Talk:Antarctica

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	To-do list for Antarctica:	edit  · history  · watch  · refresh
Effects of Global warming - new section [1] [2] [3] stability of the Antarctic ice sheet. [4] [5] clean up subarticles (Ecology of Antarctica, Geography of Antarctica, etc) add information on the fungi of Antarctica, and separate it from the flora add a human impact on Antarctica section
Priority 1 (top)

Archives
March 2003 to December 2005 January 2005 to January 2006

Contents 1 Why doesn't Russia claim it? 2 transfer from minor to major review 3 Bumbershoot 4 Vandalism 5 Sport? 6 Nazis? 7 Flora and fauna 8 Too Many Pictures? 9 Claus Expedition: Whimsical vandalism, folks! 10 Excellent 11 Frequent vandalism 12 Timezone 13 Proposed WikiProject 14 Political chapter is biased 15 South Orkney Islands 16 South Orkney Islands 17 Gabriel de Castilla 18 Speedy delete request for Província Brasileira na Antartica 19 1.6? 20 Antarctic Flora 21 The Image 22 Recently discovered predator? 23 references

[edit] Why doesn't Russia claim it?

Considering they were the ones that found it.

-G

[edit] transfer from minor to major review

Please see the listing for the reason. Tony 12:31, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bumbershoot

I just took the paragraph below out of the article. Not a chance it's true...it is, however, mildly amusing. --Aelffin 16:47, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

The first manned flight to Antarctica is credited to Edgar Bumbershoot, a quadraplegic who could only operate his plane with an assortment of pulleys and strings which he pulled with his teeth. Amazingly, he made the journey successfully, only to be so overwhelmed with excitement at its completion that he used one of his pulleys to pull himself out of the plane so he could touch the Antarctic ground. Unfortunately, being a quadraplegic, he could not get back into his plane and froze to death. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Vandalism

Watch out for Vandalism there was alot the last 2 weeks, that is why i made a revert. The Green Fish 09:51, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sport?

I saw an "Antartica RC" rugby kit. Is this a joke, or do they actually have a sanctioned (or unsanctioned) side? It might be interesting to note. - Plasticbadge 02:50, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

• Rugby has been played in Antarctica for many years, between members of the Scott Base rugby team and the McMurdo rugby team. The games are played on a full size field on the snow covered Ross ice shelf. Im not sure if there is a cont. wide team. The main article does not need this info. Snowwayout 23:28, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nazis?

I heard that in the 30's there was a nazi expedition to Antarctica in which they claimed it for themselves. This true? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.92.168.168 (talk • contribs).

lol, and the significance of Antartica to Germany would have been? The asnwer is no.

-G —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.117.157.66 (talk • contribs).

Yes, it is true. See New Swabia. lolx0rz. TomTheHand 18:42, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flora and fauna

Under flora, fungus is mentioned. However, this is scientifically inaccurate. My suggestion:

1. Find more information on the fungus of Antarctica.
2. Create a new subsection under "Flora and fauna" for fungi.
3. Rename the section to "Biota", "Organisms", etc. --Gray Porpoise^{Phocoenidae, not Delphinidae} 01:16, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Why don't they list all of the life on Antartica?

Probably too much. I wonder, since there've been quite a lot of an animals and plants discovered lately (including new species), if there could be a link to a new site showing some of this stuff off. Brian Pearson 23:40, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Too Many Pictures?

There seems to be a few too many pictures in this article, that or they need to be better distributed. The main problem is under the exploration section, which is set up so two pictures appear before any text causing a large blank area between the title "Exploration" and the rest of the text. I don't want to arbitrarily remove a picture, any agreement on which one should go or where to move one if we want to keep them all? --The Way 04:31, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Claus Expedition: Whimsical vandalism, folks!

I noticed the sentence about a "long-forgotten" Claus expedition. Mr Tambourine Man added this whimsical tidbit of vandalism just before this article was featured back in April of this year ('06). This was Mr Tambourine Man's only contribution.

See the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=&user=Mr+Tambourine+Man&page= which dates from April 6;

and especially:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Mr_Tambourine_Man late on April 8.

As of this writing, I have yet to track the changes that susbsequently were made to this sentence since April. Anyone who would like to step through half a year of diffs is welcome to do so.

