The Most Unexplored Place on Earth

Bright Side

You ever think about the ultimate mystery on our planet? Well, Antarctica takes the cake. It's like this massive icy puzzle that we've barely even started solving. We're talking about a place with hidden lakes, uncharted mountain ranges, and secrets buried beneath layers of ice. Plus, the wildlife there? Totally unique and fascinating. So, if you're craving adventure and mystery, Antarctica's the place to be – just make sure to bundle up!  #brightside   Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Listen to Bright Side on:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960  Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00 Antarctica. It was once a green land full of dinosaurs, but now it's a frozen continent

00:06 bigger than that of the US that doesn't belong to anyone. It isn't hard to find

00:10 – wherever you go, just go south until you get to the big icy thing at the south pole

00:15 of our planet. It lies within the Antarctic Circle and is the largest single mass of ice

00:20 on Earth. The continent is bigger than the US and even bigger than all of Europe. And

00:26 still, Antarctica was officially discovered recently. Scientists hadn't known of its

00:30 existence until 1820. After the discovery, it took another two decades to confirm it

00:36 was a whole new continent and a few more decades after that to decide on a name. In Antarctica,

00:43 "anti" means "the opposite." So, Antarctica literally means "the opposite of the Arctic."

00:51 Even before scientists discovered the land, ancient Greeks already theorized that there

00:55 must be a southern continent to balance out the Arctic in the north. Also, some scientists

01:00 who studied Polynesian artwork and oral history believe that Polynesians found the continent

01:06 over a millennia before the Europeans did. Anyways, today we all know of this icy land

01:12 at the South Pole. Because of its location, there are just two seasons there – summer

01:17 and winter – and both last six months. In summer, it's a bit warmer, and the continent

01:22 exists in pure daylight. And in winter, it's dark all day long.

01:28 98% of Antarctica is ice. This continent alone stores 60% of the planet's fresh water.

01:35 And yet, despite all those water reserves, Antarctica is the biggest desert in the world.

01:41 By definition, a desert is an area with sparse vegetation and little snow or rain. Notice

01:47 that plenty of sand isn't a necessary condition here, even though the continent does have

01:51 some sand and even sand dunes. It also gets a lot of wind. Antarctica is the windiest

01:57 continent on Earth, and wind speeds can reach 200 mph. That's even faster than hurricane

02:03 winds! The little snow the land gets never melts.

02:08 It just builds up over time, for centuries and millennia. So, there's a thick, thick

02:13 ice layer there. This makes Antarctica full of hidden secrets. There's a whole new world

02:18 underneath its ice. For example, there are a lot of mountains on the continent that are

02:23 like 9,000 feet tall. It's taller than three Burj Khalifas stacked on top of each other,

02:28 if we must. And that's currently the tallest skyscraper in the world. But we don't see

02:33 all those mountains because they're all hidden under the ice sheet that's almost

02:37 16,000 feet thick. There's also a lake down there, beneath over

02:41 11,000 feet of snow. The lake is called Lake Vostok, named after Vostok Research Station,

02:48 near which it's located. Originally, it was just a hypothesis. Over

02:53 a century ago, a scientist suggested that the huge pressure created by tons of ice could

02:58 decrease the melting point of ice in the lowest layers of the ice sheet, creating liquid water,

03:04 which could form a lake. He didn't prove his ideas in his lifetime, but others continued

03:09 his work and confirmed that this theory was true.

03:13 There's also a canyon in Antarctica, hidden underneath huge masses of snow too. It's

03:18 deeper than the Grand Canyon we have in Arizona. There is a mountain range that divides the

03:24 continent into two parts, East Antarctica and West Antarctica. The western part of the

03:29 continent is experiencing higher temperatures and is starting to melt. If West Antarctica

03:34 melts and releases its stored water, it will raise the average global sea level by about

03:40 16 feet. That will be enough for some cities all over the world to completely disappear.

