Antarctica

Antarctica was only discovered in 1773 by Captain Cook, who first crossed the southern polar circle searching for the terra australis. It constitutes about 9% of the Earth's landmass and almost 14 million square kilometres of its surface. Approximately 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice, which has a thickness of up to almost 4,800 metres; its average thickness being 2,300 metres. The mean temperature lies between 0° (summer, coast) and -68° (winter, plateau) degree Centigrade — depending on the season and location. Antarctica does not have an indigenous population. Moreover, no peoples have ever tried to settle in this part of the world. Even nowadays it is not inhabited on a permanent basis; only crews from about 60 research stations live there (there are around 40 permanently manned scientific stations, which means that there are 4,000 scientific and support staff in summer and 1,000 in winter). Today some crew members live there with their families and children attending schools at the stations.It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that scientific research, the main activity in Antarctica today, started in a systematic form. Although scientific research is the main activity conducted there, alongside fishing, Antarctica has to face new challenges. Evermore tourists are coming to the continent, almost outnumbering fishing vessels operating in the area. The total estimates for the 2009–10 season are 36,881 visitors, 21,277 of whom went ashore. Besides scientific research and → tourism one has to mention that krill, fish and squid are fished commercially and caught in large numbers in Antarctic waters.Due to the increasing range of activities conducted in Antarctica, questions of environmental protection are becoming more and more important. This is in particular due to the fact that Antarctica's ecosystem is believed to play a prominent role in the development of the world climate