Antarctica is the only mysterious continent that doesn’t have any permanent people living there. There are only a few researchers who stay for a particular period in Antarctica. This continent has a lot of mysterious and interesting facts that are still coming out as a new hot topic to discuss.
10 Interesting & Mysterious Facts About Antarctica:
01. Antarctica Is Actually A Desert
It sounds awkward. How Can A Freezing Place Be A Desert? But the truth is that Antarctica is a cold desert and also one of the largest deserts on earth. It is defined as a desert area when it receives very little precipitation. Scientists claimed that there are some parts of Antarctica such as East Antarctica that didn’t get rain and snow for millions of years. Hence, Antarctica is classified as a Polar Desert.
02. Antarctica Has No Official TimeZone
A flight from Bangalore to Mumbai City will cost you three hours, but a flight from one corner of Antarctica to the other corner might have the same time zone as there is not any time zone existing in Antarctica. It is tough to determine the appropriate time zone in Antarctica at the moment.
03. Glimpse Of A Red Waterfall
There is a red-blooded waterfall present in Antarctica. At first, it was believed that the waterfall’s red color was caused by algae, but later researchers determined that it was caused by iron oxides. Interesting, right?
04. Antarctica Holds The World’s Most Of The Freshwater
There is approximately 70% water on Earth, of which only between 2-3% is fresh water for human use, and the remaining is salt water. Antarctica has the highest percentage of freshwater locked up within the ice.
05. A Majority Of Meteorites Recovered On Earth Were Found In Antarctica
Antarctica is known for meteorites. Its reputation comes from the fact that the continent is mostly white and dark-colored meteorites stand out like sore thumbs due to their distinctive characteristics.
The climate of Antarctica also helps to preserve them as it is scorched. Even in tropical areas, meteorites would rapidly become rusty and degrade.
06. Antarctica Belongs To Several Nations
Several countries announced that Antarctica would not belong to a single nation, but rather would be governed by the Antarctic Treaty and used solely for scientific research. So, basically, nobody owns Antarctica but in another sense, several nations own Antarctica in a combined way.
07. Tinder Matched Story
According to a post by the NASA research team, a Tinder match happened between an American scientist and another researcher in Antarctica, who wasn’t more than 45 minutes away by helicopter. Interesting!
08. Life Exists Beneath The Freezing Ice
It is not easily possible to survive and live under huge ice sheets. However, researchers found that life exists under the ice sheet of Antarctica. The fish were found in living conditions despite such a harsh environment.
09. Only Continent Without Ants & Mosquitoes
Ants & Mosquitoes are spreading all over the world. But one interesting fact about Antarctica is that there are no ants and mosquitoes or such reptiles exist.
10. There Are No Regular Day & Night
There are six months of daylight in Antarctica’s summer and six months of darkness in the winter season. Mysterious! The reason behind such phenomena is due to the Earth’s axis tilt in bracing to the sun.
