|
|
The Trans-Antarctic Mountains stretch across the continent more than 3,000 miles (5,000 km) from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea, with mountain peaks rising more than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) into the air. At sea level, this region has the largest ice free areas on the continent known as the dry valleys. These valleys were carved by glaciers that once occupied them and later retreated. The Trans-Antarctic Mountains also divide Antarctica into two distinct regions: West Antarctica and East Antarctica.
 |
West Antarctica borders the Pacific Ocean. Below its ice sheet are a number of separate land masses which would become a group of islands if the ice melted. The scientists we are following will be working the in the center of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and are based out of Byrd Station.
The Antarctic Peninsula is a mountainous S-shaped finger of land that points toward South America. In fact, the peninsula forms a continuation of the Andes Mountains chain which are found through the length of South America.
East Antarctica faces the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and makes up two-thirds of the area of the continent. Below this ice sheet is a single ancient land mass that geologists call the Precambrian Shield. The region consists of rocks more than 570 million years old!
The central part of East Antarctica is a plateau that rises 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level. Strong winds on the plateau blow the snow into ridges called sastrugi. The geographic south pole where all the lines of longitude meet lies on the plateau at the center of the continent.
The wavelike patterns and 3-D sculptures carved into the snow by surface winds are called sastrugi. It is possible to deduce the prevailing wind direction from the orientation of sastrugi.
