February 8th, 2018 02:00 am
https://dmgusev.livejournal.com/1818963.html
(reposted on 05.02.2018/l_boris) 
In 1929, a unique map created back in 1513 was discovered in the National Museum of Istanbul. It was made on the skin of a gazelle and was 90x60 cm in size. This find caused a real shock among scientists, since it depicts the coasts of South and North America with fair accuracy, as well as the outlines of Antarctica discovered only in 1820. Moreover, the map shows the coastline of Antarctica without a glacier!
This amazing document is known as the Piri Reis Map, after the compiler, an admiral of the Ottoman Navy and a cartographer. Piri Reis fought in various naval battles, participated in the conquest of Egypt, but did not travel much, therefore, in compiling maps, he relied on various cartographic sources, most of which dated back to the time of Ptolemy.
American researcher Professor Hapgood in 1960 sent a request to the US military, who were investigating the subglacial relief of Antarctica. And this is the answer he received: “The geographical details depicted on the map are in perfect agreement with the seismic data carried out through the thickness of the ice cap. This means that the coastline was mapped before it was covered with ice. The ice in this area has about 1.5 kilometers thick. We have no idea how these data could be obtained with the estimated level of geographical knowledge of 1513. "
The ice sheet on the surface of the mainland was formed several million years ago and since then the continent has never been completely liberated. At the same time, the age of human civilization itself is much less!
How was Piri Reis able to portray something that no one from the people saw? Hapgood suggested that the Ottoman admiral copied Antarctica from some ancient maps. And they were made by a certain prehistoric people of navigators, who achieved great success in navigation and cartography. This people explored the entire planet from pole to pole, and subsequently disappeared without a trace, leaving nothing but maps. Only now the mysterious sailors had to live millions of years ago, while the first human civilizations - Sumerian and Egyptian - appeared only 6000 years ago ...
In addition, to determine the accuracy of the map, scientists made a grid of coordinates and superimposed an ancient manuscript on a modern map of the world. The match turned out to be almost perfect! The only way to create a map of such accuracy is aerial photography. Of course, in the 16th century, nothing was known about such technologies. In addition, to build his map, Piri Reis needed to have knowledge of spherical trigonometry, and it was developed and described only in the 18th century. How did he manage to use this knowledge two centuries earlier? This is a mystery that has yet to be solved.
Allegedly, they were erected in the last century by the German expedition of the Third Reich.
However, the fact that Hitler showed special interest in Antarctica is known and documented. And there were several expeditions of scientists from the Third Reich to the sixth continent.
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There is some mystery in this continent and a force that calls, pulls there and does not let go until the end of days
In ancient times, the entire surface of the dome of the planet did not consist of ice and snow, but was covered with lush vegetation. Tropical climate, dense jungle, high humidity.
We can only guess what a wealth of fauna and flora flourished on the ice continent. What plants found shelter here, what animals roamed its forests.
Until now, in the thickness of the ice rocks, archaeologists find the fossilized remains of unprecedented ancient animals and the skeletons of the former rulers of the planet - dinosaurs.
The catastrophe that led to a severe climate change occurred 250 million years ago. The Earth was rammed by a giant asteroid, which destroyed almost all the flora and fauna of the planet. Snow fell over Antarctica, the mainland froze for kilometers and never thawed again.
So what about the pyramids?
Most likely, an international scientific expedition will be formed in the near future, which will deal with this issue closely in order to give a clear answer about the nature of their appearance.
But today, most researchers and scientists agree that these monuments of ancient culture were created artificially.
Volcanoes in Antarctica
Volcanoes of Antarctica and the future of the planet
Enough has been written about the melting of ice in Antarctica and the possible consequences. But usually the melting of glaciers is associated with global warming, which, in fact, is not.
It turns out that it is not the global increase in ambient temperature that should be feared, but volcanoes. Today, 35 of them have been discovered on the icy continent, of which half are ready to spew lava at any moment.
How many more of these are hidden under tons of ice - no one knows.
The flow of heat from the volcanoes of the white continent passes through the earth's crust and provokes the instability of the ice shell of Antarctica.
It is curious to look at the map of the new world that scientists have modeled after the ice of Antarctica turns into fresh water.
You will not find Denmark and the Netherlands, Venice and London on this map. Under water will be the coastal regions of India and North America.
How many volcanoes are there in Antarctica?
Nobody knows. The first two were discovered by the expedition of D. Ross, and named after the ships on which the brave travelers arrived in the country of eternal cold.
Erebus is an active volcano, Terror is extinct.
The last volcano hidden under the ice layer was put on the map of Antarctica in 2008.
A couple of years later - a new sensation! A whole dozen underwater volcanoes of the continent have been discovered, seven show signs of active life.
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The catastrophe that led to severe climate change occurred 250 million years ago
Some of them are real giants, whose height reaches three kilometers. Another monster has a crater five kilometers in diameter.
Now imagine what will happen when boiling lava bursts out of it under terrible pressure.
Probably the most famous in the vastness of the icy continent.
- Height - 4 kilometers;
- Depth - 274 meters;
- The diameter of the crater is 805 meters.
In the bowels of this dangerous fiery handsome man is a giant lake of lava, which gives it an elegant glow. During its eruption in 1972, it flew to a height of 25 meters, this is an eight-story building.
Volcano Deception
Creator of the Gulf of Port Foster, the culprit of one of the largest eruptions. In the sixties of the last century, it destroyed scientific stations in Great Britain and Chile with a series of eruptions.
Hidden under a giant layer of ice a hundred meters thick. Its lava flows very slowly, and tons of mud are squeezed onto the purest white ice.
UFO in Antarctica
The archives of the NKVD, still not fully declassified, are of interest to both historians and ufologists. Thanks to them (archives), it became known that Antarctica was of undoubted interest to scientists and researchers of the Third Reich.
Since 1938, the Nazis regularly transported various equipment to the Queen Maud Land area in submarines.
At that time, the goals of the Nazi expedition to Antarctica were not known to anyone except them.
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Thanks to the archives, it became known that Antarctica was of undoubted interest to scientists of the Third Reich
But after the end of the war, it followed from the declassified documents that the Germans quite by accident came across an enormous system of tunnels and caves connected to each other on the icy mainland.
The air, unlike the surface, was warm enough in the caves. According to the head of the expedition, Admiral Karl Dönitz, they found a real paradise there.
Finds in Antarctica
Caves and tunnels in Antarctica
Let's deviate from the topic of UFOs and aliens for a moment. The fact that these tunnels are not fiction and not hallucinations was confirmed last summer by members of the expedition from the Australian National University.
They also found extensive tunnels under ice slabs on Ross Island, where the active Mount Erebus is located. The researchers were simply amazed.
Here are the words of one of the members of this team of scientists: “We did not even imagine that it could be warm in Antarctica. In the caves, the temperature reaches twenty-five degrees Celsius. You can walk in one T-shirt.
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The Germans accidentally stumbled upon a huge system of tunnels and caves in Antarctica, interconnected
There is a lot of light in voids and caves, which penetrates through cracks and ice. Most importantly, we found numerous plant and animal DNA here, some of which are simply unique.”
Thus, researchers from the Australian University confirmed the hypothesis that Antarctica is the door to the mysterious and.
