What’s going on in Antarctica?

John Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Ok, but really: What’s going on down there?

Scientists recently spotted a mile-wide scar of broken ice while observing from the air, and guessed that it might’ve been caused by a meteor impact in 2004. The meteor concerned was the size of a house and carried the power of 12,000 tons of TNT. No-one noticed?

For many of us, the extent of our Antarctica knowledge is: “It’s cold and it’s melting.” Some people may know more, but failing to investigate a house-sized meteor strike after more than a decade suggests we’re not paying that much attention to the continent.

Wait, it’s a continent? Oh yeah…that’s right.

Officially, Antarctica belongs to no one, but a few make claims to parts of it. It has no permanent population, which is unsurprising given that it’s not only the coldest and most isolated place on Earth, but also the windiest and driest. Nevertheless, eleven babies have been born there through circumstance, and could make claims at parties that they’re Antarctican. I’d want a selfie with them.

Failed experiments

There have been ill-advised attempts to populate the continent in the past, mainly by Europeans in the early twentieth century–when Europeans were trying to populate everything. Until the 1960s, when whaling faced more restrictions, whalers lived there with their families, and there were even some small schools where presumably “snow days” weren’t really a thing. Currently, the largest community in Antarctica is McMurdo Station, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents and serving as the United States Antarctic science facility.

There have been harebrained ideas that Antarctica could be populated by tens of thousands living in giant domes. The schemes were deemed unfeasible, but humans may still be able to one day populate Antarctica through their endless dicking around when global warming makes farming and crop-growing possible in some northerly areas. For now, there are between 1000 and 5000 people on the continent at any one time, with more in summer than winter. Most of them are scientific researchers–though there are at least two rotating priests for a Russian Orthodox Church.

The rest of the population conducts science, distills vodka or hooks-up on Tinder

A few of the researchers also double up as part-time barmen. A small group of Ukrainian scientists work at a station called Vernadsky, which is famous because previous occupants discovered the hole in the ozone layer from there. Today, the station is still fully operational and some scientists have a great side-line going on with homemade vodka. They create their own flavored and straight vodkas, and welcome in passing researchers and tourists ships for a shot at their makeshift bar.

If anyone had a chance at random hook-ups in Antarctica, you’d think it’d be these guys. But, somehow, it was just a bored and lonely scientist who decided to fire up his Tinder app in 2014. Using the broadband his government provided for research (scientific research, that is), he stumbled upon a woman who was camping in the Antarctic and also using Tinder. She was a 45 minute helicopter ride away, but eventually they managed to meet in person.

So actually, there’s quite a bit going on in Antarctica. Perhaps too much.

The BBC recently argued that with 37,000 tourists per year, there may be too much going on in Antarctica. Visitors vacuum their clothes and disinfect their boots to ensure they introduce no alien species to the region, and are not allowed to eat or smoke while ashore. They are even advised not to drink too much coffee with breakfast on the ship, so as not to leave any “yellow snow.” Nevertheless, there are fears that any amount of trampling over such a fragile ecosystem could cause damage.

While we may have avoided the obscene domes, there is still plenty to be concerned about for Antarctica. We’ve sort of done a good job of letting it be–for now. And hopefully meteor strikes will go unnoticed there for many years to come, while that other environmental calamity (the human race) keeps a low profile, too.

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