from: wikipedia - witch tower)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Palace of Versailles