Exploring Antarctica with Google Street View

 

In their ongoing quest to map the world, Google Street View has documented over 5 million miles (8.05 million km) of the globe in over 50 countries on 7 continents.

In their Street View Collections series, Google has also ventured off the beaten path to explore unique destinations around the world such as: The Galapagos Islands, The Grand Canyon, underwater into the Oceans and even inside some of the world’s most famous art galleries and museums.

The Street View team recently visited Antarctica, Earth’s southernmost continent. At 14.0 million km2 (5.4 million sq mi), it is the fifth-largest continent in area. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages at least 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi) in thickness. On average, it is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent. [source]

The team visited famous landmarks like the ceremonial south pole, Scott’s Hut and of course penguin colonies! Click here to explore Antarctica yourself through Google Street View. I took some screenshots below to give you a sense of what you will see.

 

A short distance from the Geographic South Pole is the Ceremonial South Pole, situated in front of the elevation station building. It consists of a metallic, mirrored ball atop a ‘barber pole’ plinth. Surrounding the marker in a semicircle are the flags of the 12 original Antarctic Treaty signatory nations, a tribute to Antarctica’s preservation on the environment and dedication to scientific research.

 

 

 

 

 

Half Moon Island, Antarctica (South Shetland Islands) is a 420 acre crescent-shaped island that has a large rookery of chinstrap penguins.

 

 

Scott’s Hut is a building located on the north shore of Cape Evans on Ross Island in Antarctica. It was erected in 1911 by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913 (also known as the Terra Nova Expedition) led by Robert Falcon Scott. The hut was prefabricated in England before being brought south by ship. It is rectangular, 50 feet (15 m) long and 25 feet (7.6 m) wide. After 1917, the hut remained untouched until 1956, when US expeditioners dug it out of the snow and ice. It was found to be in a remarkable state of preservation, and included many artifacts from both the earlier expeditions. While some artifacts were taken as souvenirs at the time (and since), this hut has remained largely as it was in 1917. [source]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) is a species of penguin common along the entire Antarctic coast, which is their only residence. They are among the most southerly distributed of all seabirds, as are the Emperor Penguin, the South Polar Skua, the Wilson’s Storm Petrel, the Snow Petrel, and the Antarctic Petrel. In 1840, French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville named them for his wife, Adélie. [source]

 

 

 

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a 10 metre (394 in) diameter telescope located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica. The telescope is designed for observations in the microwave, millimeter-wave, and submillimeter-wave regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, with the particular design goal of measuring the faint, diffuse emission from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The first major survey with the SPT–designed to find distant, massive, clusters of galaxies through their interaction with the CMB, with the goal of constraining the Dark Energy equation of state–was completed in October, 2011. [source]

 

 

 

This building houses the equipment used for field operations in the Antarctic. Researchers receive their allocated equipment here before departing on their research operations.

 

 

 

 

Shackleton’s Hut served as the base of operations for the British 1907-1909 Nimrod Expedition, an early attempt in the race to the geographic South Pole led by a young Ernest Shackleton.