The name "Antarctica" immediately evokes the association of eternal snow and ice blocks about 4 kilometers thick in some places on the vast expanse of the white continent. It seems that everything here should be saturated with moisture. But no matter how paradoxical it sounds, it is among this abundance of snow that the driest deserts of our planet are located. Antarctica is located at the South Pole, but despite this geographical position, it is the coldest continent in the world, where in January the temperature reaches -93 degrees Celsius.
Scientific sensation
Even the employees of polar research stations cannot be there during this period, and work only in the summer at -25. The vastness of Antarctica resembles the lunar plains, on which people are a rare guest. Polar explorers have determined the boundaries of the dry McMurdo deserts of the icy continent: Victoria, Wright and Teyler.
This discovery became a scientific sensation, established by American sailors in the last century, ahead of Russian scientists by only a few days. Studies have shown that 2% of Antarctica's territory not occupied by snow and ice is the driest place on the planet, where there has been no rain for two million years. The second most dry place on Earth is the Chilean Atacama Desert, in some areas there has been no precipitation for more than 400 years, and the entire territory of the desert was covered with an average annual precipitation of 0.1 mm.
Climatic conditions
Along with the fact that the driest deserts are located in Antarctica, this continent is considered the wettest and windiest place, since it is here that 70% of the fresh water reserves of our entire planet are concentrated in the form of huge deposits of ice.
The dryness of the Antarctic deserts is explained by the presence in these zones of constant katabatic winds, the speed of which is catastrophically huge and amounts to 320 kilometers per hour. They are named so because of the speed of their sliding down the slopes under the influence of gravity. In such conditions, it is simply impossible for moisture to linger, the snow immediately turns into a gaseous state, so there is no ice, although the longest river in Antarctica, Onyx, flows almost next to the dry deserts, and Lake Vida is located a little further.
Even discovering these deserts in the midst of white silence was an inhumanly difficult task: severe frost paired with a crazy wind created unbearable research conditions for polar explorers. The fact of identifying dry places and the reasons for their occurrence has become not just a scientific discovery, but a real heroic feat of enthusiastic researchers.
Scientific observations of dry valleys continue to be actively pursued, and it has already been established that their space is very similar to the Martian space in terms of external and climatic characteristics. It is no coincidence that NASA is testing the Viking lander here, hoping to soon use them on the red planet.
Icy lakes of dry desert
Frozen lakes have been discovered in the dry Wright Valley, in which the water has a very high salt concentration, surpassing the Dead Sea in salinity. But even it contains not yet studied microorganisms and bacteria, the main component of which is the elements of sulfur and iron. Rocks save them from death, and during the melting of glaciers, bacteria, coming out, paint the water red, giving the impression of the Blood Falls, which can be observed in another dry valley - Taylor.
The discovery of such protozoa once again indirectly convinces scientists of the correctness of the theory about the possibility of life of living organisms on Mars. Another sign of the similarity of the dry deserts of Antarctica with the mysterious planet is the reddish-rusty color of their surface, on which there is no vegetation and no animals.
Dry desert exploration
Why is it possible for polar birds and animals to live in the ice, but in dry valleys, where there is no snow, there is none? Excessive dryness of the atmosphere makes it impossible for animals and plants to live here. But, as scientists-zoologists and biologists find out, this was not always the case.
This conclusion was made by them when they began to find the mummified remains of seals, perfectly preserved in dry air conditions in the dry Victoria Desert. Presumably, these mammals lived here about 3000 years ago. Consequently, during this period, the climatic and geographical conditions of existence changed in the areas now called dry deserts.
The polar researchers of Antarctica are now struggling with this problem, they put forward various theories of the causes of changes in the climatic zones of the ice continent, but so far there is no direct answer to these questions. Antarctica continues to remain a mysterious, little-studied continent, therefore research expeditions do not stop their work, despite the harsh, inhumanly difficult conditions of people staying here even during the Antarctic "summer" season, when the air temperature is -25 Celsius.
Antarctic tourism
But even here, in the land of eternal cold, tourist cruises are possible. For example, such a trip on the motor ship "L Austral" is planned to celebrate the New Year from December 29, 2015 to January 8, 2016. For those who can take part in this fantastic cruise, there will be the most unusual New Year's holiday among the icy silence of icebergs, eternal snows, among which the red-brown spaces of dry valleys are lost. One can imagine the delight of travelers watching a colony of king penguins or fur seals peacefully living on ice floes through the windows.
The magnificent luxury ship will cruise from the Argentine port of Ushuaia at 18.30 on December 29. The port city is located on the very edge of Argentina and is the capital of Tierra del Fuego - the national park of the state. From its inspection, the journey of 190 tourists who wished to take part in such an exotic voyage will begin, which will allow them to visit the fairy kingdom of the Snow Queen and see with their own eyes the dazzling harsh beauty of the ice palaces of the mysteriously inaccessible continent.
More information about cruises to Antarctica in our article.
