Study of the Continent -
Antarctica
Name – Darsheel Tripathy
Class – 7D
Roll no – 35
Subject – Geography
project on the topic -
‘Antarctica’
Acknowledgem
ent
I would like to thank my Geography
teacher, Mrs. Alisha Anthony to give
me an opportunity to make on
project on the topic – ‘Antarctica’. It
has helped me to improve my
research skills and I have learnt a lot
of new things while making this
project. I hope that this project will
CONTEN
Slide 1 – Cover Page
Slide 2 – Acknowledgement
TS
Slide 3 – Contents
Slide 4 – Introduction
Slide 5 – The Land
Slide 6 – The climate
Slide 7 – Vegetation
Slide 8 – Animals
Slide 9 – Resources and industrial activities
Slide 10 – Human Inhabitance
Slide 11 – Territorial Claims
Slide 12 – Conclusion
Slide 13 – Bibliography
Introducti
Antarctica was unknown to most of the people until the
early 1800s. There were someon
theories and predictions
which stated that there could have been a south polar
continent termed as Terra Australis.
Important Facts-
• Discovered in 1820 by Russian voyagers Bellingshausen Antarctica on the globe
and Mikhail Lazarev.
• Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in
1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then.
The treaty prohibits military activities, mineral
mining, etc. and ensures that Antarctica is used Adelle penguins in the continent
only for scientific research. It is also referred as the
Continent of Science.
• The South Pole is located in the continent itself. There
was a competition among nations to reach South Pole
and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was first to
achieve this. Later on, Robert Scott also reached the Roald Amundsen
Geographic features –
There are many mountains and plateaus in the continent.
Mountains and rugged surfaceThe Land
characterize the terrain of
Antarctica.
Some features –
• Antarctica is almost circular in shape. Antarctica is
surrounded by the southern parts of the Indian, Pacific
Mount Erebus
and Atlantic oceans. This waterbody forms the
Southern ocean. Large blocks of ice get separated from
ice shelves to form icebergs. There are many glaciers
too. Lambert glacier is the largest in the world.
• There is a plateau on the east called the Queen Maud
Plateau. The Transantarctic Mountains divide the
continent into two parts. The narrower part is called
Lesser Antarctica and the larger part is called the
Greater Antarctica.
• The highest peak in Antarctica is Vinson
Map of Antarctica
Climate
Some features of the climate of Antarctica
in
Antarctica
• Antarctica is the coldest continent. Even when the continent
receives maximum sunlight, then also average temperatures
are less than 0C. During the winter(May and August)the
temperature decreases to -60C.
• The lowest temperature recorded on Earth was in
Antarctica (-89.2C). Snowstorms are very common. Strong
winds blow throughout the year. Antarctica is a cold desert.
• The South Pole receives less than 10 mm (0.4 in) per Different auroras
year, on average. Sunburn is often a health issue as the
snow surface reflects almost all of the ultraviolet light falling
on it.
• Auroras are sometimes formed. These are wavy
bands or patches of coloured light in the sky. It is
formed when charged particles from the sun hit particles in
Earth’s atmosphere. It is also called aurora australis or
Lake Fryxell
southern lights.
Vegetation in
Antarctica
Extremely cold conditions doesn’t support plant life much.
Some plants grow here and they are as follows:
• Extreme cold conditions don’t support much plants to
grow there. Mosses, fungi, lichens and a few grasses
grow here.
• 1150 species of fungi are found here, of which 400
are lichen(A kind of microorganism that arises A type of fungi in Antarctica
from algae) forming. These fungi are resistant to UV
rays.
• Growth of plants takes place in summers. A combination
of freezing temperatures, poor soil quality, lack of
moisture, and lack of sunlight doesn’t allow plants to
grow rapidly. Very limited no. of plants grow in this
region.
• The Antarctic Conservation Act in 1978 by the U.S.
protects the ecosystem by not allowing to harm
Animals in
Antarctica
Limited number of animals are found here. The
animals have been mentioned below:
• The weather conditions of Antarctica don’t
support the existence of much animals. Only a
few animals live here. There are many kinds of
fish and swarms of shrimplike shellfish
Emperor penguins
called krill. Many types of birds come here in
summers but they leave in winter.
• Penguins are found here in large numbers. These
are flightless birds but they can swim too. Only
the male emperor penguins remain here in the
winters to protect there eggs.
• There are different types of whales and seals too .
These migrate to warmer waters in summers. A Antarctic fur seals
lot of these animals had been hunted earlier, but
Resources and Industrial
activities
Antarctica has some resources and industrial activities.
• In Antarctica, minerals like iron ore and coal are buried deep
inside. It also has predicted that minerals like gold,
petroleum, etc. are also there. But because of thick sheets
of ice, mining will require a lot effort and money. So, we can
say that mining these minerals is costly.
• This is why, mining has never been done in Antarctica and
this is also the reason mining is banned in this region by IAATO Organization
international agreement.
• Another important industrial activity is fishing. Creatures
like krill or, Antarctic cod are fished here. Krill are rich in
protein and are used for making krill meat paste.
• Another activity in this region is expedition tourism. It is
arranged by IAATO(International Association of Antarctica
Tour Operators).IAATO is a group of seven companies which Fishing in Antarctica
ensure that tourism in Antarctica is safe.
• About 38,500 people visited Antarctica in Austral Summer
Human inhabitance in
Very limited no. of people live Antarctica
in Antarctica and Antarctica
has no original inhabitants.
• Countries like USA, Russia, France, Australia, New
Zealand, Argentina, etc. have set up permanent camps
in Antarctica. The people in these camps are the only
inhabitants there. Most of these people are scientists The flags of countries at the South
Pole
from the different countries. They live in the continent
of Antarctica to research on it and discover new things.
• During different seasons the population of the continent
varies between 1000 and 5000.
• Tourists are also allowed but they can live there for a
few days only.
• India also has a camp in Antarctica called Maitri. It is
located in Schirmacher Oasis. It is a good library and Maitri research station
laboratory. It is maintained by NCAOR(National Centre
for Antarctic and Ocean Research) which was setup in
Territorial
Here are some territorial claims by different
Claims
countries. A treaty stops countries from inhabiting
them.
YEAR COUNTRY TERRITORY NAME AREA LIMITS
142°02′E to
1840 France Adelie Land
136°11′E
074°00′W to
1943 Argentina Argentine Antarctica
025°00′W
044°38′E to
Australian Antarctic 136°11′E, and
1933 Australia
Territory 142°02′E to
160°00′E
080°00′W to
1908 UK British Antarctic Territory
020°00′W
Territorial claims by different countries
Chilean Antarctic 090°00′W to
1940 Chile
Territory 053°00′W
New 160°00′E to
1923 Ross Dependency
Zealand 150°00′W
1931 Norway Peter I Island 68°50′S 90°35′W
Conclusi
on which is still
Antarctica is a continent
unexplored and a lot of it needs to be
covered. It has some resources like minerals
but extracting and utilizing them is almost
impossible because of thick ice sheets. It also
has some animals and plants there. The
climate is really cold. Antarctica does attract
tourists. Auroras and unique animal species
attract them. Overall, Antarctica needs to be
Bibliogra
phy
All the data and images have been taken
from Wikipedia, other books and school
books.
To know the real sources of the data and
the images you may refer to the Wikipedia
page below –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica
THANK YOU!!