And in the voids discovered by the expedition members, complex forms of life still unknown to us can be hidden.
UFO in Antarctica
After the end of the war, crew members of submarines that went to Antarctica were forced to surrender to the Americans.
After their interrogation, a research expedition led by an experienced polar explorer, Admiral Richard Byrd, was urgently sent to the planet's cap.
The extraordinary nature of this research was that it included 25 aircraft and helicopters, more than four thousand soldiers and officers of the Marine Corps, an aircraft carrier and thirteen ships.
The scientific expedition was more like a major military operation that ended quickly, strangely and tragically.
Speaking to members of the US Congressional Committee of Inquiry, the admiral reported that the expedition was attacked by unidentified flying objects that were escaping from the water and flying at great speed.
Dozens of sailors and officers went to the bottom after the destroyer "Murdoch" and four aircraft. A year later, the crew members of the aircraft that took part in that collision also started talking.
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The expedition was attacked by unidentified flying objects that burst out of the water and flew at great speed
All of them confirmed the words of their chief, adding to the story of the admiral details about unusual atmospheric phenomena that caused mental disorders.
It must be said that the newspaper article about the war of the brave American guys with flying discs did not cause a sensation in America. These stories were so incredible that the public simply did not believe in them.
But Antarctica continued to present more and more surprises.
Reports of observations in the sky of the mainland began to arrive with enviable regularity.
The most famous case dates back to 1976, when Japanese scientists detected nineteen flying discs on radar at the same time.
They suddenly appeared in the sky from nowhere and just as instantly disappeared.
But even before this incident over Antarctica, not everything was calm.
Year 1950
The crew of the Argentine Navy ship observed a strange object over Deception Island, which did not resemble any of the known devices created by human hands.
The report on this incident was made by the captain of the ship S. Moreno.
In the summer of the same year, a whole series of observations by employees of the Argentine and Chilean weather stations of unidentified objects in the sky over the white continent was recorded.
One of the objects, according to the descriptions of eyewitnesses, had a cigar-shaped shape, shimmered with various colors and moved in zigzags at great speed in complete silence.
Several times the object changed direction and speed, after which it hovered motionless and remained in this position for about 20 minutes.
In short, politicians and scientists with a worldwide reputation in 2017 began to receive e-mails, where the alarming “The End” was minted.
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If aliens built bases for their ships, then there is no better place than Antarctica for this.
A special commission found out that the message came from Antarctica, from one of the polar stations. But it turned out that none of the station staff was involved in this.
One of the leading researchers suggested that it was a warning from the future.
To attract serious attention, they were sent from Antarctica.
The end! Timer Antarctica - doomsday This is a real tragedy that will destroy the world. It will happen exactly on May 15, but what year and what century is unknown.
VIDEO: NASA scientists are shocked. They don't understand what's going on with Antarctica
Blood Falls in Antarctica
This eerie name was given to the waterfall by Australian geologist Griffith Taylor, who discovered it in 1911.
Blood Falls is one of the most unique places on Earth, because you will not find such a phenomenon anywhere else.
Firstly, the color of the water is really red, but the most interesting thing is that the water in it has a minus temperature and still flows.
The solution to the red color was found pretty quickly. It turned out that ferrous iron, in other words, rust, is responsible for this shade, and the source of water is a salt lake located at a depth of 400-500 meters under the ice.
It was formed about two million years ago, when the mainland was not yet under a continuous layer of ice.
Later, the ocean level dropped, the lake was isolated and sealed under tons of ice along with its inhabitants.
The water gradually evaporated, and the lake became saltier. Now the concentration of salt there is such that the water does not freeze even at minus ten degrees Celsius.
Does it have life?
Imprisoned in ice captivity, the inhabitants of the underground lake without sunlight and air died out. But not all.
Today, seventeen species have been discovered that have adapted to impossible conditions of existence and live quietly, processing organic remains locked with them in the same underground prison.
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Blood Falls is one of the most unique places on Earth, because you will not find such a phenomenon anywhere else.
Just think how successfully life can adapt to completely unbearable conditions!
For millions of years, microbes breathe iron instead of oxygen, snatching it from the surrounding rocks.
Since this ecological system is closed, organic reserves will someday run out, but it is not a fact that life will end in the lake after this local catastrophe.
It is likely that microorganisms will find a new food source. Which? No one knows.
Is there life on Mars?
The discovery of these amazing microorganisms allowed scientists to assume that in the depths of the planet Mars, the same bacteria can live without sunlight and oxygen.
Similar phenomena have been observed more than once on the red planet, but no one thought that life should be sought not on its surface, but in its depths.
This prompted researchers to new thoughts about the existence of aliens, but not in the form of green men, but in the form of simple microorganisms.
When can you see the bloody waterfall?
The few tourists who decide to admire the bloody jets of Taylor Falls are likely to be disappointed. Few people manage to observe red streams.
This happens when the glacier melts, and blocks of ice begin to put pressure on. At this time, part of the water flows out of the cracks, which happens quite rarely.
Lake Vostok in Antarctica
Lakes in Antarctica
Under the ice shell of the white continent, dozens, and maybe hundreds of reservoirs lurk. Nobody knows for sure. But Lake Vostok is the biggest discovery to date.
Its length is 250 km, width - 50 km, the depth is slightly less than that of Lake Baikal - but still solid - more than a kilometer.
The lake itself is hidden under an ice sheet four kilometers thick.
Its depths are an unknown unexplored world, and scientists compare its discovery with the flight of the first man into space.
According to some researchers, it existed as an open reservoir for millions and even tens of millions of years, and disappeared under the ice only for the last fifteen million years.
In 2015, apparently due to a lack of funding, Russia froze the drilling of the well. We didn’t drill just 240 meters to the water, at the very moment when fantastic discoveries loomed on the horizon.
But even those samples that were obtained from a depth of three kilometers and almost eight hundred meters made scientists shudder.
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Lake Vostok is the largest discovery to date. Its depths are an unknown world, and scientists compare its discovery with the flight of the first man into space.
There are two points of view regarding what kind of life lives in this water reservoir, isolated from the outside world - American and Russian.
The American one is based on the results of drilling less deep, however, researchers from behind the hillock believe that the lake is literally teeming with exotic metazoans.
Their colleagues from Russia are more restrained in their forecasts, but they say that if they get to the water, they could understand how life can develop on other planets in the solar system.
The fact is that the bowels of Titan, Europa, Enceladus, Ceres and many other cosmic bodies are arranged in the same way as the East: an ice sheet from above, water from below and gigantic pressure.
Therefore, if complex life can be found in a lake on planet Earth, then why not be on planets with similar conditions.
Lake Vostok - discoveries and hypotheses
Analysis of samples taken by the Americans showed the presence in the water of the gene sequence of 1623 species!
Of these, 6% were complex creatures, so complex that their life at a depth of several kilometers seemed simply impossible.
Scientists from the St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences found a bacterium in DNA samples that does not correspond to any of the known species.
It is so unusual and alien to everything else that the bacterium could not be classified and attributed to any group known to science.
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It is better to leave the inhabitants of the lake alone, otherwise such evil spirits may come out of there, which will not leave a trace of life on the planet.
