Antarctica is the driest and coldest place on Earth and the only place where there is an International Treaty that prohibits any military activity and imposes restrictions on resource extraction. This is done to preserve the nature of Antarctica and scientific research in this region. In addition, Antarctica is a land of phenomena not found anywhere else in the world. Here are the top 7 of them:
No. 1 – Pine Island or Doomsday Glacier
This is the most dangerous phenomenon on the planet, because it melts faster than any other. Every year, giant icebergs break off from it. In February 2022, a chunk of ice the size of Odessa crashed into the ocean. NASA experts on satellite photos recorded deep cracks, which covered the glacier. If Pine Island completely melts, the water level in the ocean will rise by a meter, which means the flooding of cities on the coasts of all continents.
2nd place – dinosaur fossils
Antarctica has well-preserved remains of lizards that lived on our planet hundreds of millions of years ago, when the entire landmass was united into one super-continent. Scientists have found tons of bones on the icy continent, including completely unknown species such as Cryolophosaurus (Cryolophosaurus).
3rd place – Lake Vostok
One of the most important geographical discoveries of the 21st century. A body of water, the size of Lake Baikal, was found under a 4-kilometer layer of ice near the Vostok polar station. The lake had been cut off from the world for at least half a million years. Without oxygen, under conditions of ultra-high pressure, evolution there took a completely different path. That’s why scientists have been drilling their way to the prehistoric water for forty years.
4th place – Taylor Glacier’s bloody waterfall.
Humanity learned about it less than a hundred years ago. From afar, the wide stream really looks like a bloody wound or a rock. Its mystery is that deep under the glacier there is an isolated salt lake with iron deposits, oxides of which colored the water. Moreover – in the water found a lot of living microorganisms. Scientists suggest that such underground lakes are inhabited by bacteria, may exist on other planets and even on their large satellites.
5th place – whiteout
This phenomenon in Antarctica is very dangerous – it is an illusion when on a bright cloudless day the horizon line disappears and it is impossible to distinguish ice from the sky. A person completely loses orientation. This anomaly in 1979 cost the lives of 250 passengers and crew members of an Air New Zealand airplane. During a sightseeing flight, the pilot lost orientation and crashed into a volcano.
6th place – Martian valleys on Earth
They are located near the American McMurdo station. The winds here blow at a speed of 320 km/h, the temperature never rises above 0, and there has been no precipitation for at least 8 million years. Here NASA scientists test rovers, because the weather in the valleys is the closest to the natural conditions of Mars. But for humans, working here is a life-and-death ordeal.
7th place – the icy finger of death or Brynickle.
One of the most mysterious phenomena on the planet, which scientists learned about only in 2011. The ice stalactite sinks to the ice bottom, destroying all life on its way. According to scientists, this is how a jet of very cold and salty water that descends from the ice on the surface freezes. Fortunately, its speed does not exceed 30 cm/hour, so it threatens only sea urchins and stars.