Table of Contents
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ARCTIC AND
ANTARCTIC
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ARCTIC &
ANTARCTICA
WHY IS THE ARCTIC NOT CONSIDERED A
CONTINENT LIKE ANTARCTICA?
•Continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally
separated by expanses of water – Antarctica is therefore a continent.
•’Arctica’ is not considered a continent because there is no mass of continental crust at the north pole
ANTARCTICA’S HIGHEST PEAK
Mount Vinson is the highest peak in Antarctica, at 4,892 metres (16,050 ft).
CONTINENT FOR SCIENCE
•India in Antarctica
• Dakshin Gangotri
• Dakshin Gangotri was the first Indian scientific research base
station established in Antarctica, as a part of the Indian
Antarctic Program
INDIA IN ANTARCTICA
• Maitri – Maitri is India’s second permanent research station in Antarctica. It was built and finished in 1989. Maitri is situated on the rocky mountainous region called Schirmacher Oasis.
India also built a freshwater lake around Maitri known as Lake Priyadarshini.
INDIA IN ANTARCTICA
• Bharati (research station)
• The research station has been operational since 18 March 2012, though it is still being run on trial basis and formal launch is awaited
INDIA IN ANTARCTICA
•ORV Sagar Nidhi
• Sagar Nidhi is an ice-strengthened multidisciplinary vessel operated by the National Institute of Ocean Technology, India. It was constructed at Fincantieri, Italy.
• Sagar Nidhi will be utilized for deep sea mining, launching of ROV’s, AUV’s, manned/unmanned submersibles and exploration of gas hydrates.
LAMBERT GLACIER
•Lambert Glacier is a major glacier in East Antarctica. At about 60 miles (100 km) wide, over
250 miles (400 km) long, and about 2,500 m deep, it holds the Guinness world record for the
world’s largest.
DANGER
•Antarctica’s Ice Is Melting Dangerously Fast, India Will Drown By 2 Metre Rise In Water By 2100
•According to the scientific journal, Nature, a team of 84 researchers from 42 global organizations presented their findings of study on Antarctica’s
ice melt between 2012 and 2017.
•The report claims that just in the last five years, Antarctica’s ice sheet has shrunk and it has lost
219 billion tons of ice every single year from 2012 to 2017, which amounts to triple the rate of ice melt before 2012.
NOTES
•Why should we care about Antarctica’s accelerated rate of melting ice?
•Because Antarctica has enough ice to raise global sea levels by 58 meters or 190 ft, a scenario that will drown entire cities and wipe off coastal population belts from around the world
WEST ANTARCTICA
Two of these glaciers — Pine Island and Thwaites— have accelerated and are today seen as unstable.
Together, they act as corks holding back ice mass further inland from falling into the ocean.
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