Scientists of more radical thinking believe that at the bottom of this ice storage there are unusual types of living creatures that neither science fiction writers, nor filmmakers, nor have thought of.
Another group of scientists declares that it is better to leave the inhabitants of the lake, living at a damn depth, alone, otherwise such evil spirits may come out of there, which will not leave a trace of life on the planet.
Mankind will be forced out of the earth by some underwater crustacean mutants. And this is no longer a horror movie script, but a terrible scenario of a real development of events.
In the same way, in the water of the lake, viruses can perfectly feel and develop, preserved there millions of years ago, against which humanity will not have immunity.
Until the antidote is found, they will have time to destroy everything around.
These microorganisms may be of alien origin. What is even more dangerous.
While these little ones are in an isolated environment, they are not scary, but breaking out into the sunlight, they can do terrible things.
Who lived in Antarctica?
Mysterious map of Piri Reis
In 1929, while digging through the tomes of Byzantine emperors, the director of the Istanbul National Museum discovered an old map.
It was drawn by the Turkish admiral Piri Reis on the skin of a gazelle and dated 1513. Since then, the find has haunted scientists.
Incredibly, the admiral sketched geographical features that no one had any idea about at the beginning of the 16th century.
In addition to the coasts of Chile, the western coasts of South America and Africa, the Amazon and the Andes mountain range, the mainland of Antarctica was found on the map, which was discovered three centuries later.
The flight also drew a coastline, which is still under the ice shell.
In 1958, the islands of the South Pole were discovered, which are indicated on the map. The isthmus between the ice continent and America is also depicted on the skin of a gazelle.
According to scientists, this isthmus disappeared from the surface of the Earth about ten thousand years ago.
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Antarctica is a door to a mysterious and unknown world
Scientists are seriously interested in the mysterious document.
Four years after graduation, a joint European research expedition was able to conduct a seismic survey of the white continent through the thickness of the icy mantle.
The conclusions were shocking. The coastline of Antarctica coincided with the coastline on the Reis map.
Even more surprising findings were provided by the US Naval Hydrographic Bureau, whose employees said that transferring the mysterious map data to the globe helped correct some errors in modern maps.
Such an accurate map, experts say, could only be made using aerial photography. Indeed, the map is very similar to a photograph taken from space.
But do not forget that we are talking about the beginning of the 16th century. The first scissors and the first musket have just been invented, and in half a century the pencil will be invented.
What photos from orbit? But here is the map. You can see and touch with your hands.
And here is the coastline of Antarctica under the ice. And as it turned out later - there are several such cards.
VIDEO: Mysterious objects from another world under the melted glaciers of Antarctica
Antarctica without ice
The mysterious map of Piri is the most famous, but not the only one.
Scientists dealing with this problem can talk about O. Finius' map, which was discovered in the Library of Congress in the US capital - Washington.
It belongs to the same time as the drawings of Piri - 1531. On the map - Antarctica with shores without ice, as well as mountains and rivers of the white continent.
There is also a French map compiled by F. Buache in 1737, where again Antarctica is without its ice cover, plus under-ice topography, which science had no idea until the middle of the twentieth century.
Atlantis in Antarctica
If we compare all these facts, then the following conclusion suggests itself: all the maps found are scattered elements of a single map of the Earth, compiled in prehistoric times, by mysterious cartographers who had accurate and unique knowledge.
Many researchers express the idea that these representatives of the civilization, ahead of time by hundreds of thousands of years, lived on the territory of modern Antarctica.
We already wrote that the climate there was subtropical, not only suitable, but exceptionally comfortable for life.
And it was called Antarctica -.
The theory is fascinating and unusual, which today is impossible to prove or disprove.
Cities in Antarctica
Capital of Antarctica
The first cities on the mainland were discovered eighty years ago, in 1938, by an expedition of the Third Reich.
The expedition was well furnished: three ships plus an aircraft carrier moved to Antarctica with it.
But the finds were not out of the ordinary. Scientists have come across a dead city, no more, no less.
In underground tunnels and underwater corridors, they found strange ancient monuments with inscriptions, sculptures and paintings on the walls of the tunnels.
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The climate there was subtropical, exceptionally comfortable for life, and was called Antarctica - Atlantis
The discovery only excited Hitler and pushed him to new explorations of Antarctica, where he intended to find an earthly paradise or a safe haven in case of defeat in the wars for which he was then preparing.
Recall that before the start of World War II, there was less than a year left.
Although it is quite possible that the possessed Adolf was looking for not only paradise there, but also the technologies of highly developed civilizations, which, as he firmly believed, once existed.
One way or another, but after the first expedition to the planet's cap, the second one, consisting of five submarines, set off.
One of them moved through an underwater tunnel and ended up in a lake with warm water.
Having risen to the surface, the team members and scientists found that they were in a huge cave, which was connected to other similar caves by a network of tunnels.
Here were the same strange monuments and inscriptions that the researchers of the first expedition recorded.
Then giant mines were discovered, obviously not of natural, but of artificial origin. The walls of the mines were smooth and even.
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A little over two hundred years ago, the first people arrived in Antarctica, and since that time, the mainland has been more and more intriguing and asking a lot of mysteries.
A few days later - new finds: stone statues of unseen animals, and wings.
During the long stay of the expedition on the white mainland, several more dead cities were discovered.
The famous scientist Jacques Yves Cousteau did not stay away from the secrets of Antarctica. A group of scuba divers under his leadership in 1973 came across an underwater cave, where all the same animal monuments were located, and the walls were dotted with incomprehensible inscriptions.
They also talk about the expedition of Russian researchers who, in the period from 1979 to 1983, explored the underwater tunnels of Antarctica. It was they who discovered the former capital of the mainland, the dead city of Okmaron.
According to rumors, there were many runic inscriptions in it, which were later deciphered. None of these expeditions were without casualties.
People died mysteriously, ships sank, submarines crashed.
True or not, we do not know, all reports of expeditions are strictly classified.
And yet, if the listed finds took place, then who owned all this disappeared civilization. There are many opinions on this matter. The most common hypotheses:
- they are the remnants of a civilization and a flourishing culture that surpassed that of today.
- These are traces of aliens visiting the Earth.
Finds in Antarctica
10 shocking finds scientists in Antarctica
A little over two hundred years ago, the first people arrived in Antarctica, and since that time, this continent has been more and more intriguing, surprising and asking a lot of mysteries.
Aliens, disappeared civilizations, Atlantis, a bloody waterfall, tunnels under the shell of people, through which you can get to anywhere on the planet, an ice lake in which unknown life thrives, Creon monsters and so on.
We still do not know what else is hidden under the powerful ice shell.
Mysterious ancient meteorite
Scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) a couple of years ago discovered on the mainland that landed on the ice of Antarctica more than ten thousand years ago. A space hulk from Mars arrived and preserved microbial samples from the fourth planet from the Sun.
