Geography of Antarctica

The first group of 15 polar explorers from the 30th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition is already aboard the Chilean warship Janequeo after a ten-day quarantine in the Chilean port of Punta Arenas, said the head of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute Prof. Hristo Pimpirev.

A mammoth slab of ice has separated from the frozen edge of Antarctica in the Weddell Sea, giving birth to the world's largest iceberg, the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement on Wednesday.

A scientist specializing in Arctic studies said research on Antarctica has shed light on global climate change as well as the Earth's history.

Burcu Özsoy, a member of Istanbul Technical University's Faculty of Maritime Studies and chairperson of the TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center's Institute of Arctic Research, has been conducting studies on sea ice on the white continent.

The next expedition to Antarctica is coming soon, Prof. Hristo Pimpirev said in the studio of the BNT morning block. The first group left on November 13th. Logistics were originally departing because our base was closed in the long Antarctic winter.

Professor Hristo Pimpirev and ten other polar researchers will join the Bulgarian expedition team at the Bulgarian St. Kliment Ohridski base in Antarctica, reports BNT

The second group of the 27th National Antarctic Expedition is leaving tonight the country, reported the Bulgarian National Television.

The group will be led by  Hristo Pimpirev and will travel from Sofia via Santiago de Chile to Punta Arenas.

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.

A Bulgarian team of geologists found Antarctica fossils of plants from the "youth" of our planet - proof that the white continent was once green.

One of the tasks to our Antarctic expedition was a detailed study of the rocks of Cape Hannah. It is 12.5 km straight from Hurd Peninsula, where the Bulgarian Antarctic Base "St. Kliment Ohridski" is located.

"Bulgarian scientists, supported by the state, recognized the immense importance of Antarctica decades ago," said President Rumen Radev in his address to the members of the 26th Bulgarian Antarctic expedition days before the researchers left for the Bulgarian St. Kliment Ohridski Researchers' center on the Livingston Island.

The huge iceberg, which a week ago separated from Antarctica, began to move to the open sea, world agencies reported.

The huge piece of ice weighs 1 trillion tons and has a size of 5800 sq. km.

The latest satellite images show that the distance between the iceberg and the ice of Antarctica is increasing. The photographs were taken with the Deimos 1 satellite.