ANTARCTICA THREAD

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>>17785976
>inb4 muh pyramids all over again

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>without the ice

antarctica was connected to Africa 160 million years ago.
23 million years ago, it was similar to siberia, an icy forested tundra.
16 million years ago it's become an ice sheet devoid of life

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I'm curious as to the extensive interest in Antarctica. What's got the world's most powerful countries so excited and willing to invest billions into a frozen wasteland where conventional vehicles don't even work properly and crops don't grow?

Pic related, a specially designed plane that can operate in frigid icy conditions.

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I bet there's some sweet dinos

>>17785995
Imagine being an animal living at Antarctica during the late Eocene
>winters get progressively colder
>larger quantities of snow every year
>snow doesn't melt during summer
>stuck on a continent that is literally turning into a big ice cube, no way to leave
Fugg

>>17785976
I have an idea. Why don't we go and explore. I can put my money where my mouth is. I can even cover someone's costs. Let's do this. Let's plan.

It's not like it's in space...

>>17786084
> negative 40F most days, not even considering wind chill

no thanks

An island that can't be found except by those who already know where it is.

>>17786009

Hole in the midle to Agartha

Or the edge of the world because the Earth is flat

>>17785995
This.

Anything of interest that isn't a lake or something similar was ground to dust by glaciers a long time ago.

>>17786029
Yeah I'd actually be really excited to see what could be unearthed.

This is my theory.

There is enough methane gas trapped in the ice on Antarctica to seriously fuck up the planet. The world leaders are investing in research to prevent it from escaping, or harnessing it. Whichever is more prudent. In this case they couldn't risk it escaping in an economic endeavor as they would not survive to spend the money if they fucked up.

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>>17786299

>>17786084
thats illegal.

>>17786084

Let's do this.

>>17786068
Land doesn't move fast enough to be noticed in one animals lifetime. That shit took millions of years

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>>17786299

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Probably volcanic and not unique in size, but imagine the stuff living in geothermal caves in the arctic

>>17786389
Why the fuck is exploring antarctica illegal? What are they afraid of, drug lords growing shit in geodomes? Marauding Nazi recruitment officers?

>>17786327
There's tons of methane stored in northern permafrost. Does methane store well in ice? I thought ice held carbon dioxide much better. Something is fishy, why would you want to preserve a frozen wasteland?

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>>17787881
pic related, steam vents that can be found in numerous locations in the antarctic

where there's steam, there's liquid water and ambient heat - and some form of life, isolated for millions of years.

>>17786009
It's a safe place to work with dangerous shit like bacteria or viruses. If it gets out of the camp, it will die off extremely quickly. They also have stations to monitor global warming and ice levels, and some places are dedicated to whatever life still lives there. All those places need electricians, radiomen, medics, and other needed professions so it ends up being a small village.

>>17787894
>Why the fuck is exploring antarctica illegal?
It isn't, but it's an internationally-governed territory so approval can be near impossible unless you're just traveling to the coats.

>>17787894
It's illegal because it's a very at risk biome, also nobody wants to deal with some tourist getting lost. There are a lot of science stations there as well so human interference could cause issues with testing.

Granted you can get authorization from one of the nations that has bases there, it's not very difficult.

>>17787958

And Bingo was his name-o.

>>17786303
>>17785976
Agreed. No chance of any trace of civilization. What can be found, are gas and oil fields, precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, tungsten... remember that while the land free from ice weight would rise, then the increased sea levels would still flood most of it.

>>17786068
Yeah, I'm sure the animal went yo sleep one night in a tropical rainforest and woke up in a frozen tundra. The timescales we are talking here are absolutely massive.

>>17787894
The methane is trapped when swampy regions are frozen over

>>17786451
>>17788396
What is hyperbole

>>17787881
I want to explore that thing.

>>17788426

Whoa, this is /x/, not lit. Calm down there, sonny.

>>17786084
I'm in. My job ends in September and after that I can commit to exploration and adventure.

>>17786068
You have to be retarded or underage

>>17788447
That's really gay bro. Sounds Freudian to me. U just wanna explore a cave at the bottom of the world? Lol have fun fudge packer homofaggot.

>>17787958
Basically this. Also, it's where they store stuff like seeds so they don't go extinct. It's already cold, so it's not like it takes much energy to store the things.

>>17786389
It's not actually illegal, there's guided tours and shit. It costs a metric fuckton of money but it's done.

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>>17791453
projecting much, fag-bro?

