Introduction to Antarctica

    There is also a place on the earth which is so big in terms of area that it can fit 17 small countries easily. The amazing thing is that this place is almost completely covered with snow. 90% of the snow found in the world. So it is found only here (Reference No. 1). If all this ice melts, the water level in the sea will rise up to 200 feet (Reference No. 1), which will result in disaster. The depth is so high that only ice is ice for two kilometers when digging a hole. The name of this place is Antarctica, which is the fifth largest continent in the world. A continent is called a large piece of land. There are seven major continents on this earth, including The largest continent is Asia and the smallest continent is Australia.

    The unique thing about this place is that summer starts here from October and lasts from February to March. That is, when winter is starting with us, summer arrives there, but the reason for severe cold is there. The summer there is even colder than our winter because the temperature is usually minus degrees Celsius even in summer. The lowest temperature recorded in the world was not recorded anywhere else but in Antarctica. This temperature was recorded by satellite in 2010 which was minus 93.2 degrees Celsius (reference no. 2). Let me tell you that water turns into ice at zero degrees Celsius. It is 93.2 times less temperature than zero degrees Celsius.

    There are many countries in all other continents of the world. Take the example of Asia, which has more or less 51 countries and our Pakistan, India, Iran, Bangladesh, China, Afghanistan are located in the continent of Asia. But the surprising thing is that Although Antarctica is so big, there is no country there. Because the cold that falls there is so much that no human population can live there permanently. This does not mean that there are no people living there. 66 Research There are stations (reference no. 3). The world's largest station in Antarctica is called McMurdo, which was established by the United States in 1956. This station has a capacity of 1200 people.

    Pakistan also established the Jinnah Research Station here in 1991. Researchers from different countries stay in these stations for years. Since winter is much colder than summer, that is the reason why winter is The number of these researchers is reduced from 4000 to 1000 (reference no. 3). These researchers include geologists, archaeologists, glaciologists, materialologists and biologists, etc. Biologists research the life found there, glaciologists find there. Meteorologists study the weather, archaeologists study the fossils found there.

    Antarctica is one of the places in the world or maybe the only one where visa is not required to visit for tourism. When we go abroad we need visa but because Antarctica is not owned by any country i.e. by any country. The government does not control Antarctica, so a visa is not required. However, remember that a visa is required when you travel to Antarctica from another country (Reference #4). Every year thousands of tourists visit Antarctica. Visiting Antarctica. An estimated 23,000 thousand people visited Antarctica in 2021-22 (reference no. 4). Would you like to visit Antarctica? If you are interested in visiting Antarctica, arrange food first Do it yourself because you won't find any hotels or stores where you can buy food. Since it is very cold there, you will need more food. In such extreme cold, 3500 to 5000 calories are needed. While under normal conditions we need 2000 calories of energy and we get these calories from food.

    Antarctica is not the property of any country and no country can occupy it. No country can conduct nuclear experiments in Antarctica or dispose of nuclear waste there. No country can establish military bases there. Ban because on December 1, 1959, an international agreement called the Antarctic Treaty was signed (Reference No. 5). And this agreement prohibits all these things. According to this agreement, the territory of Antarctica can only be used for good and research purposes. In the past, seven countries, including France, Chile, Great Britain, Argentina, New Zealand, Including Australia and Navarre, they have claimed ownership of various parts of Antarctica but cannot occupy these parts because they are bound by the Antarctic Treaty.

    Antarctica is the only continent in the world where mining is prohibited, that is, no country can earn foreign exchange by extracting the reserves of minerals such as iron, copper, aluminum, etc. and fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) found there. This is because of an agreement in 1991 called the Madrid Protocol. According to this agreement, commercial mining on Antarctic land is prohibited for the next fifty years. Yes, of course you can mine for research purposes. If Even if mining is allowed there, most of the countries will not be interested in this work anyway, because the extreme cold there and then the depth of snow up to two kilometers are factors that are the biggest obstacles in mining. There is a lack of infrastructure ie there are no roads and so on