From weird creatures to odd structures, join me as we explore 10 weird things found in
the ice in Antarctica.
10.
The Google Earth "Find Ever since its creation, Google Earth has
been used to look at things in the world in all sorts of ways.
But an unexpected side effect of this was people looking at the map and finding things
they didn't know were then.
Such as when one man went to examine Antarctica, he found a blurred out section of a map that
was so large that he felt it couldn't be anything other than a massive building.
Which would be weird since the only building in Antarctica are research centers.
"I've searched the entire continent and I couldn't find anything quite like it.
I thought maybe there's a peculiar place in the images where there happens to be a gap,
but I don't think that's the case."
In terms of size, the "mass" is 14 miles by 4.5 miles, and when said person searched all
of Antarctica to see if something similar was around, he couldn't find a thing.
Which truly makes it a one of a kind thing.
And thus making it all the stranger.
So what exactly did he find?
Many fans went to Youtube and other places to weigh in on it, and there have been many
guesses.
Such as a government facility that they don't want you to know about.
After all, they apparently have the right to have Google Maps blur certain areas if
they feel it'll "expose" certain things about said structures.
However, a 14-mile long building in Antarctica is not only improbable, it's illogical.
Why would anyone want to make something 14 miles long in Antarctica?
What purpose would that serve?
Either way, it's there, and many people want to know why.
9.
Meteorites It may not seem so strange at first, but finding
a meteorite in Antarctica is actually very important.
Not the least of which is because when meteorites come from the atmosphere and land on Earth,
they often times shatter on impact.
Or, if left exposed to the elements, they'll wither away.
Thus not letting scientists study them.
But because of Antarctica's snowy tundra and cold temperatures, the meteorites that land
there actually have a very strong likelihood of surviving, and thus many go to the continent
just to find rare meteorites from space.
A great example of this happened in 2015.
NASA teamed up with Stanford University to go and search the ice continent for a meteorite
that was said to have landed there over a decade prior.
What was so important about this particular meteorite?
Simple, it came from Mars, which scientists are still openly studying in the hopes of
colonizing it one day.
Anyway, they did indeed find it, and when they looked into it, they found that there
were actually fossilized remains of ancient microbes from Mars.
A big clue into the history of said planet.
So as you can see, while meteorites may be somewhat common the Earth itself, sometimes
you need to go to the ends of said Earth to find the ones that make the most impact.
Which this one most certainly did.
8.
Elongated Skulls?
This next entry is one that is a bit controversial, because there are some out there who believe
that this entire thing was a hoax.
Basically, a team of archaeologists from the Smithsonian apparently found a set of three
elongated skulls in Antarctica during a dig.
Should this be real, it would be the first time proof life from well beyond the modern
age of humanity was found in Antarctica.
What's important about this isn't just the fact that humans MAY have lived on the continent
beforehand, but that they were ones who had rather elongated skulls.
These skulls have been found in other countries and continents, including Peru, South America,
and in Africa.
Which might go and show that during the days of Pangea (when all the continents were unified)
that there were people in Antarctica and other countries mingled there as well.
Now, as stated before, many consider this a hoax, mainly because the "area" which they
claim to have found the skulls doesn't technically exist.
What's more, the press conference held for the skulls seemed to have had some weird dialogue
from the team.
But regardless of whether it's honestly real or not, it does raise an interesting question
about life on Antarctica in regards to humans.
For while it's easy to think of the place being a frozen wasteland for all of eternity,
that's honestly not what many people think.
There is a possibility that before it froze over, that it was a place of great greenery.
Which meant that humanity could have lived there once upon a time.
So maybe these skulls aren't the proof of that, but there may be other proof in the
ice just waiting for us.
7.
The Curious Case Of Invertebrates So while it's true that humanity doesn't technically
live in Antarctica outside of a few research bases, that doesn't mean that there isn't
life within the snow and ice at all.
What scientists discovered quite shockingly is that there is a plentiful race of creatures
living within the snowy mounds of the continent.
Mainly, invertebrates.
Or, creatures without a spine.
To be even more specific on the matter, about 67 different kinds of invertebrates live on
this frozen tundra.
Yes, they're small, tiny even, but they live here, and that means they deserve to be talked
about, and yeah, some of them are downright strange.
First and foremost, there are the Nematode Worms, Mites, the Rotifer, the Tardigrade,
and the Springtail.
All different, all unique, all live in Antarctica, and yes, all strange.
But wait, there's a catch to this that makes it even stranger.
You see, because of the temperature of the land, they aren't exactly "living" all the
time.
If the temperature goes above freezing point, they'll start to move around and go about
their days.
Yet, when it drops, which is often, they'll hibernate for lack of a better term.
They "moving" periods sometimes only last an hour, if that!
Whereas their "hibernation" can sometimes last up to months!
Think about trying to live like that, where you'll have moments of "life" and then months
upon months of "sleep".
Not exactly a life worth living, am I right?
Regardless of how strange it is though, it is proof that even in the harshest conditions
in the world, life finds a way to live, even in Antarctica.
And, if something like these many species of invertebrates can be found in the snow
and ice, what else could be waiting to be found?
6.
Dinosaurs Another one that may not be the biggest shock
in the world, but around 70-200 million years ago, it's believed that dinosaurs once roamed
around the realm of Antarctica.
If you're wondering why this is a big deal, it enforces the notion that we made earlier
in the video about Antarctica not being as cold as it was back in the earlier days of
the Earth.
By many estimates, it's believed that Antarctica could've been at least 50 degrees warmer than
it is right now.
