What type of resources are found in antarctica

It has been agreed that:. Potential resources in Antarctica A resource is something that exists within the environment. There are many resources in Antarctica, which include: mineral and energy resources - most is currently covered by snow, including the world's largest known coalfield fresh water extraction from icebergs 70 per cent of the world's fresh water is in Antarctica resources from the sealife - eg farming of fish and krill scientific resources - scientists can study weather patterns, ecosystem adaptations and the past climatic and geological changes Tourism also offers potential because of the attraction of this unique wilderness.

Mineral extraction Extracting oil from Antarctica has been too expensive to consider in the past. The Antarctic Treaty of The Antarctic Treaty was agreed in to help control human activity in the location and also to resolve disagreements over territory. It has been agreed that: Countries who have signed up to the treaty are free to carry out scientific experiments and must share their results. The environment must be conserved. The resulting subduction zone extended along the margin of what is now South America and West Antarctica.

Volcanism above the subduction zone created new land adjoining the Gondwana margin that eventually became the Antarctic Peninsula a continental margin arc. Subduction , volcanism, and uplift of this region occurred almost continuously until about 35 myr ago and ceased when the Antarctic Peninsula and South America finally separated to create the Southern Ocean. Unlike East Antarctica, West Antarctica is made up of a number of relatively small plate fragments that have been merged together along the south-eastern Pacific compressional plate boundary.

The Transantarctic Mountains however, owe their origin to rifting rather than crustal compression and collision. In places, this rift system is still active today and is the cause of present-day volcanic activity in Antarctica. It is one of the few volcanoes in the world to have an open, convecting lava lake within the crater at its summit. There are also several inactive volcanoes in the Transantarctic Mountains.

Mineral resources contained in Antarctica include coal, especially in the Transantarctic Mountains; and iron, copper and nickel ore in the Prince Charles Mountains near Mackenzie Bay, East Antarctica.

However, these are not believed to be present in quantities to rival other continents, and their extraction and transport would be expensive. The same is true for the petroleum that is believed to be held in rocks beneath the Ross and Weddell Seas.

In any case, commercial mining is unlikely for the foreseeable future because the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty put a ban on mining subject to review in There are some special circumstances that make Antarctica the best place to find meteorites : more have been collected from Antarctica than from the rest of the world put together! In most other land areas meteorites are difficult to find because they may become covered in vegetation, soil or sediment; and over time they are subject to weathering processes that alter them both physically and chemically.

The situation in Antarctica is different and can be summarised as follows:. Since , over 10 meteorites have been collected from Antarctica. These objects from space have yielded important information about the nature of asteroids and their composition.

It has also been discovered that some of the meteorites are actually bits of the Moon and Mars that must have been ejected into space during the distant past at times when large asteroids collided with these bodies.

Read more about the main mineral resources of Antarctica including issues surrounding their exploitation by downloading the word document: Under Pressure: metals, minerals and meteorites. Use the internet to learn about Mount Erebus and to write a briefing paper on this volcano.

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