Skulls in Antarctica
Scientists were wrong when they said that there were no people in Antarctica before. Excavations in the Lapail region have reversed this belief. It was here that unusual elongated human skulls were discovered. The discovery shocked the entire scientific world.
dinosaur remains
In ancient times, Antarctica was covered with flowering fields and forests, and the climate here was quite suitable and comfortable for life. In those days, the continent was inhabited by dinosaurs. Their remains at the end of the last century were found in the American Transantarctic Mountains. After studying it, scientists came to the conclusion that the bones belonged to a carnivorous dinosaur called Cryolophosaurus.
petrified remains
Frozen in the ice, the remains of another unusual creature were discovered in 2009. This interesting egg-laying creature was the size of a cat.
aircraft wreckage
In September 2013, a plane with three people on board went missing over Antarctica. The wreckage of the liner was discovered recently on the slope of Mount Elizabeth. Presumably, the pilot did not notice the white snowy peak, merging with the horizon, and rammed it.
Centennial Whiskey
Perhaps the most surprising find of recent years is a few cases of 100-year-old Scotch whiskey. Scientists have not yet opened the bottles. I wonder how much they would give at auction.
creepy creature
An American group of scientists in a tunnel at a depth of more than three hundred meters stumbled upon a terrible creature of unknown breed and nature. The remains are well preserved, but they have not been identified. Strange body structure, bony crest, huge mouth.
Rivers of Antarctica
It turns out that on the white continent, despite the ultra-low temperatures, there are rivers. One of them - Onyx flows only two months a year, the rest of the time it freezes. Onyx carries its waters to a large lake called Vanda.
white blood fish
These fish are perfectly adapted to survive in extreme conditions. There are no red blood cells in their blood, which means no hemoglobin, so it is white. Hence the name. She cannot live without oxygen at all, but it is absorbed by the white blood in a different way than by fish living in warm seas.
mosquitoes-ringing
There is no escape from mosquitoes anywhere, including in Antarctica, so travelers, take fumitox with you. The icy mainland was chosen by mosquito-ringing. We joked about fumitox. These mosquitoes are completely indifferent to blood, and feed exclusively on microorganisms. They are found only on the sixth continent.
Weather in Antarctica
Antarctica is the continent with the most terrible climatic conditions on the entire planet.
An isolated and mysterious continent, the approaches to which are blocked by ice plains and giant icebergs.
In winter, it is almost impossible to reach it. Icy storm winds, temperatures never rising above freezing, vegetation only moss and lichen.
In May 1983, the lowest temperature on Earth was recorded here: minus 93.2 degrees Celsius. It's impossible to even imagine such a disadvantage.
However, life thrives here too. The Southern Ocean, which surrounds the icy continent, serves as a haven and home for many representatives of the fauna.
Most of the animals are migratory, but there are those who have settled here firmly, perfectly adapted to the difficult habitat.
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The lowest temperature on Earth was recorded here: - 93.2 degrees Celsius. It's impossible to even imagine such a disadvantage.
Aboriginals of the animal world are rarely encountered with humans, so they are not afraid of bipeds dressed in wool and furs, which gives researchers a unique opportunity to study the fauna of Antarctica.
Although you can not touch the animals, just like in a zoo. Alas, but such are the international Antarctic treaties.
Animals of Antarctica
Blue whale
We are accustomed to admire and be surprised by giant dinosaurs, which, however, have only been seen in the movies, but the largest animal of all living and living on Earth is our contemporary, the blue whale. The whale weighs more than a hundred tons, and easily outweighs both Diplodocus and Shantungosaurus. The blue whale is not a fish (although it lives in the aquatic environment), but a mammal, like a person or a pig. He breathes air, he does not have scuba gear, so the giant regularly rises to the surface, catch his breath and take a sip of several cubic kilometers of air.
Kerguelen fur seal
Belongs to the eared seal family. It resembles a huge dog, almost like the Baskervilles, only it weighs several times more - up to two hundred kilograms. This is such an ugly dog.
Sea leopard
One of the most terrible and large predators of the icy continent. A monster up to three meters long, weighing up to three hundred kilograms. It will eat anyone it catches. Man is no exception. Swims at the speed of a torpedo. It is named so because spots are scattered over its body, like a leopard. The main diet is fish, penguins, birds, squids, seal pups.
crabeater seal
It is not known what fool called him that, because he does not eat crabs. Almost the entire diet of the crabeater consists of Antarctic krill; for dessert, this seal can afford fish or squid. In Antarctica, of large mammals, their population is the largest. Crab-eaters weigh up to three hundred kilograms, dive shallowly to 20-30 meters and linger under water for ten minutes.
Weddell seal
These, like gypsies, do not sit in one place, but wander on ice floes back and forth. They feed on squid and fish. They weigh solidly up to 450 kilograms and grow under three meters. Weddell seals are excellent divers. They can dive eight hundred meters, and sit under water for almost an hour and a half.
southern elephant seal
It bears little resemblance to an African elephant and does not have a trunk, but it weighs up to three and a half tons with a height of up to five and a half meters. In short, the ambal is still. Feeding this is a problem, but he eats mainly squid and fish. That is why squid and fish are becoming more and more expensive on the shelves of Russian stores. Dives, despite such a mass, not bad at all, to a depth of 500 meters and may not emerge for half an hour.
Birds of Antarctica
Antarctic tern
A distinctive feature is a black hat on the head. The plumage is white or light gray. Feeds on fish and krill. The Antarctic tern soars above the water until it spots its prey, after which it dives after it from a height.
Antarctic blue-eyed cormorant
This is a cormorant - that is still a cormorant - healthy. It weighs up to three and a half kilograms. The color of the eyes is bright, and at the base of the beak there is a yellow outgrowth. These cute birds feed on fish, and they hunt like this: they gather in a flock of up to a hundred individuals, and dive into the water many times, helping each other to fish. They can dive to a depth of more than a hundred meters.
white plover
It lives mainly on the ground, rarely rises into the air, when walking, like a dove, it jerks its head. This bird is omnivorous, no matter what, everything goes into business. The white plover does not disdain theft, and penguins suffer most from her actions. She steals krill from them, these are such small crustaceans, fish, and sometimes the eggs of the penguins themselves. The latter wrote a statement to white birds more than once, but this plover is so nimble, go and catch it.
Pintado
This dove is not a dove at all, but a petrel. In any case, belongs to their family. It feeds on krill, squid and fish. It catches it on the surface of the water, but if it is impatient, it can dive, however, not deep.
snow petrel
A very beautiful bird, black-eyed and black-billed. The main diet is krill, therefore, in order not to lose consciousness from, she always keeps near the sea. These birds nest in the depths of the mainland, in the mountains.
wandering albatross
Wandering albatross - eternal nomad This bird's name corresponds to the status. The traveler from it is excellent. Albatross is able to fly over a distance of up to ten thousand kilometers, being in the air for a day, and overcoming a distance of up to 800 kilometers during this time. A record worthy of the Guinness Book of Records. By the way, these birds may well claim another record - as a bird that has the longest wingspan - up to three and a half meters. A real pterodactyl. Eternal nomads, they do not see land for months and even years, but sleep on the water.
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Albatross is able to fly up to 10 thousand kilometers, being in the air for a day and covering a distance of up to 800 kilometers.
They feed on fish. Faithful companions of ships, especially fishing ones, from which they fall to the table.
South polar skua
A large bird that breeds in continental Antarctica and breeds in the south. South polar skuas feed mainly on krill, fish, carrion and, if you're lucky, penguin eggs. In addition, they steal fish from birds of other species. But still theirs. Not a skua, but some kind.