And while that may not make it the warmest place ever, it was enough for some reptilian-like
creatures to have lived there based on fossils found in the 1980's and beyond.
This helps paint an even clearly picture of what life was like back in the days of the
dinosaurs.
As it's clear their reach truly was to every corner of the Earth before being wiped out
by the asteroid that hit the Earth.
Plus, if there were dinosaurs in the lands of Antarctica, that would also raise all sorts
of questions about what creatures were in the oceans around the continent.
While cold, the waters of Antarctica right now are full of life, so that would go to
mean that there was a lot of life back then too.
Who knows what other fossils may be frozen in the continent.
5.
Pyramids In Antarctica Pyramids are something of a curious thin on
Earth.
Mainly because while they are magnificent structures that mean a lot of things to a
lot of people, it's sometimes unclear how they got made.
And why they're in some many places around the world.
One place that just about no one would suspect to have such a structure would be Antarctica.
The cold and desolate continent is one that is believed to have not had life on it in
hundreds of thousands of years, if not more in the range of millions.
So the idea of massive man-made structures in the style of a pyramid would be ludicrous...or
so we thought.
Fast forward to 1901, and pyramids of a sort were discovered on Antarctica.
The first was discovered by a British Expedition group, but they decided to keep the place
a secret.
Then, two more were found by Google Earth of all things (which again shows the power
of the platform, I'm just saying).
And when it was confirmed that they were real, it led to all kinds of questions about humanity
and our history.
Dr. Vanessa Bowman, who works at the British Antarctic Survey, noted that this isn't just
about Antarctica now, but what it may have been like a long time ago:
"Go back 100 million years ago, and Antarctica was covered in lush rainforests like those
that exist in New Zealand today."
This is yet even more proof that human life was thriving on Antarctica at some point in
time.
And who knows what these pyramids could truly be like?
They have been found, but are unable to be fully researched and explored because of location.
But, if they were, and clues were found of who made them?
History would truly be rewritten.
4.
Petrified Mammals While it's interesting to find out more about
dinosaurs and humans that may have lived in Antarctica at one time, it does raise the
question of what other kinds of animals might have lived there as well.
Which brings us to 2009, where the fossilized remains of a mammal was discovered.
It was about the size of a cat, yet was one that laid eggs.
Further study stated that this was an ancient mammal that lived back around 250 million
years ago.
But just as interesting, this species is thought to have moved to Antarctica after leaving
Africa when an extinction-level event hit the planet (and there were plenty of them
back in those days, trust me).
Anyway, the animal believed that Antarctica was the "cooler" place to go temperature wise,
and thus left South Africa for it.
Nowadays, it'd be the opposite, but the world wasn't the same back then.
So again, this asks the question, "What other kinds of creatures lived in Antarctica when
it wasn't frozen?"
3.
Blood falls Imagine being the first person to find this.
A bunch of water coming from ice that looks blood red.
Can you imagine the shock and horror?
But despite what it looks like, it's not what you think.
The "blood falls" is a waterfall coming out of a glacier in Antarctica that flows red,
giving it its rather infamous nickname.
The glacier in question is the Taylor Glacier, and the reason for its red coloring is rather
simple in context.
And no, it's not blood or anything related to that honestly.
This particular glacier isn't just holding a bunch of ice together, it's also holding
back an ancient body of water, one that is two million years old and filled with microbes
and other things from days long gone by.
When the glacier broke enough to let the water flow forth (no one knows exactly when this
happened).
The water that was sealed away was high in salinity, as well as heavy in iron.
That last point is very significant.
Because when you mix saltwater with iron, then expose it to oxygen, and you get oxygenation,
which is what causes iron to rust.
A similar effect happens here, and the result of this mixing is that you get a waterfall
that looks blood red.
The Blood Falls themselves are five stories high on the Taylor Glacier, and the waters
actually flow rather slowly, which is why the ice is "stained" by the "blood".
Ironically enough, the reveal of why the water was red was rather recent.
There were many thoughts and theories as to why it happened.
Including algae being the cause.
Either way though, it's another mystery solved.
2.
Plane Crash Sadly, planes crash somewhat frequently in
our world, especially when it comes to smaller vessels.
But finding a wreckage of a plane in Antarctica is not something that typically happens.
Yet, in 2013, a Canadian plane disappeared without much of a trace.
And a year later, it was found in Antarctica via Mt. Elizabeth.
There's a lot of mysteries as to what happened to the plane, and why exactly it ended up
buried in snow on a steep hill on the continent.
The only clues that we do have is that there was an alarm signal dispatched from the plane
shortly before it vanished.
And some speculate that the plane's pilots actually crashed the plane into Mt. Elizabeth
in the hopes that someone would survive the crash.
Sadly, it wasn't to be.
1.
100 Year-Old Whiskey Let's end this on a bit of levity, shall we?
During an excavation, some archaeologists were shocked to find multiple crates filled
with whiskey.
Whiskey that had been under the ice for apparently 100 years.
Which means it was well-aged, obviously.
There are a few twists in this tale though.
First off, because the team feared damaging the bottles, they waited three years for very
special tools to be made so that they could extract the crates of ice without issue.
Then, when the whiskey was extracted, and the bottles were found to be intact, one of
the workers looked to the scientists and said, "Would you like to try it?"
The scientist refused, stating that it was more important for the whiskey to be studied
than to be tasted.
That's some restraint right there.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think of these finds in the ice of Antarctica?
Which one was your favorite?
What was the oddest of the bunch?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!