Antarctica:
It is southernmost continent of the earth and is at south pole. It is fully covered with the Ice Sheets so to live here is very difficult but still there are many research centers of various countries are here. These research centers are very near to the beaches and only very few are in the middle of the Continent. It is the 5th largest continent among all the continents and is almost double the size of Australia. Penguins are found in this continent and if you want to see the polar beers then you will see them in Arctic Region. And the permanent settlement in Antarctic is very less due to it's harsh weather. Highest peak of Antarctica is Mount Vinson at 4892 meters height. And "Lambert Glacier" holds the Guinness world record for the worlds largest glacier also is in the Antarctica. The Ice of this continent is very important for the earth's atmosphere to maintain the temperature of the earth ans the sea levels. But in recent times it is seen that it is turning green which is not good for it's environment. And also Red-blood snow is seen on this continent. So let's discuss about that.
Why Antarctica is turning Green?
The main reason of turning the Antarctica in green is the growing of the Microscopic Algae on the surface of the snow. And in many places there it has grown so densely that it can be seen from the Satellites. The damage of this is in the future is that many other species can grow which are dependent on the algae. Mostly algae is seen in the peninsula region of the Antarctica. Only 1.34% of the land in the peninsula region is not covered with snow but now this area is growing. As the Ice is melting and more area is getting free from snow then it is perfect conditions for the Algae to grow which is not good. And this Algal bloom may increase resulting other species growing here. According to the studies 1,680 algal bloom are seen covering the area of 1.9 sq km. And algae can grow very fast. 66% of algal bloom are seen on the small islands of peninsula region and also the temperature on these small islands are also increasing. Direct Impact of Global warming can be seen on these islands.
The other reason behind the greening of Antarctica is the Moss Growth. Mosses were seen there from many long time but now the quantity of these were also increasing day by day. Moss is Bryophyte which are simple plants but are different from the Algae. Mosses are also increasing in the polar regions in recent times which get accelerated from the last 50 years. Old dates can be examined by studying these Mosses. Moss increasing is also due to the global warming giving best atmosphere to grow Moss. With the reduce in the Snow the another effect is on Albedo Effect as most of the sun rays are deflected back by the snow but if the snow started melting then the albedo effect is also very less, resulting in the rise in the temperature of the earth. If the global warming is keep on increasing then it will be the worst case scene for our planet. Also the Arctic region snow is also melting with high speed increasing the sea level of the globe which really not good. So these were the reasons for the turning of Antarctica into Green.
Blood-Red Snow In Antarctica:
Recently scientist from Antarctica shares picture showing the blood red type of snow in the region. Because of the red tinge, the snow is often dubbed as "watermelon Snow". Explanation for the snow turning red is that the colour change is actually due to Algae. Algae is unicellular organism which can change it's colour. As the Algae is spreading on the Antarctic and when it's colour changed on mass scale then it is almost like blood red colour. Colour of this algae changes because when the ice start melting when sun rays falls on this region then at that time this algae started producing natural sun screen and in that process the colour of this algae changes from green to red that's why the snow also seen sometimes as blood red. Name of this Algae is "Chlamydomonas Nivalis" & is a unicellular. This algae is the region of turning the colour of the snow red for sometime.
Melting of Ice Sheets :
It is also noted that the ice sheets on the Antarctic region started melting at very high speed which is very danger for our future. Especially the eastern ice sheet is melting with very high speed. And if this keeps on going then many of the land mass will shrink into the water of the earth and all coastal countries will get impacted by this rise of the sea levels. In the recent 5-7 years the size of ice sheet of Antarctica has reduced very much. And every year approx. 219 billion ton of ice is melting every year. If all the ice on the antarctic region melted then the global sea level will rise by 58 meters and many countries can vanish. Global warming is the main reason for all this. Two important glaciers Pine Island and Thwaites have accelerated at very high speed and seen as unstable as the ice melting very fast there. So we need to think about our future also where we are heading in terms of climate change.
That's all in this topic Why Antarctica is turning green? and the Blood red ice all the questions have been answered here and i hope you all learn something new here and if you like it then please share it.
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