Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/16/2007 - 11:18
Forums
SIMBA Antarctic Sea Ice

what is it like foor the animals and you guys down there?

Thu, 10/18/2007 - 14:04

Sarah Anderson

Greetings to Liverpool from Antarctica!! What is it like...well, that's a pretty big question! It's really an amazing place; when you look out over the ice you see things on a very large scale - large pieces of ice, large banks of clouds, large expanses of water ahead, large icebergs in thearea, so I guess I'd say everything is "big" down here.But, if you look at things on a smaller scale and see how they change over time, you see a different picture. Small blocks of ice turned on end by the forces of wind, water, and ice. Blankets of snow covering ice up to 5 meters thick. Penguin and seal tracks in the snow that tell a story about the animals' activities. Water freezing in the leads that looks plastic, patterns in the snow cover from the actiion of wind...amazing stuff!
This area doesn't look any different than when it was first explored over one hundred years ago. I don't imagine it's looked any different for the last few thousand years, in fact. No signs of human intrusion except our presence.
A simple food chain based on algae living in and around the ice...who would have thought ice algae could support so much life, or that sunlight would penetrate through thick layers of ice to support the algae's photosynthesis.
In a few words, that's what it's like down here! I hope that you get the chance to take an adventure somewhere where new and unexpected things await...keep sending questions!
Mrs. Anderson