 Schweiwikist   (talk)  15:45, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

UPDATE: See this version, which was updated by an anonymous editor. Popups made this easy to find.  Schweiwikist   (talk)  18:29, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Good catch! I thought the sentence was suspicious too, but I wasn't bold enough to do anything about it. --Apoc2400 06:16, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Excellent

FA class for an article of top importance... THIS is the kind of thing Version 1.0 readers will want to see! If you have contributed significantly to Antarctica, feel free to put this barnstar on your page:

		The Geography Barnstar
		For commendable contributions to Antarctica, you have earned this Geography Barnstar! Gray PorpoisePhocoenidae, not Delphinidae 14:17, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

I'll proofread the article soon. --Gray Porpoise^{Phocoenidae, not Delphinidae} 14:17, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Frequent vandalism

It seems this page gets a lot of vandalism. Is there any way for editors or others to protect this page? A302b 07:14, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Timezone

Probably an odd question, but what timezone(s) are used in Antarctica? Does the entire continent use UTC, or is it divided into 24 zones? Koweja 18:22, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

It looks like the the brits want the peninsula to use UTC-3, and much of the rest has no time zone. see http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~savalle/net/tzonemap.html Speciate 07:17, 11 January 2007 (UTC)speciate

My experience (McMurdo, South Pole, Terra Nova Bay, Dumont d'Urville, and Dome C Stations) is that the stations generally use something close to the time zone that they are in, based on their longitude. There are of course exceptions. South Pole has its choice as its buildings span all longitudes; they use the same time zone as McMurdo (New Zealand time, UTC+12 or UTC+13 in summer) for logistical convenience. Their have been winters in the past when South Pole switched to US Mountain time to better communicate with the US Antarctic Program folks in Denver. Dome C and DDU use their local standard time zones. StephenHudson 17:40, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed WikiProject

There now is a proposed WikiProject for Antarctica at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Antarctica. Any individuals in joining should indicate such there, and we will see if there is enough interest to create such a project. Badbilltucker 21:48, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Article is biased in it's political part. USSR and US during cold war agreed not to make territorial claims nor to recognize them in Antarctida, but in the article i can only see that it was smth like an exceptional nobility act of US. Please correct this part of the article.

[edit] Political chapter is biased

During cold war USSR (Russia) an US agreed not to make any territorial claims nor to recognize them for the time being. But in article it looks like exceptional act of US nobility. Plz correct this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.159.244.170 (talk) 01:19, 29 December 2006 (UTC).

The similar positions of Russia and the USA have nothing to do with nobility, it was an act of nations that did not wish to make and enforce sovereignty claims of their own at the time when other nations tried that, but at the same time they reserved the right to make such claims in the future, and explicitly rejected all claims i.e. the USA and Russia effectively prevented possible attempts by other nations to enforce claims. Such a course of action matters in international law; undoubtedly, that behaviour of the USA and Russia helped pave the way towards the Antarctic Treaty. Apcbg 19:08, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] South Orkney Islands

The map that states which countries have claimed the various parts of Antarcta, seems to be inaccurate. It states that the South Orkney Islands is controlled by Argentina which it most certainly is not! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.142.164.165 (talk) 17:43, 29 December 2006 (UTC).

[edit] South Orkney Islands

The map that states which countries have claimed the various parts of Antarcta, seems to be inaccurate. It states that the South Orkney Islands is controlled by Argentina which it most certainly is not! Please could you explain this and correct it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.142.164.165 (talk) 17:44, 29 December 2006 (UTC).

The map says no such thing. It shows an Argentine station on those islands, like it shows several stations of other stations elsewhere. The claims are marked by coloured delimitation lines. Apcbg 19:08, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gabriel de Castilla

USer:Xareu bs added [6], sourcing this to http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2007/01/10/ciencia/1168421707.html. Which I can't read as its in Spanish. Gabriel de Castilla doesn't mention it. It looks entirely speculative to me, and the google translation [7] says the same: Also it is where is the island Livingston, chosen by Spain to install his first scientific base in 1988, located next to the beach where it assumes that they went to stop the shipwrecks of the “Gabriel de Castilla”, ship of the Spanish Navy that at the end of century XVIII was dragged by a weather. Those Spaniards to whom the Antártida swallowed could be, against their will, the first settlers. Spain has been looking for for years the test of that event, but not yet it has been.

William M. Connolley 12:34, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Naturally, there are blank spots in the early history of Antarctica, conjectures accepted by some historians and rejected by others while supported by very scarce or virtually nonexistant historical evidence. The quoted article however is not even in that category; unfortunately its author has messed everything up: Gabriel de Castilla was person not ship, he did not wreck in Antarctica but returned safely, and he did not live in the XVIII but in XVI-XVII Centuries. All that is known about his voyage to the south is a couple of sentences recording evidence by a Dutch sailor who took part in it. Nothing and nobody (excepting the confused author of that article) relates Gabriel de Castilla with any wreckage at any particular island (he didn't wreck after all). Yes Spanish archeologists have been doing research on Livingston Island (cf. Livingston Island:History) for some years, for good reasons too, looking for evidence of the Spanish gunship San Telmo lost in September 1819 together with its crew and troops numbering 644 men. Nothing to do with Gabriel de Castilla though. Apcbg 14:19, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot (obrigado) for this information. I found it very interesting.--Xareu bs 14:36, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Speedy delete request for Província Brasileira na Antartica

I've deleted the recent edits by Stokage, which added a mention of a supposed Brazilian claim between (the editor's text) "250°E to 300°E" (?!?). I've also asked for a speedy delete of the article Província Brasileira na Antartica (created today by the same editor) on the following basis:

"There is no evidence on Google or reputable Antarctic pages; the article contradicts Brazil Antarctic Geopolitics, itself cited for contradicting Antarctic territorial claims; the article contains what appear to be nonsense claims about thousands of inhabitants, snowboard championships, and a village of five thousand people named "Qjaskwalla"."

If anyone knows of any reason why this should be taken seriously, please let me know, and I'll pull the SD request. However, given the number of apparent fallacies in the article, and the amount of vandalism that occurs here, it seems pretty suspicious. Thoughts? --Ckatz^chat_spy 05:09, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

That article is a joke of course; there is no Brazilian sovereignty claim but a declared 'zone of interest' (not much promoted) which is in Western Antarctica, very far from the funny claim. Apcbg 08:37, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree there is no Brazilian claim William M. Connolley 09:39, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

BA!

[edit] 1.6?

In one section it ssys that the average thickness of the ice sheet is 1.6 Km, in another 1.6 Miles. Does anyone know the correct thickness of the ice sheet?Richbank 03:23, 17 February 2007 (UTC)richbank

Hello! I think this might be difficult to pin down (given the estimated volume of ice) and, hence, sources vary: a perusal of these sources indicates: "1.6 km (1 mi)", "6,500 ft (2,000 m)", "1.5 miles (2.45 km)", and (vaguely) "thousands of feet thick". My geographical dictionary indicates that the ice sheet averages 1 mi (1.6 km) in thickness. To be safe yet accurate, I revised the introduction to read "at least 1.6 km", which is accurate no matter what value is ultimately correct. Quizatz Haderach 13:27, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Surely there is some uncertainty, but just saying 'at least 1.6 km' seems to give it too much uncertainty. If you take the numbers for ice volume from Climate of Antarctica and divide by the ice-sheet area you get 2.45 km, and even if you divide that volume by the area of the continent, including rock and ice shelves, you get about 2.1 km. I would suggest 'between 2.0 and 2.5 km', or at least 'between 1.6 and 2.5 km' to put an upper limit on it. Any objections/suggestions? StephenHudson 19:50, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm; I would suggest including an agreeable figure we can cite. The above lesser figure is from a geographical dictionary (and the current version at least provides for some wiggle room); I would not object to revising figures based on the morphometric data (from Drewry, 1983) in the Climate of Antarctica article -- 2.16 km, representing the average thickness of the sheet which includes ice shelves and rises -- or another authority and updating said figures wherever they might appear. Since we are dealing with an average, though, I'd much prefer to indicate '(around) x', 'at least x', or 'x +/-y' as opposed to 'between a and b'. Quizatz Haderach 21:12, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

I have since made editions of 'around 2.2 km' in a number of spots. Quizatz Haderach 00:11, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

1850 m: Matthew B. Lythe, David G. Vaughan, and the Consortium BEDMAP (2001). "BEDMAP: A new ice thickness and subglacial topographic model of Antarctica". JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH 106 (B6): 11335–11352.  Same source gives a volume of 25.4 million km^3, which is notably lower than the 1983 work cited in Climate of Antarctica. Dragons flight 05:52, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Maybe in light of this, I'll defer to my prior comments/position and not have to pull my hair out too much. :) Quizatz Haderach 05:55, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Antarctic Flora

I removed the link to the Antarctic Flora article. That is a paleobotanical article about trees etc that lived on Antarctica a long time ago, not about current flora of Antarctica.

Ordinary Person 05:18, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Image

If you look at the picture of Antarctia without it's ice-shield, it looks like a bunch of Islands. If you go somewhere here on the Wiki, you'll find information about Antarctica stating that in millions of years, the islands will become a lush rainforest. But the thing is, the Scientists didn't think about continents/islands colliding, creating mountainous areas.

[edit] Recently discovered predator?

I thought I read in the papers some years ago of a newly discovered predator in Antarctica. blood vessels. It uses that to help burrow through ice. Apparently, a group of them will go burrowing under the ice where a penguin is standing, undermining it until the penguin falls through. Then they attack and eat the penguin. Can anybody shed any light? 140.147.160.78 16:48, 12 March 2007 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza

This is nonsense. Dragons flight 17:10, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] references

Does anyone mind if I convert the existing references to use the Wikipedia:Citation templates? Mahanga^{Talk to me} 04:44, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Done. Mahanga^{Talk to me} 17:06, 17 March 2007 (UTC)