Southern giant petrel
This predator proudly flies over the plains of the white mainland and looks out for the dead carcasses of penguins, seals, and other carrion. In addition to it, the menu of the predator includes krill, crustaceans, squid.
flightless birds
emperor penguin
These penguins are the largest in the world. Their average weight is thirty kilograms, but there are specimens of forty, over a meter tall. They have a white belly, yellow chest, black back and head. They eat fish, shellfish, crustaceans. These bipeds are excellent divers. Incredibly, they can dive half a kilometer and hold their breath for nearly twenty minutes.
king penguin
This one is the second largest. Growth can reach a meter, and weight eighteen kilograms. Both of these species are similar in appearance, except that the colors of the royal are brighter. The diet of the kings is not very diverse. The menu mainly consists of two dishes: small fish and squid. They also dive not sickly - a hundred meters.
subantarctic penguin
Another name for the gentoo penguin. Get taller! The subantarctic penguin will be the last. Growth - from half a meter to a meter, maximum weight - eight kilograms. But he has the longest tail. This species is easily recognizable by its broad white head band and red or orange beak. Papuan fish eat little, mostly feeding on crustaceans.
News from Antarctica
Giant hole discovered in Antarctica
A huge hole with an area of more than eighty thousand square meters was found in the ice of Antarctica. It looks like someone just punched it in the ice.
It was discovered thanks to satellite photographs.
Scientists say that the cause of its appearance may be.
If so, then it's bad. We have already written about the consequences that the melting of the glaciers of Antarctica will cause.
Air a million years old
Antarctica has once again given scientists a surprise. An air bubble was discovered in the ocean, immured in a giant ice block.
The air that is contained there is incredibly ancient, about a million years old.
Analyzing it will help scientists find out what kind of climate prevailed on the mainland at that time.
Giant iceberg breaks off Antarctica
The area of this monster is larger than the capital of Great Britain with all its suburbs.
The mass of an iceberg is a billion tons. Easy to say, impossible to imagine.
Such a piece of ice does not fit in any refrigerator.
This piece broke off from the Larsen Glacier in July 2017, and currently poses a serious threat to ships.
Caves of Antarctica
Last September, a team of scientists from the Australian National University discovered huge caves on the sixth continent, hidden under the ice shell.
The researchers said that the climate in the caves is so warm that, most likely, both animal and plant life are present there.
The discovery was made on Ross Island, where the active volcano Erebus bubbles. His warmth made the surroundings warmer.
In Antarctica, ice floes hid the ground
I first heard this song on the radio when I was a child. I liked it so much that I immediately remembered it by heart. Children's memory is like a blank sheet of paper. I reproduce from memory, if I make a mistake somewhere, I beg your pardon.
Song about penguins
In Antarctica, ice floes hid the earth,
Ice floes in Antarctica swept up by a blizzard,
Previously, penguins lived peacefully here,
Jealously guarding their snows.
One day the penguins are in full force
To the sea for fishing wandered in a crowd,
A strange picture is seen in the sea:
A huge black iceberg is smoking a chimney!
Penguins got scared - what will happen?
And where did the wind bring guests to them from?
They see how people go to the ice floe,
For the first time they saw people.
People frightened them with a ringing song,
Silence breaking many years of captivity,
The sky was covered with a thin net,
Hanging out the web of their antennas.
And now there is no fear in the penguins,
Listen to the radio and they want
And a row of decorous in long tailcoats
They stand by the village for hours.
This flock knows everything in the world,
Expanding their knowledge and horizons
Jazz penguins know, Bach know
Poems penguins know and know the sport.
And penguins walk side by side with people,
They listen diligently every day.
And now the penguins are glad to people,
After all, people opened the world for penguins!
Antarctica from space
Here it is, Antarctica! Ice cap of the world 
Antarctica is the least explored continent located in the south of the world. Most of its surface has an ice cover, up to 4.8 km thick. The Antarctic ice sheet contains 90% (!) of all the ice on our planet. It is so heavy that under it the mainland sank almost 500 m. Today, the world is seeing the first signs of global warming in Antarctica: large glaciers are collapsing, new lakes are appearing, and the soil is losing its ice cover. Let's simulate the situation, what will happen if Antarctica loses its ice.
How will Antarctica itself change?
Today the area of Antarctica is 14,107,000 km². If the glaciers melt, these numbers will drop by a third. The mainland will become almost unrecognizable. Under the ice are numerous mountain ranges and massifs. The western part will definitely become an archipelago, and the eastern part will remain the mainland, although, given the rise of ocean waters, it will not hold such a status for a long time.
This is what Antarctica will look like. The current territory is outlined At the moment, many representatives of the plant world are found on the Antarctic Peninsula, islands and coastal oases: flowers, ferns, lichens, algae, and recently their diversity has been gradually increasing. There are also fungi and some bacteria, and seals and penguins occupy the coast. Already now, on the same Antarctic Peninsula, the appearance of tundra is observed, and scientists are sure that with warming there will be both trees and new ones.
By the way, Antarctica holds several records: the lowest recorded temperature on Earth is 89.2 degrees below zero; there is the largest crater on Earth; the strongest and longest winds.
Today there is no permanent population in Antarctica. There are only employees of scientific stations, and sometimes tourists visit it. With climate change, the former cold continent may become suitable for permanent human habitation, but now it is difficult to talk about this with certainty - everything will depend on the current climatic situation.
How will the world change due to the melting of glaciers?
Rising water levels in the world's oceans
So, scientists have calculated that after the ice sheet melts, The sea level will rise by almost 60 meters. And this is a lot and will be equated with a global catastrophe. The coastline will shift significantly, and today's coastal zone of the continents will be under water.
A great flood awaits many of the paradises of our planet If we talk, then its central part will not suffer much. In particular, Moscow is located 130 meters above the current sea level, so the flood will not reach it. Such large cities as Astrakhan, Arkhangelsk, St. Petersburg, Novgorod and Makhachkala will go under water. Crimea will turn into an island - only its mountainous part will rise above the sea. And in the Krasnodar Territory, only Novorossiysk, Anapa and Sochi will be flooded. Siberia and the Urals will not be subjected to too much flooding - mostly residents of coastal settlements will have to be relocated.
The Black Sea will grow - in addition to the northern part of the Crimea and Odessa, it will also clean up Istanbul. Signed cities that will be under water The Baltic states, Denmark and Holland will almost completely disappear. In general, European cities such as London, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam and Copenhagen will go under water along with all their cultural heritage, so while there is time, be sure to visit them and take pictures on Instagram, because your grandchildren will most likely do this already they won't be able to.
The Americans will also have a hard time, who will definitely be left without Washington, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and many other large coastal cities.
What will happen to North America. Signed cities that will be under water Climate
The climate will already undergo unpleasant changes that will lead to the melting of the ice sheet. According to environmentalists, the ice of Antarctica, Antarctica and those that are on mountain peaks help maintain the temperature balance on the planet, cooling its atmosphere. Without them, this balance will be upset.
The influx of large amounts of fresh water into the world's oceans will certainly affect direction of major ocean currents, which largely determine the climatic conditions in many regions. So it is not yet possible to say with certainty what will become of our weather.
