Antarctica by John Paul Caponigro
Antarctica is a place of stunning grandeur.
It's the most isolated continent, surrounded by a vast circumpolar current without interruption.
It experiences the longest days and nights on the planet, with a six month period of daylight in sumer and a six month period of sunlight in winter.
It's the colest place on earth, with temperatures dropping to -94 degree farenheit.
It's the windiest continent, with wind speeds reaching 200 miles an hour.
It's the driest continent; its annual rainfall is less than 1 inch, drier than the Sahara, and its Dry Valleys haven't had any precipitation in over 2 million years/
It has the largest ice mass; nearly 16,000 feet bury the continent under 68% of the world's fresh water, seasonal shifts double it's area, containing 90% of the earth's iceberg mass. If Antarctica's continental ice melted it would raise sea levels 200 feet.
It's a climate regulator. It's the world's most significant area of heat loss and acts as a long term torage system in global water circulation, affecting all the major ocean currents or 78% of the world. It's a climate indicator; it provides a frozen record of atmospheric changes dating back 500,000 years. Changes in Antarctica herald global changes.
John Paul Caponigro lives and works in Cushing, Maine.
To view more of John Paul's work, please visit his website.
