WonderQuest:  On the web since 1997...      

Coal in Antarctica, South sunsets, Rubbing noses

Q: Did Robert Scott discover coal on Antarctica?

[Michael Van Woert, NOAA Corps Collection] An iceberg off the Antarctic coast--where it once was warm enough that lush greenery covered the land .

A: Close but not quite. Scott discovered fossils of warm-climate ferns but Schackleton was the explorer who discovered coal.

January 1909, Antarctica, trekking south for 850 miles: Ernest Shackleton (leader), Jameson Adams (meterologist), Eric Marshall (surgeon and cartographer), and Frank Wild (provisions).

Mist and clouds swirl and block the sun. No shadows. All ridges, hollows, and ledges flatten into a white nothingness. A fragile snow crust covers the way. Unseen danger lurks. Suddenly a Manchurian pony slips, his legs flailing wildly for purchase. He slides to a stop at the abyss edge. The men peer through a curtain of giant icicles into a black crevasse framed in blue ice that descends without end. Adams breaks off an icicle as big as he and slides it over the edge--down, down, down. They cannot hear an echo from its endless fall.

They don't make it to the South Pole. They get within 97 miles of their goal when survival dominates valor. In the process, though, they discover a route up through the Transantarctic Mountains, through the Beardmore Glacier (and its treacherous crevasses), to the polar plateau.

"I thought you'd rather have a live donkey than a dead lion," Shackleton told his wife, Emily, later.

Somehow, 200 miles from the pole, they discover coal. They're on the Polar Plateau at an altitude of 10,200 feet, a blizzard rages. That day they make only 4 miles. Weak from lack of food, hands and feet close to frostbite, they struggle into a headwind. The record doesn't show who noticed the coal seam but someone in their party did. They brought back samples and mapped the vein. It's on top of the Beardmore Glacier near Mount Buckley.

"Coal in Antarctica?!!" The question must have jolted their weary minds. Coal comes from fossilized plants. Long ago, it must have been warm enough for plants to grow: in ice-bound Antarctica.

Further Surfing:

SouthPole .com: Ernest H. Shackleton, 1874-1922

Q: In the Northern Hemisphere, why does the Sun set to the south in the winter?

A: The earth spins about an axis once in 24 hours--causing day and night--and also orbits the sun once a year. The orbit defines a plane. The spin axis, represented by a line passing through the north and south poles, is not perpendicular to the plane but is tilted by an angle of 23.5. Click here for Figure 1 (then click on graphic). The earth's tilt causes the seasons. As the earth goes around the sun, the north and south poles are alternately tilted toward the sun. During winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the north pole tilts away from the sun.

Now click for Figure 2. It is sunset along a line passing through northeast United States and Brazil.

It is also winter in the Northern Hemisphere because the North Pole tilts away from the Sun.

Suppose we are in New York and standing where the "X" is. It's sunset because we are on the shadow line (called the terminator). We look along the red line to the west (90 from North) but we cannot see the Sun, directly. We must instead look along a ray of sunshine (yellow line) to see the Sun, which is to the southwest. That's why the winter sun appears to set in the south.

Our axis is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun and that makes the sun's rays appear to slant in at a 23.5- degree angle to a plane passing through our equator.

Q: Do Eskimos really rub noses?

A: The custom well into the 20^th Century was: Eskimos don't kiss; they rub noses. A Scots fur trader describes his experience in the 1960s. The girl reaches up and brings your face down to hers and holds the side of her nose against yours. That shows affection. But then she presses her nose against yours and rubs it slowly back and forth. That not only is considered passionate--it IS!

(Answered Nov. 29, 2002)