	ZEGRAHM & ECO EXPEDITIONS — Giving You The World 1-800-628-8747 or 206-285-4000

>Home >Travel Destinations >Library Articles >Antarctica, Some Ice Cold Facts

Z-Mail

Antarctica, Some Ice Cold Facts

Zegrahm Expeditions, April 1992

Antarctica is a vast and vital continent, a land of superlatives where:

70% of the world's fresh water in the form of ice is found the coldest temperature on earth was recorded: -128.6 degrees F. the strongest winds in the world blast through at 200 MPH only 1.2 inches of precipitation falls at the South Pole each year, making Antarctica the world's largest desert.

Antarctica is like no other place on earth. With an average height of 6000 feet, it has the highest average elevation of any continent, the lofty peaks spilling forth dazzling glaciers. The glaciers, in turn, gave birth to about 100,000 icebergs each year -- the most spectacular ice show in the world! The wildlife is brashly unafraid: there is nothing as humbling and unbelievable as standing amongst an Adelie penguin rookery numbering 1 million pairs! Along with their congeners, they jockey for position to breed on what little available real estate there is. Only 2% of the landmass of Antarctica is ice-free.

Antarctica is the most pristine part of our planet, much of that attributable to global isolation and the hostility of climatic extremes. The early visitors to Antarctica were explorers, followed by whalers and sealers alerted to the fact that the Southern Oceans teemed with huge populations of marine mammals. Whalers and sealers were followed by scientists and more explorers; some searching for answers to satisfy man's thirst for knowledge; others seeking the limits of a human's capacity for survival.

Today, scientists and their support personnel are outnumbered by another visitor to the Antarctic -- the tourist -- a trend which looks likely to continue. There are environmental organizations that want to ban tourism in Antarctica entirely. More moderate suggestions would regulate tourist visits. There is one main point, however, which the Antarctic Treaty members need to remember as they decide how to regulate tourists, and that is that we are all visitors in Antarctica. Scientists, film makers, small private yachts, Argentine and Chilean families raising children in Antarctica -- all have an impact on the continent.

Zegrahm Expeditions supports regulation for visitors of all kinds to Antarctica and works with environmental organizations and government entities on these issues. At the same time, we believe that tourists to Antarctica play an important role. By observing what is going on at the end of the world, visitors return home more informed, often writing to politicians about their own observations and environmental concerns. Antarctica needs advocates. Properly regulated tourism can only benefit the wildlife, as can responsible scientific research. It is our responsibility as visitors to Antarctica to protect it.