290 - A SPIT OF THE TAYLOR GLACIER REACHING INTO BEACON VALLEY, DRY VALLEY, ANTARCTICA (77°48’ S, 160°50’ E).
Antarctica is a vast and frozen continental land mass, one and a half times the size of Europe and covered with the biggest ice cap in the world. The ice is so thick and so extensive that it covers 98 percent of the continent and holds captive 70 percent of the planet’s reserves of fresh water. Close to the American scientific base at Mc Murdo, the region of the Dry Valleys is one of the rare terrains not covered with ice. The katabatic winds that blow from the heart of the continent are so cold and so strong that snow cannot drift. The rocks are exposed, revealing sedimentary layers of ochre from rivers and lakes, interspersed with black basalt, which is volcanic in origin. There are some forms of life that have adapted themselves to these conditions: bacteria and unicellular algae, endolithic lichens that grow in the rocks themselves, and also nematodes (cylindrical worms), which dehydrate and go to sleep as winter approaches, but wake up again when weather conditions improve.