The number of natural disasters will increase significantly. Hurricanes, typhoons and tornadoes will claim thousands of lives. Paradoxically, due to global warming, some countries will begin to experience lack of fresh water. And not only because of the arid climate. The fact is that deposits of snow in the mountains provide vast territories with water, and after it melts, there will be no such benefit anymore.
Economy
All this will greatly affect the economy, even if the process of flooding is gradual. Take the US and China, for example! Whether you like it or not, these countries greatly influence the economic situation around the world. In addition to the problem of displacing tens of millions of people and losing their capital, the states will lose almost a quarter of their manufacturing capacity, which will ultimately hit the global economy. And China will be forced to say goodbye to its huge trading ports, which will reduce the flow of products to the world market at times.
How are things today?
Some scientists reassure us that the observed melting of glaciers is normal, because. somewhere they disappear, and somewhere they are formed, and thus the balance is maintained. Others point out that there are still reasons for concern, and provide convincing evidence.
Not so long ago, British scientists analyzed 50 million satellite images of the Antarctic ice sheets and came to the conclusion that their melting is very fast. In particular, the gigantic Totten glacier, comparable in size to the territory of France, causes concern. The researchers noticed that it was washed away by warm salty waters, accelerating its decay. According to forecasts, this glacier can raise the level of the World Ocean by as much as 2 meters. It is assumed that the Larsen B glacier will collapse by 2020. And he, by the way, as much as 12,000 years.
According to the BBC, Antarctica loses as much as 160 billion tons of ice every year. And this number is growing rapidly. Scientists say they did not expect such a rapid melting of the southern ice.
By the way, the name "Antarctica" means "opposite the Arctic" or "opposite the north."
The most annoying thing is that the process of melting glaciers further increases the greenhouse effect. The fact is that the ice sheets of our planet reflect part of the sunlight. Without this, heat will linger in the Earth's atmosphere in large volumes, thereby raising the average temperature. And the growing area of the World Ocean, whose waters collect heat, will only aggravate the situation. In addition, a large amount of melt water also adversely affects glaciers. Thus, the ice reserves, not only in Antarctica, but throughout the globe, are melting faster and faster, which ultimately threatens with big problems.
Boucher's 18th-century map is said to accurately depict the continent of Antarctica as it was before it was covered in ice. In a broader sense, this means that an ancient civilization existed in Antarctica long before the continent was discovered at the beginning of the 19th century.
The mysterious map was created by the French geographer Philippe Boucher de la Neuville. The full title of this map is "Map of the southern lands between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Pole, showing new lands south of the Cape of Good Hope, discovered in 1739." The date on the map is September 3, 1739.
Map of Antarctica by Philippe Boucher, engraved on copper (63.5 x 48.3 cm).
Philippe Boucher de la Neuville was a cartographer and publisher of maps, as well as "the chief theoretical geographer of his generation". Boucher began his career as an assistant and apprentice to the cartographer Guillaume de Lisle. When de Lisle died in 1726, his publishing firm passed to Boucher, who married his teacher's daughter, becoming part of his family. In 1729 Boucher was appointed chief geographer of the king. The following year he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences as Guillaume de Lisle's successor.
Portrait of Philippe Boucher.
Boucher used "geographical knowledge, scientific research, the journals of modern explorers and missionaries, and direct and astronomical observations" to create maps. He was the first to declare the existence of Alaska and the Bering Strait. However, not all of Boucher's assumptions were correct, in particular about the existence of a central Antarctic sea.
legends
Some researchers, based on Charles Hapgood's book Maps of Ancient Sea Kings. Evidence for the Existence of a Highly Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age (1966) says that Boucher's map accurately depicts the subglacial topography of Antarctica. There are suggestions that Boucher used maps made by a highly advanced ancient civilization or even aliens.
Book cover by Charles Hapgood
"Cards of Ancient Sea Kings: Evidence for a Highly Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age". Photo: Amazon However, no one knows for sure what the relief of subglacial Antarctica actually looks like. At present, there is no way to confirm the veracity of the statement about the accuracy of the Boucher map. In addition, there are numerous differences between the maps of Boucher and Piri Reis, a Turkish admiral and cartographer.
The French inscriptions that cover Boucher's map provide clues as to how the map can be read and understood. For example, the words conjecturée (given a hypothesis) and soupçonnée (presumably) can be found on parts of the map showing the southern continent. This suggests that they were not copied from some ancient map. French explorer Jean Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozières reported seeing many icebergs during his journey south. Therefore, Boucher suggested that the icebergs were in the south.
World map by French cartographer Philippe Boucher, 1753
There are two versions of Boucher's map: the second depicts a hypothetical Antarctica, while the first does not. The former version is more common and possibly earlier, while the latter is believed to reflect Boucher's later ideas. There are suggestions that another cartographer fraudulently published Boucher's map of Antarctica, or that it is a modern forgery.
Watch an interesting video about the mysteries of Antarctica:
The ice of the Arctic and Antarctic is by no means eternal. In our time, in connection with the impending global warming caused by the ecological crisis of thermal and chemical pollution of the atmosphere, the mighty shields of frost-bound water are melting. This threatens a great disaster for a vast territory, which includes low-lying coastal lands of various countries, primarily European ones (for example, Holland).
But since the ice sheet of the poles is capable of disappearing, it means that it once arose in the process of the development of the planet. "White caps" appeared - a very long time ago - within some limited interval of the geological history of the Earth. Glaciers cannot be considered an integral property of our planet as a cosmic body.
Comprehensive (geophysical, climatological, glaciological and geological) studies of the southern continent and many other areas of the planet have convincingly proved that the ice cover of Antarctica arose relatively recently. Similar conclusions were drawn for the Arctic.
First, the data of glaciology (the science of glaciers) indicate a gradual increase in ice cover over the past millennia. For example, the glacier covering the Ross Sea was much smaller just 5,000 years ago than it is now. It is assumed that then it occupied only half of the current territory covered by it. Until now, according to some experts, the slow freezing of this gigantic ice tongue continues.
Drilling wells in the thickness of the continental ice gave unexpected results. The cores clearly showed how the next layers of ice were frozen over during the last 10-15 millennia. Spores of bacteria and plant pollen were found in different layers. Consequently, the ice sheet of the mainland grew and actively developed during the last millennia. This process was influenced by climatic and other factors, since the rate of formation of layers of ice varies.
Some of the bacteria found frozen in the thickness of the Antarctic ice (up to 12 thousand years old) have been revived and studied under a microscope. Along the way, a study of air bubbles walled up in these huge layers of frozen water was organized. Work in this area is not completed, but it is clear that in the hands of scientists were evidence of the composition of the atmosphere in the distant past.
Geological studies have confirmed that glaciation is a short-term natural phenomenon. The oldest global glaciation discovered by scientists happened over 2000 million years ago. Then these colossal catastrophes were repeated quite often. The Ordovician glaciation falls on an epoch remote from our time by 440 million years. During this climatic cataclysm, a great number of marine invertebrates died. There were no other animals at that time. They appeared much later, to become victims of the next freeze attacks, covering almost all continents.
