Continents

A replica of the first Bulgarian building of Antarctica, built 30 years ago, will become part of the collection of the National Museum of History. This was announced today by the director of the museum, Associate Professor Bonnie Petrunova and the head of our Antarctic expedition, Hristo Pimpirev.

Scientists already knew that the lowest temperatures ever measured on Earth were on a frozen ice ridge in eastern Antarctica, near the South Pole. But they recently discovered that temperatures there can drop even lower than those previously measured.

The melting of Antarctica is accelerating at an alarming rate, with about 3 trillion tons of ice disappearing since 1992, an international team of ice experts said in a new study.

In this period of economic recovery and relative stability, we Europeans are forgetting that not so long ago we stood on the edge of an abyss, and that our reality is still crippled by geopolitical and financial uncertainties, with record-high debt levels in Asia and America capable of triggering another worldwide economic crisis.

Turkey is set to deploy a large team of scientists to Antarctica, the world’s fifth largest continent, to assess the feasibility of establishing a scientific base in order to meet the criteria needed to upgrade its status from non-consultative to consultative party in the Antarctic Treaty.

Adventurous travelers are most likely to boast stamps in passports from any continent, perhaps with the exception of Antarctica. The most fearless might include in their plans and travel to the icy land. But today scientists believe that the most ambitious travelers in the world already have eight continents to set foot on.

A hole as large as Lake Superior or the state of Maine has opened up in Antarctica, and scientists aren’t sure why it’s there.
The gigantic, mysterious hole “is quite remarkable,” atmospheric physicist Kent Moore, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus, told me over the phone. “It looks like you just punched a hole in the ice.”

Researchers in Antarctica have discovered rapidly growing banks of mosses on the ice continent’s northern peninsula, providing striking evidence of climate change in the coldest and most remote parts of the planet.

The British Antarctic Survey will shut down its Halley base in Antarctica because of cracks in the ice under the station.

Turkish professor Gökhan Halıcı has been invited once again to Antarctica to conduct a scientific research on the categorization of lichen and bryophytes, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Dec. 25.

Halıcı, who is the only Turkish scientist in the research, is expected to stay in a Czech research station for three months.