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Home , Davis Station, Edmund Hillary, Enderby Land, Vivian Fuchs

Ebook Code: REUK5045 Amazing by Jane Bourke

© Skip Novak, Pelagic Expeditions.

Library Activity Package: Amazing Antarctica Upper Primary Resource Book

© 2004 Ready-Ed Publications, Revised © 2010

ISBN: 9781863975841

Author: Jane Bourke Design & Typesetting: Shay Howard

Acknowledgements: Clip art has been obtained from Microsoft Design Gallery Live and is used under the terms of the End User License Agreement for Microsoft Word 2000. Please refer to www.microsoft .com/permission. Additional images courtesy of IMSI’s Masterclips/MasterPhotos collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd, East San Rafael, CA 94901-5506 USA, website: www.imsisoft .com and Corel Corporation, 1600 Carling Ave, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Z 8R7. Photos from individuals and other sources are credited where applicable. Cover images sourced for Amazing Antarctica resource book and activity book: i. Emperor penguin image courtesy of Patrick Boss ©. ii. Antarctica scenery image courtesy of Skip Novak, Pelagic Expeditions ©. iii. Th e Dome image courtesySample of Defenselink.com (Public Domain). Published by: Ready-Ed Publications PO Box 276 Greenwood WA 6023 www.readyed.co.uk [email protected] Sample

REPRODUCTION AND COMMUNICATION FOR OTHER PURPOSES Except as permitted under the Act (for example a fair dealing forSample the purposes of study, research, criticism or review) no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

2 Contents

The Cold Hard Facts of Antarctica ...... 4 Map of Antarctica ...... 5 ...... 6 Exploration of Antarctica ...... 7 An Antarctic Hero ...... 8 The Race to the ...... 9 The Antarctic Treaty ...... 10 Research Stations 1 ...... 11 Research Stations 2 ...... 12 ’s Antarctic Stations ...... 13 ...... 14 Living andSample Working in Antarctica 1 ...... 15 Living and Working in Antarctica 2 ...... 16 Human Adaptation ...... 17 Natural Resources ...... 18 Sample...... 19 Tragedy at ...... 20 Animals of Antarctica ...... 21 Whales and Seals ...... Sample 22-24 Playful Penguins ...... 25-27 Antarctic Land Resources ...... 28 Useful Antarctic Websites ...... 29 References for Teachers ...... 30 Index ...... 31

3 Library Activity Package: Antarctica The Cold Hard Facts of Antarctica

♦Temperatures in Antarctica rarely rise above 0 degrees Celsius. ♦ Ice and snow covers 98% of the Antarctic The lowest EVER continent. recorded temperature ♦ A thick layer of ice and snow buries most of the Antarctic continent. This is known in the world was as the icecap. This layer averages a in the Antarctic thickness of about 2,200 metres. That's over two kilometres! continent at ♦ The ice is four kilometres thick at the station on South Pole. July 21, 1983. ♦ The icecap makes upSample approximately 70% of the Earth's fresh water. It was -89.2 degrees ♦ The icecap covers 13.72 million square kilometres and contains 90% of the Celsius on that day. world’s ice. Sample ♦ If this icecap melted, the ocean levels would rise and all coastal cities around the world would be flooded. ♦ Some types of algae are able to grow Sample on snow, making the snow appear pink or green.

♦ Antarctica covers 14 million square kilometres of the Earth's surface.

♦ The average elevation of Antarctica is 2,300 metres above sea level.

♦ Winter in Antarctica involves six weeks of complete darkness.

♦ Summer in Antarctica consists of 24 hours of continuous daylight.

♦ Over 7,000 tourists have visited Antarctica since 1990. © Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

4 Library Activity Package: Antarctica Map of Antarctica

Antarctica Region

An tarc Sea tic Cir cle

Southern Ocean

+ JOINVILLE Neumayer ISLAND Station (Germany) ANTARCTIC Enderby Land PENINSULA + (Australia)

South Davis Station+ Pole EAST (Australia) Sample + ANTARCTICA WEST Shackleton ANTARCTICA Ice Shelf +(Russia) Ross Ice + SampleShelf McMurdo Station (Australia) Amundsen Sea + + (U.S.) Scott Base KING (N.Z.) GEORGE Adelie ISLAND Land + Sample+Dumont d’Urville Station ()

Southern Ocean O MACQUARIE ISLAND (AUSTRALIA)

