Sunday, September 27, 2015

Antarctica's Tectonic Plates

                                                              Antarctica's Tectonic Plates
                                                         Did you ever wonder why the
                                            "Ice Continent" is so cold? Here is the reason 
                                that affects Antarctica's temperature the most: the movement 
                  of its tectonic plates. As the Arctic Tectonic Plate moved to the south part of
the world more, the continent developed a much more colder climate. As I mentioned in my previous posts, Antarctica used to be a SuperContinent, "Gondwana". That SuperContinent was a very tropical place. It had many animals, was always going through precipitation, had beautiful grasslands, and just about everything that a glorious tropical island had. Later on, however, the continent split into two and Antarctica was the piece of the continent that split onto the southern part of the Earth, and therefore was so cold. To better understand my claim, look at the picture below. 
 Although the picture is blurry, you can clearly see how big Gondwana was, and how Antarctica departed from it. To get a better understanding of the Arctic Tectonic Plate, look at the picture below.

 Yes, as you may be thinking, the Arctic Tectonic Plate was and is larger than Antarctica. For more information, go to the links below.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Plate





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