>>17785976
Frozen ancient mammals like mammoths in Sebirea, new viruses and bacterias. Also yes, there will be find the remnants of ancient civilizations and shit. Cold helps preserve things so...

yeah mang didnt u heard them nazis n shieet escaped there yo HOLLOW EARTH SHIT NIGGA

The entrance to the true flat eart. As of now the earth is hollow and a globe but once u enter its flat af. Been there myself they also sell anime and shit inside.

>>17792377
Yeah i got a pretty sweet shirt that read "i've been inside of your mum and the earth CHECKMATE'

>>17786084
How rich are you exactly? I'd very tentatively put the minimal cost for an antarctic expedition to at least $10,000 per person; and that's just to fuck around a bit on the continent.
It's not in space, but a real antarctic expedition is the closest thing you can get to a space mission on earth. You need stuff for a base camp, food, fuel, radios, dog sleds or snowcats or snowmobiles, a ship or an airplane to get all that stuff on the continent... it's literally a heroic undertaking. It's easier to climb mount everest.

>>17785976
probably something really cool

>>17792406
xd

>>17786299
You had me at hole... You lost me at edge.

>>17786280
>lowest ever recorded was -135.8 °F
>coldest temperature ever recorded on earth

Flat Earth expedition when?

>>17792422
I'd like to go just to see and feel that. Of course I would be inside huddled next to the stove all the time, but even 5 seconds of that would satisfy my curiosity. Probably the closest we have to experiencing another world right now, aside from deep sea bases.

>>17792429
Whenever you want because all it takes is a map of the apparent flat earth, any commercial flight from one side of that map to the other, $200, and half an hour or your time (maybe an hour for pre and post fligh shit) to prove the earth isn't flat.

>>17792437
Try some of the unexplored jungles in the world.

>>17792437
You would die in a few minutes of experiencing that kind of temperature whitout a heated suit. Experiencing antartica tho; i sure as hell would love that.

More ice

>>17787894
If there are exploitable minerals over there, can you imagine the fight for them? So, every once in a while, they renew agreements for no one to take parts of it, to avoid "trouble".

>>17792451
Well yeah I certainly wouldn't go out in that buck naked

>>17792443
For some reason I think the jungles might be more dangerous. At least the other options don't have deadly animals, diseases, or plants. Plus it's easy to get lost in jungles. Those bases are barely a mile long so you have to walk out into a blizzard in order to get lost.

>>17785976
Weapon from Final Fantasy VII.

>>>17786327
>There's tons of methane stored in northern permafrost. Does methane store well in ice? I thought ice held carbon dioxide much better. Something is fishy, why would you want to preserve a frozen wasteland?

Gee I dunno idiot, why would we want to preserve the frozen pole that helps keep the rest of the planet temperate? If we destroyed the poles unnaturally, then temperatures would start to fluctuations up or down wildy, which would change wind and ocean currents.

>>17786009
to add to >>17787958

some missiles in a MAD scenario would go over both north and south poles, so it was a good place to house early detection outposts before the widespread use of satellites and 24/7 airplane and autonomous drone surveillance.

China is dredging sand right now in the South China Sea to created artificial islands for military bases, so territory is everything when it comes to geostrategic military deployment.

>>17786327
thats not a theory

>>17786084
It's frozen wasteland. Unless you can fund under-ice excavations, it's pointless.
You can spend your money in better ways. If I was you, I would buy myself quality telescope and look up the sky. Or do some bigfoot research.

>>17786084
I think think the most interesting/cheap thing an independent expedition could do is fly over the center and verify that it isn't an open hole like the hollow earth theory states. I've heard people say that's illegal and jets will shoot you down, but I think the antarctic treaty contradicts this. Taking pictures of mountains would be great too. Even climbing one would be great, if there was a civilization there getting drowned out by ice, they may have left something on a mountain they thought wasn't going to get swallowed up. Or something's bones. Poking around on everest you can see old human skeletons, maybe a new species could be discovered on a mountain deep into the continent.

>>17787961
>r
You don't need approval. If you're trying to go with the blessings of the people in charge of the antarctic treaty you might want approval, but if you take a ship down there and establish a base there isn't anything saying they can stop you. In fact the people who signed the antarctic treaty are explicitly not allowed to forcefully stop you. The people saying there's a military presence down there are just making shit up to make it sounds more spoopy.

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>>17786284

>>17785987

>Inb4 Xenomorphs

>>17787881
Probably where my dad has been hiding the past 25 years :(

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>>17792377
>I believe earth is a flat earth in inner earth inside of the hollow globe
I'm calling this the onion ogre earth theory on account of all of those layers

>>17793322
you mean your mom's vag? Lol

>>17786084
would go anytime, man of much talents, little to no funds, and willing to do all the risky operations while you fags watch :D
email me at [email protected] if serious for any expedition