Antarctic Meltdown

摘要

At Shackleton camp, just 300 miles from the South Pole, it is hard to imagine Antarctica as anything but a polar desert. Sonic 98 percent of this remote continent is covered by a vast, featureless ice sheet that in places runs three miles deep. It is the coldest, windiest place on Earth, with a recorded low of minus 89.2 degrees Celsius. But Antarctica hasn't always been so cold and dry. During the last Antarctic field season, which ended in early 1996, scientists staying at Shaekleton Camp found mosslike plants and sea shells in the nearby Dominion Mountain Range. They say these finds are evidence of a temperate environment that existed only three million years ago, which in geological terms means yesterday.