5 LibraryLibrary ActivityActivity Package: AntarcticaAntarctica Antarctic Discovery What’s in a Name? rest of the world. However in his notes he Around 350 B.C., Ancient Greek made plenty of reference to the whales and philosophers talked about an Antarctic seals that he saw on his journey, sparking land long before it was officially discovered. interest from commercial whalers and sealers They assumed that there was a southern from Europe and America who were keen to landmass that balanced the northern venture to the region. landmass at the . The northern The First to site Antarctica landmass was called the , after the Opinions differ as to who first laid eyes on the Greek work for bear, Arktos. From the land of Antarctica. Common stories centre Arctic, the bear constellation was visible in on the year 1820 when three men made the night sky, just as the Southern Cross is separate voyages to the region. visible in the southern skies. So Antarctic means “opposite the bear”. The people D January 26 - Captain Fabian von Bellinghausen of who gave Antarctica its name never set the Russian Imperial Navy, reported that he reached a point 32 kilometres from the . foot on Antarctica and didn’t even have He was the first man to cross the any proof that it even existed! since Captain Cook. Several hundred years later around 100 D January 30 - Captain and officer of the British Navy, voyaged south A.D., Ptolemy, a Greek geographer, named of the South Shetland Islands and sighted the Antarctica; Terra Australis Incognita, Antarctic Peninsula. meaning “unknown southern land”. D November - American Sealer, Nathaniel Brown Palmer, Although it was believed that this region reported that he saw land on a sealing mission in the was a fertile area, northern explorers feared area. that there was a hot regionSample surrounding The First to set Foot on Antarctica the equator that blocked the way south, Again, no one is really sure. Some people so no plans were made to venture to the believe that an American sealer, Captain Antarctic area. walked on Antarctica’s shores at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula in 1821. Discovery SampleApparently, Davis wasn’t sure if he had In 1772, Captain set off from reached an island or the actual continent. England in search of a southern continent. Also in 1821, it is thought that an officer and Under the instructions of the British Navy, ten men under the leadership of Lord Melville he hoped to travel as far south as possible. were forced to spend the entire winter on King In January 1774, Cook reached huge ice GeorgeSample Island after their ship was carried blocks that stopped him from travelling away in a storm. The men were rescued any further south. At this time, he was yet the following to sight any land, summer. Ten however, shortly years later, an after, he went English whaler, on to discover , Australia and became the . first man to Cook was not spot land in overly impressed , with the Antarctic naming it conditions and Enderby Land decided that after the whaling any land in that company for region was “of no which he worked. benefit” to the M © Patrick Boss, Australian Antarctic Division. 6 Library Activity Package: Antarctica Exploration of Antarctica The discovery of Antarctica led to much interest by scientists and governments around the world. Many countries wanted to claim a piece of Antarctica. DATE COUNTRY DETAILS The King of France sent Lieutenant Jules Dumont D’Urville to claim 1837 France southern lands for France. This led to the discovery of Joinville Island off the Antarctic Peninsula. D’Urville named icy cliffs on the East Antarctic coastline after his wife, 1840 France Adelie. He even named a species of penguins after her. Lieutenant headed a large expedition to perform scientific research. He covered over 2,400 kilometres from Adelie Coast to 1840 United States Enderby Land, proving that Antarctica was a vast continent and not merely an island. became the first person to explore beyond the pack ice surrounding Antarctica. He discovered the gulf that is now the Ross 1839- Sea and also discovered an island containing two volcanoes. He named Great Britain 1843 these volcanoes Erebus and Terror after his ships. The Ross Ice Shelf, which Ross actually called the Victoria Barrier, was also named after this explorer. The first recorded landing on the Antarctic mainland occurred when 1895 businessman, Henryk Johan Bull went ashore at Cape Adare, which Samplefaces New Zealand. of the British Navy reached the Ross Sea with an 1901- Great Britain expedition of scientists and explorers. Scott ventured inland across the 1904 Ross Ice Shelf. This was the first of many inland explorations. , who had been part of Scott’s original team, was de- termined to find the . He succeeded in his in 1907- Sample Great Britain January 1909. Until then, many had thought the pole was beneath a fro- 1909 zen sea. Shackleton’s team were able to confirm it was on land, however, they failed to reach it. The race to the South Pole was on between Norwegian explorer Roald Great Britain/ 1911 Amundsen and Robert Scott. Amundsen reached it first by less than a Norway Sample month. Sir made the first aeroplane voyage over the Antarctic 1928 Australia Peninsula. Richard Byrd of the United States Navy flew the first plane over the South 1929 United States Pole on a journey that lasted less than 16 hours. Sir , a British geologist, led the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. This expedition, which started on November 24 and 1957-58 Great Britain was organised by the , covered a distance of 3,473 kilometres. On January 18, Sir Vivian Fuchs reached the South Pole and was greeted by New Zealander , Sir . Hillary, famous for being one of 1958 New Zealand the first two men to climb in 1953, had journeyed south from Ross Island to meet Fuch’s group. The two expedition groups then travelled north and arrived safely at Scott Base on March 2.

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