The last glaciation, apparently, has not yet ended, but retreated for a while. The great retreat of the ice occurred about 10 thousand years ago. Since then, the powerful ice shells that once covered Europe, a significant part of Asia and North America have remained only in Antarctica, on the Arctic islands and above the waters of the Arctic Ocean. Modern humanity lives in the period of the so-called. interglacial period, which will have to be replaced by a new advance of ice. Unless, of course, before they melt completely.
Geologists have received a lot of interesting facts about Antarctica itself. The great white continent, apparently, was once completely free of ice and was distinguished by an even and warm climate. 2 million years ago, dense forests, like taiga, grew on its coasts. In areas open from ice, it is possible to systematically find fossils of a later, Middle Tertiary time - imprints of leaves and twigs of ancient heat-loving plants.
Then, more than 10 million years ago, despite the cooling that began on the continent, the local expanses were occupied by vast groves of laurels, chestnut oaks, laurel cherries, beeches and other subtropical plants. It can be assumed that these groves were inhabited by animals characteristic of that time - mastodons, saber-toothed, hipparions, etc. But much more striking are the oldest finds in Antarctica.
In the central part of Antarctica, for example, the skeleton of a fossil lizard of Lystrosaurus was found - not far from the South Pole, in rock outcrops. A large reptile of two meters in length was distinguished by an extremely terrible appearance. The age of the find is 230 million years.
Lysrosaurs were, like other animal lizards, typical representatives of the heat-loving fauna. They inhabited hot swampy lowlands, abundantly overgrown with vegetation. Scientists have discovered a whole belt in the geological sediments of South Africa, brimming with the bones of these animals, which is called the Zone of Listrosaurs. Something similar has been found on the South American continent, as well as in India. Obviously, in the early Triassic period, 230 million years ago, the climate of Antarctica, Hindustan, South Africa and South America was similar, since the same animals could live there.
Scientists are looking for an answer to the riddle of the birth of glaciers - what global processes, imperceptible in our interglacial era, 10 millennia ago bound a huge part of the land and the oceans under the shell of hardened water? What is causing this dramatic climate change? None of the hypotheses is convincing enough to be generally accepted. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering the most popular ones. Three hypotheses can be distinguished, conditionally called space, planetary-climatic and geophysical. Each of them gives preference to a certain group of factors or one decisive factor that served as the root cause for the cataclysm.
The space hypothesis is based on the data of geological surveys and astrophysical observations. When establishing the age of moraine and other rocks deposited by ancient glaciers, it turned out that climatic catastrophes happened with strict periodicity. The earth froze in the interval of time, as if specially allotted for this. Each great cooling is separated from the others by a period of approximately 200 million years. This means that after every 200 million years of the dominance of a warm climate, a long winter reigned on the planet, powerful ice caps formed. Climatologists turned to the materials accumulated by astrophysicists: what could be the reason for such an incredibly long time between several iterative (regularly occurring) events in the atmosphere and hydrosphere of a space object? Perhaps with space events comparable in scale and time frame?
Calculations of astrophysicists call as such an event - the revolution of the Sun around the galactic nucleus. The dimensions of the Galaxy are extremely large. The diameter of this cosmic disk reaches a size of about 1000 trillion km. The sun is located at a distance of 300 trillion km from the galactic core, so the complete revolution of our star around the center of the system is delayed for such a colossal period of time. Apparently, on its way the Solar system crosses some region in the Galaxy, under the influence of which another glaciation occurs on Earth.
This hypothesis is not accepted in the scientific world, although it seems convincing to many. However, scientists do not have the facts on the basis of which it could be proved or at least convincingly confirmed. There are no facts confirming the galactic influence on the million-year fluctuations in the planet's climate, except for a strange coincidence of numbers, there is nothing. Astrophysics has not found a mysterious region in the Galaxy where the Earth begins to freeze. The type of external influence, due to which something similar can happen, has not been found. Someone suggests a decrease in solar activity. It seems that the “cold zone” reduced the intensity of the solar radiation flux, and as a result, the Earth began to receive less heat. But this is just speculation.
Supporters of the original version came up with a name for the imaginary processes taking place in the star system. A complete revolution of the solar system around the galactic core was called a galactic year, and a short interval during which the Earth is in an unfavorable "cold zone" was called a cosmic winter.
Some proponents of the extraterrestrial origin of glaciers are looking for climate change factors not in the distant galaxy, but inside the solar system. For the first time such an assumption was made in 1920, its author was the Yugoslav scientist M. Milanković. He took into account the tilt of the earth to the plane of the ecliptic and the tilt of the ecliptic proper to the solar axis. According to Milankovitch, the key to the great glaciations should be sought here.
The fact is that depending on these slopes, the amount of radiant energy of the Sun reaching the earth's surface is most directly determined. In particular, different latitudes receive different numbers of rays. The interposition of the axes of the Sun and the Earth, which changes over time, causes fluctuations in the amount of solar radiation in different regions of the planet and, under certain circumstances, leads the fluctuations to the stage of changing the warm and cold phases.
In the 90s. 20th century this hypothesis has been extensively tested using computer models. Numerous external influences on the position of the planet relative to the Sun were taken into account - the Earth's orbit slowly evolved under the influence of the gravitational fields of neighboring planets, the Earth's trajectory was gradually transformed.
The French geophysicist A. Berger compared the obtained figures with geological data, with the results of a radioisotope analysis of marine sediments, showing temperature changes over millions of years. The temperature fluctuations of oceanic waters completely coincided with the dynamics of the process of transformation of the earth's orbit. Consequently, the cosmic factor could well have provoked the beginning of a cooling of the climate and global glaciation.
At present, it cannot be said that the Milankovitch conjecture has been proven. First, it requires additional long-term checks. Secondly, scientists tend to adhere to the opinion that global processes could not be caused by the action of only one factor, especially if it is external. Most likely, there was a synchronization of the action of various natural phenomena, and the decisive role in this sum belonged to the Earth's own elements.
The planetary-climatic hypothesis is based precisely on this provision. The planet is a huge climate machine that, with its rotation, directs the movement of air currents, cyclones and typhoons. The inclined position with respect to the plane of the ecliptic causes non-uniform heating of its surface. In a sense, the planet itself is a powerful climate regulator. And her inner strengths are the reasons for his metamorphosis.
These internal forces include mantle currents, or the so-called. convection currents in layers of molten magmatic matter that composes the mantle layer underlying the earth's crust. The movements of these currents from the core of the planet to the surface give rise to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, mountain building processes. These same currents cause deep splits in the earth's crust, called rift zones (valleys), or rifts.
Rift valleys are numerous on the ocean floor, where the crust is very thin and easily breaks under the pressure of convection currents. Volcanic activity is extremely high in these zones. Here, mantle matter constantly pours out from the bowels. According to the planetary-climatic hypothesis, it is magma outpourings that play a decisive role in the oscillatory process of the historical transformation of the weather regime.
Rift faults on the ocean floor during periods of greatest activity generate enough heat to cause intense evaporation of seawater. From this, a lot of moisture accumulates in the atmosphere, which then falls to the surface of the Earth as precipitation. In cold latitudes, precipitation falls in the form of snow. But since their precipitation is too intense and the number is large, the snow cover becomes more powerful than is usually the case.
