Antarctica questions

The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica and covers an area of about 520,000 km2, nearly the size of France. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 kilometres long, and between 15 and 50 metres high above the water surface. Ninety percent of the floating ice, however, is below the water surface.

With a summit elevation of 3,794 metres, Mount Erebus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley). Located in the Ross Dependency on Ross Island, it is the southernmost active volcano on Earth.

Blue ice occurs under the surface of a glacier as a result of repeated, slow thawing and freezing of water. This process speeds up when snow falls on the top of a glacier, the ice compresses, air bubbles are squeezed out and ice crystals enlarge, making the ice appear blue. In the Greenland environment this process takes from 100 up to 150 years.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (or simply IceCube) is a neutrino observatory constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Its thousands of sensors are located under the Antarctic ice, distributed over a cubic kilometre. In November 2013 it was announced that IceCube had detected 28 neutrinos that likely originated outside the Solar System.

The mountain range has been discovered as late as 1958 during seismic research. The range has an extended comparable to the European Alps and peaks that are believed to reach 2800 meters (8,900 ft) heigh. But the whole area is covered with 600 metres (2,000 ft) of Antarctic ice.

Alexander Island was discovered on January 28, 1821 by a Russian expedition under Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, who named it Alexander I Land for the reigning Tsar Alexander I of Russia. What in fact is an island, was believed to be part of the Antarctic mainland until 1940.

Metallica is the first band to play on all seven continents . . . and they did it all in one calendar year. In 2013 they played in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and a special concert for some scientists in Antarctica.

About 90% of terrestrial ice is found in Antarctica.

The word is of Greenlandic origin and has been used in English since the 1870s. Nunataks are generally angular and jagged, which hampers the formation of glacial ice on their tops, although snow may accumulate on them. Typically nunataks are the only places where plant life can survive on the ice sheets or ice caps.

Emilio Marcos Palma (born 7 January 1978) is an Argentine man known for being the first documented person born on the continent of Antarctica. Palma was born in Fortín Sargento Cabral at the Esperanza Base, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, and weighed 3.4 kg (7 lb 8 oz). His father, Captain Jorge Emilio Palma, was head of the Argentine Army detachment at the base. He is featured in the Guinness Book of Records .