Frequently Asked Questions about Antarctica

The simple answer is that it's too cold. What would be rain falls as snow instead, but not very much of that falls either, Antarctica is classed as a desert as so little snow falls, it's just that being so cold, it doesn't go anywhere and so builds up instead until it's kilometres thick.

2/ Where is the South Pole ?

Unlike the North Pole the South Pole is inland. It is near the middle of the Great Antarctic ice sheet at an altitude of 2800 m. It is 1230 km from the nearest coast. The ice at the Pole is moving at about 10 m per year. Each year staff at the Amundsen-Scott (USA) station, at the South Pole, move the marker flag to compensate for the movement of the ice.

The magnetic South Pole on the other hand doesn't have a fixed position, it drifts about continually by quite a long way. It was first reached during Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition (1907-1909) by Professor Edgeworth David and Sir Douglas Mawson (Australian geologists) and Alistair Mackay.

At that time the magnetic pole lay within the Antarctic continent at latitude 71.6°S and longitude 152°E.

Today the Magnetic South Pole lies far out to sea at latitude 65°S and longitude 139°E, it travels 10 to 15 km north-west each year. The pole wanders daily in a roughly elliptical path around this average position, and may be as far as 80 km away from this position when the Earth's magnetic field is disturbed.

Depends what you mean by a survival kit. Scientists in Antarctica generally live on a base where everything is provided for them. Like living in a sort of hotel - except there aren't any staff to do things for you! Apart from the specialist jobs on many bases everyone takes it in turns to do the mundane unskilled work. Near to many bases is a hut that contains enough tents, clothing and food for a full base compliment for about 18 months, just in case the base burns down and they are left with nothing.

When going off base to stay in tents or huts, there are sufficient rations for much longer than the intended stay. The saying is "pitch your tent as though you're there for a month, even though it may only be a night" If the wind gets up, then a storm could (and has in the past) kept the men in their tent for a month, unable to leave because of the terrible weather.

In huts and tents, there is everything needed to stay alive in really low temperatures. Paraffin stove and lamp, loads of high energy food, synthetic camping mat, air mattress and thick sheepskin on top of this, then two huge great down filled sleeping bags with a big hood, and of course lots of layers of very warm clothing. (but not much underwear - not a lot of inclination to change and wash it when it's well below freezing!).

4/ How do people survive the cold in Antarctica ?

You wrap up warm in layers and several of them. It's very important to cover feet, ankles, hands, wrists and your head. Mainly synthetic fibers these days, not forgetting insulated footwear too. Clothes need to be kept dry and clean to maintain their best insulating qualities.

UV (ultra-violet) radiation is fierce in the summer so wearing wrap-round goggles and sun screen on any exposed skin is just as important as keeping warm in the winter. It can be quite a surprise to get sun burnt under your nose from the light reflected from snow and ice.

Survival is largely about not being caught out in the worst weather, not getting lost in whiteout conditions and not taking unnecessary risks. This means you must be well-trained to carry out your activities, careful about how you dress and work in a team where each member watches the others for signs of "frost-nip" and hypothermia.

Food is very important too. Clothing keeps the body heat from escaping, plenty of nutritious food feeds the furnace from the inside and helps generate warmth.

Despite what people often assume, the Antarctic is not a place to take risks, but a place where weather extremes are planned for in advance and survival actions are a well rehearsed drill.
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Not on purpose! Icebergs are part of the scenery as far as whales are concerned, like trees are to elephants I suppose. Maybe one's hit one while looking the other way, but no great consequence other than a bumped snout - and some embarrassment in case his mates were looking.

Yes, and I was actually about 1/4 of a km away from it in a small boat at the time! It started with a bit of rumbling and a few snowballs fell from the top, then a huge great column of ice like a couple of office blocks slid into the water. This caused an enormous wave and we thought for a while that we'd be overwhelmed, but were ok after much rocking about. It's one of those things that it's good to be able to say happened to you, but you wouldn't choose to do it!

Antarctic bases are much more environmentally friendly these days than they used to be. Most bases are small with around 15 people in winter and 50 in summer, so there's no truck. All waste is crushed and segregated into different types before being taken out by the ships that bring in the new supplies. The waste is then dealt with in the home country.

Not sure really, but not that many. As you move away from the tropics towards colder climates, there is a general reduction in the number of species, but increase of numbers of individuals of a species. So Antarctica has not so many different type of animal - but loads of each, the tropics have loads of types, but not so many of each. The second most numerous mammal in the world after man is the crabeater seal - a typical Antarctic animal.

Thin layers and several of them. It's very important to cover ankles, wrists and your head. Mainly synthetic fibers these days.
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Unlikely (see above), in the extreme case we had rifles and skinning knives in order to capture and eat penguins and seals. At my base I was a marine biologist, so we had boats and nets and could have caught fish to eat (in fact we did eat some of the extra ones we caught).

Don't know - ages - there's about 30 million cubic kilometres of ice in Antarctica. Enough to cover the whole of Australia to a depth of 4 km.

Not any more. As a part of the environmental protection, no non-native species are allowed to be taken to Antarctica, the last huskies were taken out in 1994. They were superseded for transport many years before that by motor powered vehicles.

You can detect it with special instruments. Like you can detect x-rays, radio waves and electricity even though you can't see them either.
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Allowed to - yes, but don't often go. Everyone who goes with a country's Antarctic programme has a job to do, children don't have jobs and so don't go. Children can go as tourists although the cruises are very much aimed at adults and I imagine most children would find them fairly boring for much of the time - like a load of other things adults seem to enjoy.

There are schools however at the Argentinian Esperanza Base and also the Chilean Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva Base, both on the Antarctic Peninsula. The parents of these children work at these bases.

Up to 2009, there were eleven children born in Antarctica at either an Argentine or Chilean base. In both cases, they were part of a deliberate attempt to strengthen national territorial claims.

Yes it does. Usually provided by diesel powered generators at each base, but increasingly some bases are installing windmills to generate supplementary electricity. This makes sense as Antarctica is the windiest place on earth, but poses a problem in case the strong winds damage the windmills.