The snow cap melts extremely slowly, for a long time the arrival of precipitation exceeds their consumption - melting. As a result, it begins to grow and transforms into a glacier. The climate on the planet is also gradually changing as a stable area of non-melting ice forms. After some time, the glacier begins to expand, because the dynamic system of uneven income-expenditure cannot be in balance, and the ice increases to incredible sizes and binds almost the entire planet.
However, the maximum glaciation becomes at the same time the beginning of its degradation. Having reached a critical point, an extremum, the growth of ice stops, having met the stubborn resistance of other natural factors. The dynamics has become reversed, the rise has been replaced by a decline. However, the victory of "summer" over "winter" does not come immediately. Initially, a protracted "spring" begins for several millennia. This is a change of short bouts of glaciation with warm interglacials.
Earth civilization was formed in the era of the so-called. Holocene interglacial. It began about 10,000 years ago, and, according to mathematical models, will end at the end of the 3rd millennium AD, i.e. about 3000. From this moment, another cooling will begin, which will reach its apogee after 8000 of our calendar.
The main argument of the planetary-climatic hypothesis is the fact of periodic change of tectonic activity in rift valleys. Convection currents in the bowels of the Earth excite the earth's crust with different strengths, and this leads to the existence of such epochs. Geologists have materials that convincingly prove that climatic fluctuations are chronologically linked to periods of the greatest tectonic activity of the bowels.
Rock deposits show that the next cooling of the climate is accompanied by significant movements of thick blocks of the earth's crust, which were accompanied by the appearance of new faults and the rapid release of hot magma from both new and old rifts. However, the same argument is used by supporters of other hypotheses to confirm their correctness.
These hypotheses can be considered as varieties of a single geophysical hypothesis, since it relies on data on the geophysics of the planet, namely, it relies entirely on paleogeography and tectonics in its calculations. Tectonics studies the geology and physics of the movement of crustal blocks, while paleogeography studies the consequences of such movement.
As a result of multi-million-year displacements of colossal masses of solid matter on the earth's surface, the outlines of the continents, as well as the relief, changed significantly. The fact that thick strata of marine sediments or bottom silts are found on land directly indicates the movements of crustal blocks, accompanied by its sagging or uplift in this region. For example, the Moscow region is composed in large quantities of limestone, abundant with the remains of sea lilies and corals, as well as clayey rocks containing mother-of-pearl ammonite shells. It follows from this that the territory of Moscow and its environs was at least twice flooded with sea waters - 300 and 180 million years ago.
Each time, as a result of the displacement of huge blocks of the crust, either a lowering or an uplift of a certain section of it occurred. In the case of subsidence, ocean waters invaded the mainland, the seas advanced, and transgression occurred. When the sea rose, they receded (regression), the land surface grew, and often mountain ranges rose in place of the former salt basin.
The ocean is the most powerful regulator and even generator of the Earth's climate due to its colossal heat capacity and other unique physical and chemical properties. This water reservoir controls the most important air currents, air composition, precipitation and temperature patterns over vast areas of land. Naturally, an increase or decrease in its surface area affects the nature of global climatic processes.
Each transgression significantly increased the area of saline waters, while the regression of the seas significantly reduced this area. Accordingly, climate fluctuations occurred. Scientists have found that periodic global cooling roughly coincided in time with periods of regression, while the advance of the seas on land was invariably accompanied by climate warming. It would seem that another mechanism of global glaciation has been found, which, perhaps, is the most important, if not exceptional. However, there is another climate-forming factor accompanying tectonic movements - mountain building.
The advance and retreat of oceanic waters passively accompanied the growth or destruction of mountain ranges. The earth's crust, under the influence of convection currents, wrinkled with chains of the highest peaks here and there. Therefore, an exceptional role in long-term climatic fluctuations should still be given to the process of mountain building (orogeny). Not only the surface area of the ocean depended on it, but also the direction of air currents.
If a mountain range disappeared or a new one arose, then the movement of large air masses changed dramatically. Following this, the long-term weather regime in the area was transformed. So, as a result of mountain building, local climates radically changed throughout the planet, which led to a general rebirth of the Earth's climate. As a result, the emerging trend towards global cooling was only gaining momentum.
The last glaciation is tied to the epoch of the Alpine mountain building, which is ending before our eyes. The Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Pamirs and many other highest mountain systems of the planet became the result of this orogeny. The eruptions of the volcanoes Santorin, Vesuvius, Nameless and others are provoked by this process. We can say that today this hypothesis dominates modern science, although it is not fully proven.
The hypothesis received an unexpected development, moreover, in the application to the climatology of Antarctica. The ice continent acquired its current appearance entirely due to tectonics, only the decisive role was played not by regression and not by a change in air currents (these factors are considered secondary). The main influence factor should be called water cooling. Nature froze Atlantis in exactly the same way that a person cools a nuclear reactor.
The "nuclear" version of the geophysical hypothesis is based on the theory of continental drift and paleontological findings. Modern scientists do not question the existence of the movement of continental plates. Since, due to the convection of the mantle, the blocks of the earth's crust are mobile, this mobility is accompanied by a horizontal displacement of the continents themselves. They slowly, at a rate of 1-2 cm per year, crawl along the molten mantle layer.
The mutual arrangement of the continents changed over time, which affected the climate of the Earth, since air and ocean currents depended on it. The fossilized bones of the Lystrosaurus in Antarctica and the extremely numerous similar finds in Africa, South America and India confirm the assumption of scientists that once all these southern lands, including Australia as well, were united into one supercontinent.
The single southern continent of Gondwana existed for over 200 million years: from 240 to 35 million years ago. About 35 million years ago, tectonic movements of the crust finally split it into the current "pieces", one of which turned out to be Antarctica. The split had a negative effect on her climate, as she became isolated.
Previously, the Antarctic shores were washed only by two cold currents, the action of which was fully compensated by warm ocean currents coming from Australia docked with Antarctica. After all the pieces of the supercontinent spread in different directions and left Antarctica alone in the middle of the ocean, it began to be actively washed by many currents, which eventually formed a continuous stream - the so-called. circumpolar flow.
It surrounded Antarctica and gained strength as the "fifth ocean" - the southern waters of the Antarctic region - grew and deepened. Every second, the current carries more water than all the rivers of the planet, which is not surprising, given the average depth of the "southern ocean", equal to 3 km. The current covers all layers of water to the very bottom, being the greatest climatic barrier in nature. This fantastic barrier absorbs all the heat that is only supplied to the white mainland from the outside.
It turned out to be sufficient to lower the air temperature in the Antarctic region by only 3 ° C for the barrier to start acting like a refrigerator. Now the growth of snow and ice cover was inevitable even if the relatively warm regime on the continent persisted. The glacier gradually, in the process of growth, displaced heat to the outskirts, where it was absorbed by the circumpolar current.
The very first ice caps on the white continent began to grow already 30 million years ago on the Gamburtsev Mountains, today completely hidden under the ice shell. Approximately 25-20 million years ago, the tongues of the glacier descended onto the plains, and from that moment on, the complete glaciation of Antarctica became inevitable. So, according to one of the models, the formation of the ice sheet of the last of the continents discovered by man took place.
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