In Antarctica some the the highest temperatures only reach a minus 25. These are during summer months, like December.Depending on the weather, a hurricane type wind could come sweeping across the glacier and freeze your eyelids shut if you were unfortunate enough to be out when it blows.The South Pole may well be home to the earth’s most ungracious, relentless environment.
Maintaining the United State’s permanent station here is no doubt the world’s most isolated and yet significant scientific outpost.Until recently, only approved researchers could set food in Antarctica.Now, tourists with enough money can take a charter flight out to see the harsh but wonderful wastelands of the South Pole.antarctic cruises
There is not much to observe but white.From the South Pole, you will not be able to find a penguin for a thousand miles.However, being able to say that one has stood at the South Pole is something that few can claim.
The scientists and other workers who inhabit The Pole, likely look askance when considering the station as a tourist attraction, as the site is strewn with cranes and bulldozers that continue to develop the station.But is doesn’t stop visitors, as the do come frequently during research season.Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done to prevent it.
There are no nations that lay claim to ownership of Antarctica. However, there are 43 nations that have signed treaties to protect and study this mysterious landmass that covers an area as large as that covered by Mexico and the United States together.The U.S. staffs three large stations throughout the year, even during the Pole’s winter, which lasts for eight months without a ray of sunlight.The crew working at The Pole is bound by the understood laws of the Ice, to assist any visitor, wanted or unwanted, who manages to cross the 90 degree south latitude line.great antarctic cruise
Due to the lack of knowledge about this land and the fact that it stands at 10,000 feet above sea level, visitation by untrained people is not promoted.They’ll just get altitude sickness, and get ill from dehydration and frostbite.
Back in 1975, when the dome originally opened, it was able to accommodate 33 men.Now the two hundred men and women at the Pole crowd into every bed that is available.Summer Camp, as it is called, consists of manufactured plywood, plastic, and canvas bunkhouses that sprawl across the glacier.
Similar to many camps, there is no limit to the amount of water used at Summer Camp.It costs twelve dollars for each gallon of fuel used to melt enough ice to wash laundry, flush toilets, and take showers, so these activities are considered infrequent luxuries.If you want to use the communal bathroom you have to make a slippery and teeth-rattling journey over the ice and through the cold. The temperature doesn’t change much even when the sun is blazing at 3 a.m.
Military escorts were assigned to Antarctica’s first female researchers.Now, you will see that one-third of the summer work force is women who are treated as equals to men.There is a toll that has to be paid to the Pole.
It has been scientifically proven that extreme cold temperatures make it take three times longer to preform a simple task then it does in warmer temperatures.This is because the brain’s chemistry reduces the hormones you need for problem solving and increases those needed for physical activity.The conditions are even worse in the winter.
It is in mid February that the South Pole is virtually deserted as the last aircraft leave the area.Those few, 28 men and women, will stay on the frozen land through the next six months of harsh winter.It will remain dark until spring arrives in October, and the daylight and aircraft return to the continent.
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