Antarctica


Core of Gondwana

Antarctica is like a different planet on earth. She is owned by nobody. She is the core of Gondwana land, the first land to form on earth. Somewhere deep in her frozen land, lay the worlds very first rock. 
She is neither flat nor very snowy. Instead, Antarctica is a mountainous desert. 

Mountain ranges, tall as the Alps of Europe, sits buried in her ice, with only the tops peeking out. Eternal deserts lay bare at places, dotted by meteorites and ancient skeletons preserved forever in the dry air.  Katabatic winds, the strongest on earth, sweep down her plateau. In her frozen mass of land, at places pushed by ice far below sea level, hides the files of our entire world's history.

Above her, the earth magnetic field bend, attracting meteorites and spectacular Southern lights. The atmosphere is so thin, that Astronomers can pick up messages from Space, telling the story of the very birth of our Universe. (Check "Amanda"). 

"It is an extraordinary feeling to ski this ice. You know what lies beneath you. All this thick ice and then that land. Around you however, itīs all so small. Itīs like skiing on a snow lid. The horizon is so close, and the sky has a peculiar color of clear light blue. Sometimes, a giant halo forms around the sun, almost touching the snow. The air itself sparkle. There is so much hidden here. Yet itīs so quiet. And you are the only one allowed entrance. 
Itīs like a fairy tale." 

In her waters are killer whales. Huge, ancient cods swim in the dark, cold depths of 1500 ft (450m). Some of the fishes blood is white, other manufacture their own antifreeze and sunscreens. In the summer, Antarctica's waters boils with plankton and sea creatures migrate from all corners of the earth to this annual fiesta. The diving should be spectacular. 

At the beaches reigns  the Emperor penguins, over three feet tall (1m). They spend the winter fasting, with their young standing on their feet to protect from the cold ice. They are not shy, if you visit they can very well walk up you to have a closer look.  The skuas however, are not as friendly. These clumsy birds will attack you just for the reason they donīt like your hairstyle. Their attack is like being hit by a frozen chicken.

 The continent hides gold, skeletons of Dinosaurs, and lakes frozen for million years - locking within them answers to life we have yet to discover.

However, Antarctica is fragile. Fire and human waste can easily destroy her. If that happens, she will retaliate. Her ice sheet, 1.5 times the size of or America or Europe, will melt and flood the world. 

But if we are tender to her, she will just keep cooling us in cycles, the way she always have, dropping chunks of ice into the ocean much like ice cubes cools a soda. And if we treat her wisely, she might even give us the answers to our lands origins. The proof of which, she alone holds.