What are the benefits and problems of the scientific bases in Antarctica?
It is difficult to tell accurately what mineral resources Antarctica has as they are buried in rock that is covered by a thick ice sheet. It is thought to have large and valuable mineral deposits under the ice. This is because of what has been found in samples taken from the small areas of rock that are exposed, and also from what has been found in South Africa and South America. Up until 180 million years ago, Antarctica was a part of the Gondwanaland super continent, attached to South America, the Southern part of Africa, India and Australia, these continents then drifted apart until they reached their current positions. Antarctica shares some types of fossils with South America and South Africa and also some rock formations, leading to a possibility that it may also share some of the mineral wealth of these continents. For the time being however, it is mainly guess work and an accurate geological or mineral map of Antarctica is impossible to produce on any great scale. Coal has been
