West Antarctic Rift
The West Antarctic Rift is a major, active rift valley lying between East and West Antarctica. It encompasses the Ross Sea, the area under the Ross Ice Shelf and a part of West Antarctica. Its evolution is due to lithospheric thinning of the non-cratonic area of West Antarctica.
Exploration of the geology of the West Antarctic Rift is difficult, because, apart from peaks of the Transantarctic Mountains that protrude above the ice, the region is covered by the vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Thus, the rift is less well known than other major rift valleys. It is known, however, that like the East African Rift, the West Antarctic Rift is actually a number of much shorter rifts that cross Antarctica. There is also a sharp division between older, broader Paleogene rifts including the Ross Sea Basin and the younger, narrower Terror Rift. There are also a large number of failed rifts extending as far as Berkner Island.
Although many rifts within the West Antarctic Rift system are no longer active, it is now known that West Antarctica is moving away from the East Antarctic Craton in a north/northeasterly direction (approximately in the direction of the South Georgia Islands) at a rate of about 2 mm per year or 500,000 years per kilometre.
Antarctic
The Antarctic (US English /æntˈɑːrktɪk/, UK English /ænˈtɑːrktɪk/ or /æntˈɑːrtɪk/ and /ænˈtɑːrtɪk/ or /ænˈɑːrtɪk/) is a polar region, specifically the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters, and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence. The region covers some 20% of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5% (14 million km2) is the surface area of the continent itself.
Geography
The maritime part of the region constitutes the area of application of the international Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), where for technical reasons the Convention uses an approximation of the Convergence line by means of a line joining specified points along parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude. The implementation of the Convention is managed through an international Commission headquartered in Hobart, Australia, by an efficient system of annual fishing quotas, licenses and international inspectors on the fishing vessels, as well as satellite surveillance.
Antarctic (ship)
Antarctic was a Swedish steamship built in Drammen, Norway in 1871. She was used on several research expeditions to the Arctic region and to Antarctica through 1898-1903. In 1895 the first confirmed landing on the mainland of Antarctica was made from this ship.
The ship
Antarctic was a barque with three masts and equipped with a steam engine. Build in 1871 at Holmen in Drammen under the name Cap Nor.
Initially Antarctic was used for seal hunting around Svalbard, Jan Mayen and Greenland, under that period the ship was captained by Gullik Jensen and among others Carsten Borchgrevink served on the ship.
In the early 1890s Norwegian ship-owner Svend Foyn wanted to expand his business to the Antarctic Ocean thereby needing capable ships. Foyn then purchased Cap Nor, made extensive repairs and after completion renamed the ship Antarctic. From 1893 the ship was deployed to the Antarctic ocean for whale hunting.
In 1897 the ship was purchased by Alfred Gabriel Nathorst for his planned expedition to Svalbard. Again extensive repairs were made prior to the expedition in 1898.
Podcasts:
