International Antarctic Center - 21.9

In the morning I just looked around in Christchurch, covered most of the city within 2 hours :) Before heading to the airport I stopped at the International Antarctic Center located right next to the airport. It has been suggest by all the sources and now I see why - because it was absolutely awesome! I read all the information leaflets and writings on the walls, it was so interesting. I watched all the movies shown, most of them even twice, just so that I could grasp all of it :)

At the Antarctic center I got to ride Hagglund - vehicle that is used to get around in Antarctica, it can go up and down on steep angles (also sideways), it can go over quite big cracks, if it falls through ice it can move in water for about 2 hours. Got to experience an arctic storm with winds up to 40km/h and see feeding of Little Blue penguins. Additionally I read up on the climate, ice forming, plants, animals, base stations, research, communication and much much more connected to this least known and coldest continent on earth.

Now you are gonna get whole lotta facts about Antarctica :)

Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand once formed a giant southern continent called Gondwana. Over the last 200 million years Gondwana broke up and the continents moved to where they are today.

Antarctica is the driest and coldest continent on earth. The coldest temperature on earth -89.2C was recorded in Antarctica - so cold that if you went outside in everyday clothes you would die in less than a minute.

The highest wind speed recorded in Antarctica peaked at over 320km/h, blowing as hard as a violent tornado or cyclone. At these wind speeds all unsecured buildings, machinery and people are simply blown away.

Antarctica is almost entirely covered with a sheet of ice. The ice has been built up slowly over tens of thousands of years from snow falling on Antarctica. The ice covers 14 million square kilometers with an average depth of 2.3 km and contains 90% of the world's fresh water. Much of Antarctica's ice eventually grinds its way through the mountains and rocks, flowing downhill much the same way as liquid water, until it eventually reaches the sea. These rivers of ice are called glaciers. When it slides into the sea it forms giant floating glaciers called ice shelves, such as the Ross Ice Shelf.

Ice sheet is a broad, thick sheet of ice covering an extensive area of LAND for a long period of time. Ice sheets are also referred to as continental glaciers. Ice shelf is ice that is attached to land but projects out and floats in the SEA. Ice shelves form where ice sheet reaches sea level and extends across the water. Sea ice is formed from ocean water that freezes. Because oceans consist of saltwater it occurs at about -1.8C

Antarctic fish's body temperature is the same as the water, minus 1.9C. Normally blood freezes at minus 1.1C, but antarctic fish have an antifreeze chemical called glycoprotein in their blood and their kidneys are adapted to conserve the antifreeze.

Lights in the sky, or aurora, are called Aurora Borealis in the Arctic and Aurora Australis in the Antarctic. I never knew there is a difference :)

The Antarctic Treaty is a unique legal agreement that ensures the use of Antarctica for peaceful and scientific purposes through international cooperation. It bans all military activities and promotes the freedom of scientific research on the continent. Treaty was first signed by 12 nations in 1959 and it has been ratified by over 40 nations since then. Estonia signed the treaty in 2001 :)

Many many countries have bases in Antarctica, few are year round ones and the rest are operated only during summer time. Almost all activity in Antarctica relates to science. There are over sixty research stations operated by scientists from twenty-four nations.

Winter means 6 months of darkness and summer 6 months of daylight. Scientists wintering over survive months without sunlight. They must be psychologically and medically fit to cope. In Antarctica body hair grows twice as fast, the body lays down more fat and during winter skin loses pigmentation.