Why No One's Allowed To Explore The Antarctic

the world's coldest continent is also one of the most mysterious places on earth it's as unique as it is secretive and unlike most destinations you can't just hop off a commercial flight unless you're an elite scientist or an emperor penguin exploring the Antarctic is forbidden even if you could good luck overcoming frostbite inducing temperatures of negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 90 degrees Celsius but why is it restricted and where do these rules come from grab your mittens and let's find out before the mid 1900s we knew almost nothing about Antarctica then an American Navy Explorer by the name of Admiral Richard Byrd Jr changed everything oh and before you go asking Santa for presents the Antarctic is actually at the South Pole Antarctica equals south Arctic Evils north comprende anyway what was Byrd's deal aside from enormous expanses of ice endemic wildlife and wintry conditions he'd never before seen what else exactly did he find while it still shrouded in mystery many think that bird came across an underground civilization called Agartha here check it out in 1957 and 58 a bunch of countries came together and were like you know what we love what this new research is showing and we need to protect Antarctica so the antarctica treaty was created what does that mean exactly well it means that smartypants scientists and lab coats can venture into the icy abyss for research purposes for the rest of us there are exceptions of course we can for example head to the Antarctic waters on a cruise ship can we set foot on the land as well technically yes there are a few landing spots along the peninsula but compared to the entire continents mass it isn't even a sliver the treaty also stated that no single nation could own Antarctica it's divided up into partial ownership for these seven countries here check it out so we know we're not allowed to wander around the frostbitten land of Antarctica but why exactly is that first and foremost it's for the protection of the environment it makes sense to the world southern tip is a place overflowing with biodiversity there's endemic species underground mountains yeah you heard that right blood-red waterfalls and even gold spewing volcanoes but as much as we do want to keep our beloved environment thriving we've also been banned for our own safety temperatures can drop to a whopping negative 130 degrees Fahrenheit that's negative 90 Celsius for most of us protecting the environment and ourselves is the whole story however for a select few it's believed that there are some rather shady stuff going on behind that ice wall as you can see it's completely visible on Google Maps satellite view so if something shady was going on it must be rather well-hidden perhaps this giant alien face like structure could be a sign of the unknown we won't delve too deep into other theories but they do include a supposed hidden fortress used in world war ii claims that an ancient civilization once lived down there and of course the idea that it's the Gateway to the end of the world because the world is flat yeah right ok so what would actually happen if we did try to visit Antarctica if you break the rules get ready to deal with fines of up to ten thousand US dollars and even a year behind bars for each rule that you break there are a heap of rules to follow but they mostly revolve around protecting native wildlife but wait since nobody technically governs the area who's actually gonna punish us well it depends on where you're from according to the Antarctic Treaty anybody accused of a crime in Antarctica is subject to punishment by their own country but what if you are just visiting as a tourist from a country that isn't part of the treaty well in that case usually the host nation of the ship or plane you arrived on takes the reigns and the captain or pilot of the ship could take full temporary control over you Antarctica isn't only a restricted landmass but also one of the largest forbidden air spaces on the planet it's because of legislation that was introduced in the 80s under the Reagan administration a law was created that stated no aircraft regardless of where they are is allowed to be more than 60 minutes from an airfield in case of an emergency since the infrastructure around the South Pole is next to none we have to avoid it in the name of safety of course that rule usually only affects commercial jets chartered Jets can still come and go to bring staff to the research bases which hovers around 3,000 in the summer and 400 in the winter while it can become rather bleak and boring there are still a few basic facilities on offer at McMurdo Station there's some coffee shops a general store a post office and to solitaire ATMs sadly some who make it down there don't make it back over the years many bodies have been discovered beneath the ice and some are never discovered at all in total the number of fallen explorers is thought to be in the hundreds that's all for why no one's allowed to explore the Antarctic do you think there's more hidden down there than we know let us know in the comments make sure to like this video subscribe to the richest and join our notification squad thanks for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: TheRichest

Views: 2,864,717

Rating: 4.721818 out of 5

Keywords: antarctic, explore, admiral byrd antartica, frozen, south pole, scientist, frozen rain forest, the richest

Id: P0N6aMczu78

Length: 5min 23sec (323 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 29 2019