How can there possibly be coal in Antarctica?
Teams of IGY scientists gathered a lot of astounding new information about Antarctica. They studied the penguins and the fishes, the weather and its relation to global climate. They studied the ice sheets and the rocks below them. And they verified the fact that Antarctica has coal. The south polar region is a place of eternal winter. Most of the vast land is under ice sheets a mile or more thick. A few slopes and peaks are stripped bare by bitter blizzards. Flocks of birds pay flying visits to the place. Certain penguins waddle cheerfully through the cruel hardships, gorging on the fish that teem in the chilly ocean. Bud surely this is no place for thriving greenery and the basic ingredient of all coal making is plant life. Yet beds of coal have been found in Antarctica. There are many deposits in the east and many more in the bleak, barren center of the land mass. Most of our coal forest thrived in moist marches, some 200 million years ago when the climate was mild and balmy. Their s
