Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The unusual combination of a continent that has undergone extension and
stretching during the last 100million years at a time when Antarctica plunged
into the icy wilderness that we know today has resulted in a unique geological
laboratory to test and model the future effects of climate change. We are faced
with a situation where future global warming will accelerate the natural rates of
change (cooling) that are currently being documented from the rock record of
Antarctica through international drilling programmes and we may rapidly return
to what Antarctica was like many millions of years ago.
Like other Gondwana continents, Antarctica is likely to have its fair share of
mineral resources, glimpses of which have been recorded by Antarctic geologists
as they systematically visited and mapped accessible rock outcrops over the past
100 years. The combination of known offshore sedimentary strata and organic
carbon sources, as indicated by the abundant fossil
flora, makes Antarctica a
potential target for future oil exploration. Fortunately, it is currently not
financially viable to extract oil and mineral resources from Antarctica, and the
Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty prohibits mineral exploration for the
time being. However, as the world
s oil and mineral reserves diminish, we may
see increased pressure to explore the potential mineral wealth of Antarctica. We
can only hope that the world
'
s nations will become less dependent on natural
irreplaceable resources and that Antarctica remains protected for future generations.
'
Future challenges
Our future challenges as geoscientists is to continue to understand more fully
the link between geological processes and changes in the Earth System particularly
climate change. Antarctica witnessed dramatic changes over the past 50 million
years from a continent that was a warm greenhouse world attached to South
America to one that was transformed to an icehouse world isolated in a South Polar
position. The rich
flora and fauna of 50million years ago were unable to live in the
extreme conditions and were replaced by the plants and animals that could adapt to
current conditions. We have much to learn about how these plants and animals
adapted, how they might survive future warming, and what in
uence major physical
changes like the opening of Drake Passage, and the uplift of the Transantarctic
Mountains had on the climate system. We are very fortunate that Antarctica
preserves a record of these changes that will enable us in the future to more
fully understand how our Earth System functions and how it will respond to
predicted changes in atmospheric composition and inevitable global warming.
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