03:46 Perhaps the first to turn into a water world will be Thailand's capital, Bangkok, which

03:51 is just 5 feet above sea level. Then it will be Amsterdam in the Netherlands, followed

03:56 by Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Cardiff in the UK, and New Orleans in the US.

04:04 People do a lot of work in Antarctica now, residing there for many months at a time to

04:08 study this mystery of a continent. Over the years, even a few children were born there.

04:13 But it's not a country, and the land doesn't belong to anyone. It's governed by the Antarctic

04:18 Treaty System, an agreement of peaceful research and collaboration that suspends all territorial

04:25 claims. It was first signed by 12 nations, and now there are 59 supporters, half of whom

04:31 have decision-making powers. The continent is occupied all year round by

04:35 researchers from all over the world. There are about 5,000 people living there in summer

04:40 and about 1,000 in winter. Yet no one is a permanent resident there. People come and

04:45 go, and the scientists take turns spending time there.

04:50 The average yearly temperature there is -30°F. But there was a time when Antarctica was about

04:57 as warm as Melbourne, Australia is today. It was about 40-50 million years ago. I wasn't

05:03 around then. But the continent had green forests and dinosaurs roaming its land, chilling in

05:08 the sun in a 63°F environment. That was before penguins.

05:15 In our age, it's so cold that you won't even find any trees or bushes in Antarctica.

05:20 Just the snow. The only plants that can thrive in such extreme temperatures are lichens,

05:26 moss, and algae. People can't stand such freezing conditions for lengthy periods of

05:30 time either. So the continent has never had any indigenous population. Well, that is,

05:36 if we don't count penguins, seals, whales, and a few other types of birds that live there

05:41 now. Antarctica's fauna is the scariest and least

05:45 diverse on the planet because only a few organisms can withstand its harsh conditions and because

05:51 non-natives aren't allowed to be brought there. So if you decide to travel to Antarctica with

05:56 your cat, well, you can't. Hey, I don't make the rules! But those few species that

06:02 live on the South Pole totally own the place. There are no more than 5,000 people there

06:07 and around 20 million penguins. They are a kind of settlers, though. Penguins'

06:13 first ancestors lived in Australia and New Zealand. There are still a few penguin species

06:18 there, including the smallest penguin on Earth that is just 1 foot tall. Still, most of the

06:23 penguins migrated to Antarctica at some point. Possibly because they were attracted by the

06:28 greater food supply there. It's not the cold that made them like the land. It turns out,

06:34 most penguins leave the continent when the summer ends. The only ones that stay there

06:38 are male emperor penguins, and they do it to warm and protect eggs left by their mates.

06:45 But where do all the other penguins go? At first, it was a big mystery even to scientists.

06:50 But then they attached some tiny location devices to the legs of a few of these animals

06:54 and figured it out. Penguins go to live in the southern oceans while it's too cold

06:59 in Antarctica. None of them go ashore for half a year until they get back to the continent.

07:06 When they come back, it's when those eggs, left for male penguins to nurture, start hatching.

07:11 And so, penguin families can be together when it happens.

07:15 Penguins eat different fish, and the ocean is full of those despite its cold temperature.

07:19 In some areas, water can reach below freezing temperatures because it's salty. But fish

07:25 don't freeze there because they have antifreeze proteins in their bodies.

07:30 Then there are also about a million seals in Antarctica. They like fish too, and they

07:35 can hold their breath underwater for 2 hours. They see way better underwater than in the

07:40 bright light of the day, and they also use their whiskers to locate food. Their breathing

07:44 holes in the ice can freeze while seals are away, and they must use their teeth to make

07:49 a new one. Seals can even sleep underwater, and then resurface occasionally to get some

07:54 air without waking up. I can appreciate that!

07:58 That's it for today! So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like

08:05 and share it with your friends! Or, if you want more, just click on these videos and

08:09 stay on the Bright Side!

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