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The wildlife of Antarctica are extremophiles, having adapted to the dryness, low temperatures, and high exposure common in Antarctica. The extreme weather of the interior contrasts to the relatively mild conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula and the subantarctic islands , which have warmer temperatures and more liquid water.
Antarctica's two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis) are found on the northern and western parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, including offshore islands, where the climate is relatively mild. Lagotellerie Island in Marguerite Bay is an example of this habitat.
Nearly all of Antarctica is covered by a sheet of ice that is, on average, at least 1,500 m (5,000 ft) thick. Antarctica contains 90% of the world's ice and more than 70% of its fresh water. If all the land-ice covering Antarctica were to melt — around 30 × 10 ^ 6 km 3 (7.2 × 10 ^ 6 cu mi) of ice — the seas would rise by over 60 m (200 ft ...
The lake is covered by a transparent ice sheet 3.5–4 metres (11–13 ft) year-round, though melting in late December forms a moat out to approximately 50 metres (160 ft) from the shore. The surface of the ice is not covered with snow and is "deeply rutted with cracks and melt lines". [6]
Tardigrades, which are eight-legged micro-animals, are commonly referred to as water bears or moss piglets and are found all over the world in varying extreme habitats. First discovered in 1904 and originally named Hypsibius antarcticus, Acutuncus antarcticus is the most abundant tardigrade species in Antarctica. [1]
The hunting of baleen whales in the vicinity of Antarctica began around 1904, with the establishment of a whaling station on South Georgia. Hunting of blue whales was banned in 1966, and finally brought under control in the 1970s. By that time the blue whale population had been reduced to 0.15% of its original size. [3]
The U.S.-based team used a sterile hot water drill to reach and collect samples from Lake Whillans, one of Antarctica's roughly 400 lakes, which are kept liquid by pressure, friction and the ...
The coldest month was August 1987 with a mean temperature of −75.4 °C (−103.7 °F) and the warmest month was December 1989 with a mean temperature of −28 °C (−18 °F). [25] In addition to the extremely cold temperatures, other factors make Vostok one of the most difficult places on Earth for human habitation: