The segregated nature of Antarctica has been shown by an American explorer. Close to five million square miles, which make up Antarctica are covered in the world's largest ice mass. Some scientist have said the ice sheet is 2000 feet thick, but others say it must be much thicker. All of the solid land, minus the most tall mountains and some of the coastal areas, have been covered in ice.
Traveling through valleys, the ice moves as a giant glacier toward the sea. The South Pole can be found on the gigantic central plateau. This area rises between eight and ten thousand feet above sea level.
Antarctica is divided, on the map, into four separate areas. These quadrants are named for northern geographical spots. Therefore, there are the African, Pacific, American and sectors. The African and Pacific quadrant coastlines are yet to be officially explored. Just a small section of the American quadrant's coast has been explored, but the quadrant is very well known. It includes the Ross Sea area.
Ross Sea serves as the eastern boundary of the quadrant, which spans west to Queen Mary Land to include South Victoria Land, King George V Land, Oates Land, Adelle Land and Wilkes Land. Ross Sea is edged on the west by tall mountains. These peaks pop up from the Ross Barrier, a huge sheet of shelf ice that is over 160 thousand square miles in area.
The explorer set up his base camp near the Bay of Whales. This natural harbor has been formed by the ice cliffs in the barrier itself. Mount Terror and Mount Erebus are two volcanoes which cover most of the Ross Island at the western end of the barrier. At more than 400 miles in length, the barrier crosses Ross Sea to King Edward VII land. From the ocean to the mountainous regions, along the polar course, it is 400 miles wide.
This barrier is the biggest example of shelf ice, which is singular to Antarctica. Glaciers, sliding down from the mountains, traveled into the ocean in the Ross Sea area to make the barrier. The largest glacier is over one hundred miles long of the many glaciers which reach down from the vast interior and discharge their ice into the Ross Sea. It is unknown if the Barrier is floating or sits on the bottom of the ocean.
There is a deposit of rocks extending outward in King Edward VII land which is one of the boundaries along with the Ross Sea for the Pacific Quadrant. A view of the Scott Nunataks and the Alexandra Mountains was the explorer's reward for taking a lengthy first flight from the Bay of Whales. He found fourteen more mountain peaks, a new island and lots of unexplored area in subsequent flights. His later flights gave geographers vastly important data that could allow them to map the Pacific quadrant's coastline, as well as other valuable information about Antarctica.
Several explorers have been interested in the sectors of Coats Land, Graham Land and Charcot Land, all part of the American quadrant in the Weddell Sea area. Flights over Graham Land discovered that is truly was not connected to the continent, but is an island separate from the land mass. Continental division is the major geographical issue facing Antarctica today. Weddell Sea and Ross Sea are virtually opposite each other, the former being in the American quadrant and the latter in the quadrant.
Scientific exploration is not limited in Antarctica. They still need to map the coastal regions for the entire continent and the polar plateaus and several mountain ranges.
Geologists seeks insight into the composition of the lands covered in ice and wishes to gather substantive samples from glacial moraines and rocky outgrowths in order to clarify the continent's glaciological history.
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