Antarctica is the last pure land on Earth. It is the coldest, driest, highest latitude and cleanest continent on Earth. Although it is a frozen world covered in ice and snow, it is still a scene of life. In the middle of summer in the Southern Hemisphere, I walked into my iceberg dream.
With a total area of 13.9 million square kilometers, the Antarctic continent ranks fifth among all continents in the world. As we all know, there are 7 continents in the world, and South America and Antarctica are the farthest and most difficult to reach for Chinese people. But this trip to Fliggy's Antarctica allowed me to check in both South America and Antarctica at once, which was really fantastic.
The entire Antarctic continent is covered by a huge ice sheet, with an average elevation of 2,350 meters, making it the highest continent in the world. I didn't have a concept of the term plateau at first, and I wasn't deeply shocked until I came to Antarctica. A friend said that if a trip to Antarctica is just for the sake of pretending, there is no need to go to great lengths. And my answer is, "Any mountain in Antarctica has the style of a national park."
Antarctic travel is an adventure in nature, and hardware facilities are by no means the only element in choosing an Antarctic cruise. The first factor to consider when choosing a cruise ship is safety. The Midnight Sunshine is the largest cruise ship allowed to enter the Antarctic region. Fliggy Travel also has five cruise charters in the spring of 2019, and it is time to book it quickly.
We'll see a lot of beautiful glaciers as we cruise, and that alluring shade of blue, a gradient of blue that is probably hard to see anywhere else in the world. The gradient color that reminds me of is the green aurora. In contrast to the blue and white ice, the sea water seems to be black, but when you put the camera in the water, you will see that the water is also extremely transparent, and it is also very transparent blue. Sometimes the boat goes slower, and you can see transparent light blue jellyfish everywhere, which is very pleasant.
In summer, the outer edge of the ice shelf melts into water at the contact with the warm water on the surface of Antarctica, and under the action of wind, waves and tides, it causes fractures, forming offshore platform-type icebergs. It is estimated that 5 billion tonnes of icebergs are formed every year from the Antarctic ice sheet breaking into the sea! In the face of this large mass of glacier in front of us, no language pales.
The Weddell's seal, also known as the Weddell's seal, Weddell's seal or Weddell's seal, was named by James Weddell, a British Antarctic seafaring explorer.
Weddell seals live in Antarctica even all winter. They live in the water beneath the ice, so they are not afraid of the blizzards raging above. But they have to be exposed to air all year round, because they have to breathe. Therefore, they rely on the strength of their teeth to keep their breathing holes open at all times. You have to keep scraping the ice to get in touch with the outside air, but doing so means that your teeth are worn out so much that you can't hunt, so Weddell seals leave the world at a young age, with a typical lifespan of about 20 years.
In addition to the seals that have been lying on the corpse, we can also see the Antarctic penguins that can be seen everywhere, they walk in a cute way, why are there such cute creatures in the world?
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Today's landing place is no longer the appearance of yesterday's small factory at the Great Wall Station, and I finally saw the penguins in my heart, the clumsy little penguins are not waist-high, but they have climbed the mountain of nearly 100 meters step by step, and built a nest on the cliff, which surprised me very much. I used to think that the eagles on the plateau were the kings of birds and birds, but looking at the environment in which these cute penguins lived, I couldn't help but be in awe of the penguins, the Antarctic climate they live in is so harsh, but they can still survive tenaciously, and live so cutely, living in the mountains, looking at the momentum of their homeland, you have to admire. I used to think that the eagles on the plateau were the kings of birds and birds, but looking at the environment in which these cute penguins lived, I couldn't help but be in awe of the penguins, the Antarctic climate they live in is so harsh, but they can still survive tenaciously, and live so cutely, living in the mountains, looking at the momentum of their homeland, you have to admire.
Under the test of ice and snow, the penguin's ability to withstand the cold has become more and more powerful, and its body structure has become more suitable for swimming, and even evolved into a huge size. For example, the 37 million-year-old Crested Penguin can stand up to 2 meters tall and weigh 115 kilograms, almost twice as many as the largest penguin in existence, the Emperor Penguin! However, due to the subsequent changes in ocean currents and climate, such oversized penguins could not adapt to the changing environment and did not appear again.