Chapter 608 - 400: Ancient Underground Creatures Beneath the South Pole
Wang Ye maintained his flight,
soaring over the endless glaciers,
As he delved deeper,
The ice field below transformed from its previously fragmented state to a more complete one,
The broken ice fields surrounding Antarctica are actually due to global warming in recent years.
But when these ice caps leave the ice field, they don’t all flow into the ocean,
Some ice caps still collide and merge with the ice field,
This also makes the terrain at the edge of Antarctica extremely complex.
Antarctica appears very small on domestic world maps,
But actually, its area is larger than both Europe and Oceania.
The total area is about 13.3 million square kilometers.
And at the very center of Antarctica is the so-called South Pole.
The direction Wang Ye is flying now is also towards the South Pole.
He sweeps wildly over the glaciers, occasionally seeing flags planted.
Although it is January now, which is the twelfth lunar month domestically,
It is the summer season in Antarctica.
So the temperature is slightly higher than other seasons, and much ice and snow have melted, revealing a very small portion of the ground. Yet, the total amount of ice and snow here still accounts for over ninety percent of the world’s total.
The oldest formations are over tens of millions of years old, and the hardness of this old ice might have exceeded metal, even steel, making excavation very difficult,
But for Wang Ye, who is well-versed in the Excavation Skill, it certainly poses no challenge, considering he is someone who can excavate by hand over a hundred thousand meters deep. If he were to continue developing for a while, he might even be able to dig through to the Earth’s core.
Meanwhile, here it’s either polar day or polar night. This season in Antarctica is typically the polar day period, meaning the Sun never sets but always hangs high in the sky. This is beneficial for Wang Ye’s exploration, but due to seasonal reasons, this period is not when auroras can be seen. You have to wait until March, entering the polar night, to see the Southern Lights. Right now, auroras can only be seen at the North Pole.
Wang Ye is quite curious about the phenomenon of auroras, which are transformations of the Earth’s magnetic field, and it’s said their temperature is extremely high, even surpassing two thousand degrees Celsius,
It’s a pity there’s no opportunity now, otherwise, he would surely fly into the aurora to experience what it’s like to bathe in it.
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Wang Ye spent over ten hours, circling around Antarctica.
Finally, he selected a relatively good challenge site.
Located at Taylor Glacier.
The terrain here is not only highly suitable for Wang Ye and Carlos’s challenge,
But the scenery is also very unique, with a "Blood Falls" visible at the outermost edge that cannot be seen elsewhere.
It is a waterfall colored like blood,
Because there is a Dry Valley that starts from a shallow and narrow surface depression 1100 meters from the glacier head, with dark red liquid emerging from cracks on the glacier surface, soaking the surrounding ice as if it were frozen human blood, prompting scientists to name it Blood Falls.
Moreover, with the passage of time and the movement of glaciers,
The shape of Blood Falls also changes.
Initially, scientists thought this blood-red ice fall was some kind of red algae.
But later, with the advancement of science and technology, scientists used ground-penetrating radar to scan the ice layers of Blood Falls,
Recording 64 single pulses at 0.1 ns intervals to uncover the truth.
From the radar imaging underneath the glacier, they found a complex underground water network composed of rivers and freshwater flowing under the glacier. These waters have a very high content of iron ions, and the liquid with a high concentration of iron ions appears red.
Thus, the liquids gushing from beneath the glacier appear blood-colored, but in fact are just rust-colored.
Near Taylor Glacier, there are snow-capped mountains with quite a high altitude.
If a challenge is conducted here along with a live broadcast, it would certainly provide great visual effects.
However, Wang Ye was somewhat troubled by the challenge of Life of Ice. Life of Ice is an extreme peak downhill skiing, also known as alpine skiing, which requires a place with thick snow layers to challenge. But due to the dryness here, there is hardly any snowfall, making it hard for them to undertake the Life of Ice challenge.
Wang Ye has already circled all around Antarctica, finding no place suitable for skiing.
Most of the area here is covered by glaciers, and even if there are snow layers, they are very thin.
This made Wang Ye consider changing the Life of Ice skiing challenge to ice skating.
After all, Life of Ice itself does not specify whether the challenge should be skiing or ice skating, only mentioning the keyword ice, so relatively speaking, ice skating fits the topic more closely.
However, he still needed to return to the camp and discuss with Carlos before making a decision.
After choosing the location,
Wang Ye headed straight to the camp where Carlos was staying.
And informed him about it.
When Carlos heard about this, he couldn’t help but ask, "Shouldn’t we be considered as having illegally entered Antarctica now? If we proceed with the challenge and live broadcast without authorization, would we be captured for violating international treaties?"
According to the Antarctic Treaty, any expedition going to or within Antarctica organized by or departing from the territory of any contracting party requires prior notification.
Yet Wang Ye and Carlos had come to Antarctica without prior notification.