Cruising Antarctica Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elephant Island

Looking at a map of the island is like looking down on the top of an elephant's head, with two big ears and a protruding trunk. When Captain George Powell first sighted the island, in 1821, there were large numbers of elephant seals populating the island's coastline.

The seals have been seen there pretty much every year since, but alas, visibility wasn't good enough for us to tell whether there were any there when we passed by.

Answer: Humpback

Humpback whales tend to feed in the colder waters, including polar regions, in the summer and retire to the warmer waters nearer the equator during breeding time, where they mostly live off of their fat reserves. Their yearly migrations can be as much as 25,000 km long. They are baleen whales, lacking teeth, and they tend to feed by lunging at their prey.

They have developed an interesting approach to feeding, which is sometimes called bubble net feeding. The whales dive down and blow a ring of air bubbles around a school of fish.

The fish react to the bubbles as if they form a physical barrier that they cannot cross. The whales then swim up through the school of captive fish, with their mouths open. We saw a pod of 13 whales feed this way in Alaska, and it's an amazing sight to see.

Answer: Poland

The Arctowski Research Station was established in 1977 and it is one of the stations that is staffed year round. It is named after Henryk Arctowski, a Polish meteorologist who explored Antarctica in the 19th century.
The Star Princess brought four Polish scientists down with us, as well as some fresh supplies for the station. A dinghy bearing three departing scientists motored out to the ship to effect the exchange.

Answer: Emperor Penguin

All of the penguins listed have colonies in Antarctica, but the Emperor is by far the largest, standing approximately up to 48 inches in height and weighing anywhere between 55-99 pounds. We weren't fortunate enough to see any Emperor penguins because they are hard core Antarctica dwellers, living mainly on the mainland, where they endure some of the coldest winters in the world, with temperature diving lower than -40 degress (which is where the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales seem to converge).

Answer: Iceberg Alley

Antarctic Sound, or Iceberg Alley as it is often called, is a passage of water that runs between the Antarctic Peninsula and Joinville and D'Urville Islands. It connects the Weddell Sea, with its permanent ice shelf, and the Bransfield Strait, which is navigable in the Antarctic summer.
We spent an entire day watching literally hundreds of icebergs on and around Iceberg Alley, in many shapes and sizes.
It's not an exclusive name, as we've also visited an Iceberg Alley along the coast of Newfoundland in Canada.
There really is a Terror Gulf - it is part of the Weddell Sea on the southern end of the Antarctic Sound.

Answer: a tabular iceberg

Tabular icebergs are so named because of their flat appearance, like a table top. They are most common in Antarctica and have broken off from the ice shelves that cover Antarctic waters. The ones we saw would have been from the ice shelves in the Weddell Sea, located on the southern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, between it and the mainland.

The largest tabular iceberg ever recorded was more than 12,000 sq. miles in size, which is actually larger than the country Belgium.

Answer: Antarctic Peninsula

Land that isn't covered year round by ice is in short supply in Antarctica, so the Antarctic Peninsula is home to most of the research stations located there, particularly on its northern shore (and on the islands). The Antarctic Peninsula is located below South America and was first sighted around 1820.
Sadly, this beautiful part of the world is also being affected by global warming, with studies showing both an increase in average temperatures and a massive ice loss.

Answer: glacial ice

In the simplest terms, glaciers are the result of large amounts of sleet and snow that accumulated faster than it melted. The pressure of the snow on itself caused the snow and ice to become denser and more compact, until it became glacial ice. The bright blue streaks that are typically found in glacial ice are the result of light reflection.

The ice absorbs the reds and orange of light and reflects back the blues, much in the same way that water does. This particular glacier is still advancing, in that it reaches the water's edge and there is evidence of pieces of the glacier breaking off or 'calving' into the water.

Many of the glaciers around the world are retreating.

Answer: It's really an active volcano.

If you approach Deception Island from any other side, it looks like a regular island, which is home to thousands of Chinstrap Penguins. However the opening seen in the picture, which can be navigated by smaller boats, leads to the water filled crater of the volcano.

Here you can bathe in waters warmed by the volcano, if you don't mind penguin excrement. Years ago it was used as a whaling station, because of the safe harbour it provided and comparative warmth. Chilean research stations and a British base on Deception Island have been destroyed by volcanic activity in 1967 and 1969.

Answer: The Drake Passage

Situated between Antarctica and South America, the Drake Passage is where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet. This can make for some very interesting sea conditions. But it's all in the luck of the draw. When we crossed the Drake, we were subjected to rain and hurricane force winds. However fellow passengers, who had made the trip before, reported crossings where the water was like glass.
It was named after the English explorer, Sir Francis Drake. It was 'discovered' by Drake when his ship was blown off course.