Antarctic Plateau - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Antarctic Plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

(sometimes referred to as the Polar Plateau) is a large area of Central Antarctica, which extends over a diameter of about 1000 kilometres (621.4 mi), and which includes the region of the South Pole

South Pole

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...

and the Amundsen-Scott Station. This plateau is at an average elevation of about 3000 metres (9,842.5 ft).

Exploration

This plateau was first sighted in 1903 during the Discovery Expedition

Discovery Expedition

The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier...

to the Antarctic, which was led by Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...

. Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...

became the first to cross parts of this plateau in 1909 during his Nimrod Expedition

Nimrod Expedition

The British Antarctic Expedition 1907–09, otherwise known as the Nimrod Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to the South Pole...

, which turned back in bad weather when it had reached a point just 97 nautical miles from the South Pole

South Pole

. Shackleton named this plateau the King Edward VII Plateau in honor of the King of the United Kingdom. Just two years later (in late 1911), the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....

decided to name this plateau the Haakon VII Plateau in honor of the newly-elected King Haakon VII of Norway, while Amundsen's expedition

Expedition

An expedition typically refers to a long journey or voyage undertaken for a specific purpose, often exploratory, scientific, geographic, military or political in nature...

was returning from the first journey to the South Pole

Amundsen's South Pole expedition

The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott...

in December 1911.

The Antarctic Plateau was first observed and photographed from the air in 1929 from a Ford Trimotor

Ford Trimotor

The Ford Trimotor was an American three-engined transport plane that was first produced in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and that continued to be produced until June 7, 1933. Throughout its time in production, a total of 199 Ford Trimotors were produced...

airplane carrying four men on the first flight to the South Pole and back to the seacoast. The chief pilot

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

of this flight was Bernt Balchen

Bernt Balchen

Bernt Balchen, , a winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross was a Norwegian native, and later U.S. citizen, known as a pioneer polar aviator, navigator, aircraft mechanical engineer and military leader. His service in the U.S...

, a native of Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, and the navigator

Navigator

A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times. Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the Captain or aircraft Commander of estimated timing to...

and chief organizer of this expedition was Richard E. Byrd of Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, an officer in the U.S. Navy. The other two members of its crew were the co-pilot and the photographer.

Climate

The high elevations of the Antarctic Plateau, combined with its high latitudes, and its extremely long sunless winters, mean that the temperatures here are the lowest in the world in most years (compare with central Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

in the Northern Hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...

Fauna

The nearly continual frigid winds that blow across the Antarctic Plateau, especially in the wintertime, make the outdoor conditions there very inhospitable to life. Hence there is practically no natural life, even at the microscopic level.

No penguin

Penguin

Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...

s live on the Antarctic Plateau because there is nothing there for them to eat. Few or no birds fly over the Antarctic Plateau, and if any arrive there, they have been blown in by huge storms - usually to their deaths by freezing or thirst. There are no land animals on Antarctica, except for human beings and their laboratory animals.

Any microscopic life that could be found on the Antarctic Plateau would be either dead or dying microorganism

Microorganism

A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters, or no cell at all...

s blown in by the wind, or "hitching a ride" on human land vehicles or aircraft, carried in on food supplies, or microorganisms living in the digestive systems or bloodstreams of human beings, their laboratory animals, or their pets.

Exploration

Climate

Fauna

See also