We can’t believe that it is already here–our last week of continents. The weeks have flown by, and so has our summer. Luckily we saved the coolest continent for last and the kids are excited to learn about life (what little there is) on Antarctica.
Antarctica is the coldest, driest (it’s actually considered a desert), and windiest continent on Earth. From our children’s atlas we learn that 98% of the continent is covered in ice and snow, and each winter the continent doubles in size as the coastal water freezes around it. Because of the extreme weather conditions, and the lack of permanent civilization, we expect it to be challenging to find children’s books on Antarctica, but are happy to come across several at our library. Actually we find more books on Antarctica than we did on many of the countries in Asia and Africa:
From Continents: Antarctica we learn interesting facts about its climate. According to the book, if Antarctica’s ice sheets melted, the oceans of the earth would rise by about 215 feet! (The kids don’t like the sounds of this, as we live so close to the water!) Like Australia, the seasons on Antarctica are opposite ours because it sits in the southern hemisphere. Winter can reach lows of -94 degrees and summers barely makes it above 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Yikes! Nonetheless there is one hot spot and that’s Mount Erebus, Antarctica’s active volcano. We wonder what it would be like for the volcano to erupt and have molten lava pour over the mountains of ice. The kids debate whether the lava would freeze or the ice would melt…
The frigid climate make it impossible for humans to inhabit the continent long term, but there is evidence that our ancestors were aware of the cold land and in 10 AD Ptolemy named it Terra Australis Incognita, which translates to “unknown southern land.” Later it was named Antarctica which means “opposite of the bear” in Greek. The Bear (Ursa Major) is a constellation in the northern hemisphere. In the 17 and 1800’s explorers came close enough to see the icebergs of Antarctica, but it wasn’t until the beginning of the 20th century that humans successfully reached and travelled across the continent. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first person to step foot on the south pole. He reached it on December 14, 1911 and left a Norwegian flag on the spot.
Since then many scientists have spent time on Antarctica studying the earth’s atmosphere and our Great Uncle is one of them. In fact he has a mountain named after him! It is located between the lower David Valley and Bartley Glacier in the Asgard Range of Victoria Land. We look it up on the internet and find a Norwegian weather website that gives us today’s weather on the mountain: current temp. Brrrr!
The kids spend some time reading through some of the books we’ve taken out of Antarctica and we think about crafts and projects we can do for the week ahead. We will have to get a little creative for Antarctica, which is always fun!
Globe Scouts 