The United States Antarctic Research Report to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Number 32 - 1990 (1991) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 59-61
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From page 59... ...
Data from these studies and others help describe how solar energy enters the outer terrestrial environment and reaches the atmosphere, how disturbances associated with the transfer of energy propagate to and affect the planet's surface, and how matter in the universe formed into galaxies and clusters of galaxies. BIOLOGY, HUMAN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE The vivid contrasts and unique characteristics of antarctic marine, freshwater, and terrestrial life have long attracted biologists to the southern continent and the surrounding oceans.
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From page 60... ...
Antarctic data have supported such theories as plate tectonics and the existence of the ancient supercontinent Gondwanaland and have helped to solve more fundamental problems, including mountain-forming processes and marginal-basin evolution. With most reconnaissance work completed, geologists and geophysicists focus on the role of the south polar region in global geodynamics, the evolutionary history of endemic marine and terrestrial biota, and Antarctica's role in the evolution of ocean circulation.
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From page 61... ...
Because large-scale heat exchange at the surface overturns the water column and mixes trace constituents, these waters are major sources of the world's intermediate and deep water masses. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the world's largest ocean current, affects global ocean circulation, and the annual change in sea-ice cover-from one million to eight million square miles-influences energy transfer.
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