Antarctica: The world’s biggest science lab
With icebergs, penguins, whales, and more, Antarctica is the spectacular final frontier of earthly travel. But it’s also the most important natural science lab on the globe. Read on to find out more about why the White Continent is such a heavy hitter in the world of science – and how it came to be.
Antarctica is big: twice as big as Australia, to be precise. It’s cold: the -128.6°F recorded in 1983 remains the coldest temperature anywhere. And it’s dry: it receives only two inches of precipitation per year, all of it in the form of snow.
Antarctica is the only continent with no indigenous humans, and it remains by far the least populous continent. Only 1,100 hardy souls live there year-round, and even in the “temperate” summer months, no more than 5,000 people call it home. Thing is, almost all of those people are either scientists (astronomers, astrophysicists, glaciologists, oceanographers, biologists, biomedical scientists, etc., etc.), or support staff who enable all this science to take place.
Science is the main human activity in Antarctica. Put differently, it’s the only continent with more scientific laboratories than places of worship.
Why is Antarctica so important to science?
There are a number of very good reasons why scientists get so excited about the White Continent.
1. Antarctica itself is fascinating. It’s a unique environment and the organisms – big and small – which have managed to adapt to its harsh climactic conditions are worthy of our attention.
2. It’s virtually untouched. If you want to study human impact, you need something to compare it to – Antarctica is the closest we’ve got to a pristine environment.
3. It’s great for observing space. The extremely dry climate and almost complete lack of light pollution are fantastic for observing the universe and beyond. Telescopes in Antarctica are almost as effective as space telescopes – and they’re far cheaper to build and maintain.
4. It’s fantastic for meteorite hunters. As this New Scientist article explains, “Antarctica’s dry, cold weather carefully preserves any meteorites that land, while a uniform white background and active glaciers churn up ancient space rocks buried beneath the ice.”
Antarctica is “Ground Zero” for climate change
Probably the single biggest reason scientists flock to Antarctica is to try to understand, monitor, and manage climate change.
5. It contains the world’s most complete climate record. Frozen in Antarctica’s ice and soil is at least a million years’ worth of climate information.
6. It’s disproportionately affected by climate change. Ironically, the earth’s least inhabited continent is the one most affected by climate change. What happens in Antarctica is a harbinger of what’s to come for the rest of us.
7. Melting Antarctic ice will cause sea levels to rise worldwide. Antarctica contains enough ice to raise sea levels by 180 feet! If this happened, coastal cities around the world would be submerged.
8. The Southern Ocean plays an outsized role in climate change. It’s not just Antarctic ice we should be worried about. The Southern Ocean and the Antarctic cryosphere are major factors driving climate change.
These eight bullet points have hardly scratched the surface of science in Antarctica. For a fuller understanding, check out 80 burning questions put together by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in 2014.
Case study: The ozone hole
In 1985, British scientists who had been observing the ozone layer since 1957 announced that from the 1970s onwards, ozone values above the Halley and Faraday Research Stations had been steadily dropping every spring. NASA scientists then used satellite data to confirm that the hole in the ozone layer was not only located above two British research stations, but extended across the whole of Antarctica.
Just two years later, the Montreal Protocol of 1987 limited the production and use of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and other ozone-depleting chemicals – with remarkable success. As the British Antarctic Survey website explains: “The Protocol is having a clear effect and the amount of ozone-destroying substances in the atmosphere is going down. We are now seeing a slow recovery of the Antarctic ozone layer. Nevertheless, the original compounds are so stable and long-lived that an ozone hole will exist each Antarctic spring for at least another 50 years.”
A culture of collaboration
Antarctica isn’t only unique scientifically – it’s also a very special political case as it’s the only region in the world where no national territorial claims are allowed. This culture of collaboration began in 1882 with the First International Polar Year, which saw 11 different countries make the same geophysical measurements at 12 different stations across the Arctic (in the northern hemisphere) and two in the sub-Antarctic. The Second International Polar Year took place in 1932/3 with 44 participating countries. Plans to establish a network of stations across Antarctica were put on ice (pun intended) due to the economic fallout of the Great Depression.
Antarctica’s chance would finally come in 1957 when – at the height of the Cold War – scientists from 67 nations (including the US and the USSR but excluding China) and 11 scientific disciplines came together in what was known as the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Not only did the USSR and the US launch their first satellites during the IGY (setting off the space race), but the year also marked the beginning of coordinated scientific endeavors in Antarctica.
Prior to the IGY, several countries had established research stations in the Antarctic, but there’d also been jostling for territorial control of the region. The first territorial claim was made by the Spanish Crown in 1539! More recent claims were made between 1840 (France) and 1943 (Argentina) by seven countries including Australia, the UK, Chile, Norway, and New Zealand.
Following the success of the IGY, the Antarctic Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C. on 1 December 1950 by 12 nations. The treaty stated that:
Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only. There shall be prohibited, inter alia, any measures of a military nature, such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military maneuvers, as well as the testing of any type of weapons … Freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica and cooperation toward that end, as applied during the International Geophysical Year, shall continue, subject to the provisions of the present Treaty.
Nowadays the number of signatories has increased to 56, and the culture of collaboration continues … regardless of the ongoing geopolitical tensions on the other six continents.
The impact of tourism
As well as being the world’s most important natural laboratory, the Antarctic is a place of great beauty and wonder. No surprise, then, that tourism to Antarctica has increased drastically in recent years. Before the 1980s, just a few hundred tourists sailed to Antarctica every summer; in 2022/3 around 100,000 people visited. And it goes without saying that traveling to Antarctica has a greater carbon footprint than traveling to most other destinations.
While the Antarctic Treaty does publish tourism guidelines, the collaborative nature of the organization (try to get 56 countries to agree on anything!) makes it tricky to take drastic measures like capping the number of visitors. Fortunately, the Antarctic tourism industry has organized itself under the umbrella of IAATO, a voluntary body formed in 1991 that works closely with the Atlantic Treaty and now boasts more than 100 members. You can rest assured that SA Expeditions works exclusively with IAATO members on all its Antarctic adventures.
As IAATO explains on its website:
Antarctica is regarded as the last great wilderness on our planet, still pristine with wildlife and landscapes that show little evidence of direct human activity. To visit, and operate in, an environment like this comes with a responsibility to do so carefully and with minimal impact.
IAATO has demonstrated through its work that environmentally responsible tourism is possible in remote and fragile wilderness areas. More than this, tourism is and should continue to be a driving force in Antarctic conservation.
First-hand travel experiences foster a better understanding of a destination where no indigenous population exists to speak for itself. Visitors — representing more than 100 different nationalities on average per season — return home as ambassadors of goodwill, guardianship and peace.
It is in this spirit that we urge anyone who is able to afford to travel to Antarctica to do so as sustainably as possible, and to return from the White Continent as an ambassador for its preservation.
Experience the wonders of Antarctica for yourself with SA Expeditions. First peruse our most popular Antarctica tours; then speak to a Destination Expert about the finer details.
Cover Photo: Halley Research Station in Antarctica, Hugh Broughton Architects, Halley VI Antarctic Research Station - end elevation, CC BY-SA 4.0