How many purposeful discoverers tried to reach the South Pole of the Earth, and how many of them piled their heads here? Even now, with all the modern technology, the South Pole remains one of the most inaccessible places on the globe. What can we say about those times when researchers rushed here, armed only with primitive equipment and their own courage?
This is the coldest place on Earth, in winter there is often -80 degrees here in the depths of the continent. There has never been such a cold at the North Pole. Researchers working here on a rotational basis for winter are completely cut off from the world. Even airplanes cannot reach them, because from such terrible cold weather any fuel thickens and freezes. It is here, at the South Pole, that there is one of two points at which all the time zones of our planet converge. Closest to the South Pole is New Zealand. In general, from Antarctica it is closer to Chile and Argentina, but if you consider the distance from the pole, then New Zealand will come in first place. Sunsets and sunrises at the South Pole last for three months. Night and day – for another three months. There is less rainfall here than in many deserts, on average about 220-240 mm per year. And for obvious reasons, the snow at the South Pole never melts, since there are no positive temperatures here.
For the first time, brave researchers Meisner and Fuchs conquered the South Pole for two, without any transport, in 1989. Over the entire history of observations, the air temperature here has never risen above -12.7 degrees Celsius. The south pole (geographic) is separated from the magnetic south pole of the Earth by a distance of approximately 2700 kilometers. It is impossible to say more precisely, since the magnetic pole constantly moves within certain limits. The average annual air temperature at the South Pole does not exceed -49 degrees, which makes it the coldest place on our planet. Some of the research stations located here are on ice, and they slowly mix together with the ice massif.
The oldest station among those still functioning was built here by the United States back in 1957. Once at the South Pole a record low temperature was recorded at minus 82.8 degrees Celsius. The ice shell at the South Pole reaches 2.8 kilometers in thickness. For the first time, people managed to get here in 1911, it was an expedition of the famous explorer Amundsen. She used dog teams as a transport, and they were able to literally a month ahead of the second expedition led by Scott. The second expedition also managed to reach the South Pole, but the fact that they were ahead of them was a heavy blow for them. And brave scientists had no strength left on the return trip, and all members of the expedition died, trying to return to the coast of Antarctica.
