Antarctica

Today, some 91% of the world's freshwater reserves are contained in Antarctic ice, which averages 6500 feet deep and in places reaches over 13,000 feet. Flowing from the center of the continent to its edges, the ice forms huge shelves which extend for miles into the surrounding ocean. Cruise ships pass along the leading edge of these shelves and treat visitors to the spectacle of huge chunks of ice 'calving' off these 150-foot high walls of ice.

Though Antarctic terrestrial flora is limited to numerous species of lichens, mosses, and fungi, this lack of floral diversity is contrasted by the hugely productive and entirely unique Antarctic marine ecosystem. Annual production of krill in these waters averages 200-600 million tons, and upon this vast resource depends nearly every higher species of marine fauna. Blue whales - one of a dozen migratory whales to visit Antarctica -- scoop up krill in unfathomable quantities, while six species of seals, some 100 million individual penguins belonging to seven separate species, and 30 species of migratory birds all feed on fish which, in turn, feed on krill. Research indicates that krill production has declined in recent years, and in 1991 it was reported that the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica had reached some 13 million square kilometers. Though protected by international treaty, the southern continent is proving to be the most fragile of all.

Today, a growing variety of Antarctic tourist services allow modern adventurers to follow in the footsteps of great explorers such as Cook and Shackleton, Amundson and Scott. Maritime cruises and scenic flights departing from Punta Arenas continue to be the most common means of visiting Antarctica, though mountaineering trips and overnight visits to Chile's research bases and the civilian settlement at Villa las Estrellas are increasingly available. The frozen continent - the wildest and least understood of all -- has never been closer or more accessible.