The End of the Earth

Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica

Our trip to Antarctica started in Puntas Arenas, Chile with Antarctica21 Fly & Sail Expeditions. We flew over the Drake Passage to the Frei and Bellingshausen research stations. Zodiacs carried us to the Ocean Nova expedition ship, our home for seven nights, and we sailed through the inside passage of the Antarctic Pennisula to a point inside the Antarctic Circle.

Antarctica, the Seventh Continent, is 1.4X bigger than the USA and 1.8X bigger than Australia. It has 70% of the entire world’s freshwater, frozen as ice, and 90% of all the world’s ice. The average thickness of the ice is 6,000 feet and its thickest point is over 15,000 feet.
There are no permanent residents and has never had a native population. There are about 4,000 temporary residents on scientific bases in the summer and approximately 1,000 in the winter. Although there were historical territorial claims, the Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 nations initially, but is currently signed by 52 countries representing 80% of the world’s population. This treaty dedicates the entire continent to peaceful scientific investigation. In 1991, a protocol to the treaty was signed that would ban oil and other mineral exploration for at least 50 years beginning in 1998 until 2048, at which time it would be renegotiated to change or remain the same.

adventureantarcticAntarcticaarcticbackgroundbeautybergblueCloudscloudycolddramaticenvironmentalfloatfloatingfrozenglacialIceIcebergicyKingsburylandscapemajesticmountainsnatureoceanpanoramapeakpolarreflectionrk2studioscenicsculptureseaseascapeskysnowsunlitwater