Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The adjoining plates are the Nazca plate, the South American plate, the African plate, the Somali plate, the Indo-Australian plate, the Pacific plate, and, across a transform boundary, the Scotia and South Sandwich plates. The Antarctic plate has an area of about 60,900,000 km 2 (23,500,000 sq mi). [3] It is Earth's fifth-largest tectonic plate.
The frozen continent of Antarctica was the last continent humanity set foot on. The first documented landings made below the Antarctic Circle took place in 1820, when Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and the crew of the Vostok and Mirny, as part of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, made land at Peter I Island and Alexander Island.
To the southeast the historic Bellingshausen plate separated the Pacific and Antarctic plates between about 84 to 61 million years ago. [7]: Fig 9. Fig 9. Until about 33 million years ago, the Proto-Antipodes fracture zone well to the south separated two independent spreading centers, now merged, being the Antarctic–Pacific Ridge and that of ...
The Antarctic Peninsula, roughly 1,000 kilometres (650 mi) south of South America, is the northernmost portion of the continent of Antarctica.Like the associated Andes, the Antarctic Peninsula is an excellent example of ocean-continent collision resulting in subduction. [1]
A map of the Antarctic region, including the Antarctic Convergence and the 60th parallel south The Antarctic Plate. The Antarctic (/ æ n ˈ t ɑːr t ɪ k / or / æ n ˈ t ɑːr k t ɪ k /, American English also / æ n t ˈ ɑːr t ɪ k / or / æ n t ˈ ɑːr k t ɪ k /; commonly / æ ˈ n ɑːr t ɪ k /) [Note 1] is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around ...
The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and, thus, by ice. The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle .
By December, 2009, data analyzed so far from the AGAP project indicate the mountain range is generally oriented southwest to northeast, and arose from tectonic plate activity. [ 11 ] The team's next goal is to drill through the ice and collect the first Gamburtsev rock samples.
Map of Antarctica showing West Antarctic Rift System in rose shading . The West Antarctic Rift System is a series of rift valleys between East and West Antarctica. [1] It encompasses the Ross Embayment, the Ross Sea, the area under the Ross Ice Shelf and a part of Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica, [2] reaching to the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. [1]