What problems does Antarctica have to mining for coal oil and natural gas?
Antarctica’s weather, ice and distance from any industrialized areas mean that mineral extraction would be extremely expensive and also extremely dangerous. The icebergs that drift around the continent frequently grind into the ocean floor like billion (or trillion) tonne ploughs.
What are the problems facing Antarctica?
The main threats facing Antarctica:
- Climate change / Global warming, resulting in a warming of the sea and loss of sea ice and land-based ice, this is greatest long-term threat to the region.
- Fishing, both legal and illegal.
- Invasive species.
Why don’t we commercially mine in Antarctica?
There are deposits of minerals in Antarctica, including coal and iron ore. But getting to them would have required battling the hazardous Antarctic conditions. Miners would have had to get through the thick ice sheet to reach the minerals. Antarctica is also a long way from world markets.
What are the top 5 commodities in Antarctica?
Scientific expeditions have found valuable minerals in some of these Antarctic areas, including antimony, chromium, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, tin, uranium, and zinc.
What will happen if Antarctica melts?
If all the ice covering Antarctica , Greenland, and in mountain glaciers around the world were to melt, sea level would rise about 70 meters (230 feet). The ocean would cover all the coastal cities. And land area would shrink significantly. Ice actually flows down valleys like rivers of water .
Are there any oil or coal deposits in Antarctica?
There are known reserves of oil and coal as well as mineral deposits in Antarctica, although detailed knowledge of these mineral deposits is sketchy. In the last 50 years of scientific research, no large deposits of mineralized rocks have been found.
Are there any problems with mining in Antarctica?
There are other issues with mining for minerals in Antarctica and that is that because it is frozen and has been for millions of years with little or no liquid water flowing, the processes that happen in other parts of the world as a consequence of weathering that concentrate minerals just don’t happen in Antarctica.
Why are there so many resources in Antarctica?
The price for a barrel of oil is now high which would make oil extraction in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean economically viable and profitable. In addition, climate change has led to the retreat and thinning of ice sheets, making drilling much easier and less dangerous. Arctic resources have been depleted a decade earlier.
How did the oil spill in Antarctica affect the environment?
Fortunately for the environment the ship sank in deep water away from land and the typically rough nature of the Southern Ocean meant that the oil was dispersed by wind and wave before it could cause any significant damage.