how were the boundary lines in antarctica drawn up and why were the drawn as straight lines?
468268
It is an arbitrary geopolitical map. It was drawn by government cartographers. There were no permanent settlements, so one could simply draw a line down a map based on lattitude and longitude. This was easy, try Yugoslavia.
734739
Glaciers flow because of gravity.\n\nView this page:\nhttp://www.answers.com/topic/last-glacial-maximum\nFor info and a pic of what the world probably looked like during the last ice age. The grey denotes glaciers. The land (brown) has been adjusted for the drop in sea level and the ocean temperature difference is shown.\n\nThe ocean levels dropped. Much of the continental shelf which is now under water was exposed, dry land. The water that now covers them was locked up in the the glaciers.\n\nAlso look:\nhttp://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/RefPages/RefMedia.aspx?refid=461527006&artrefid=761570002&pn=3&sec=-1
787502
That's a lot of questions...\n\nThe land wouldn't be completely covered but the sea level would rise about 200ft so just about all coastal areas would be completely flooded. Obviously everything above that altitude would still be ok but the population would be squeezed into a much smaller area.\n\nMillions of years ago the climate was much warmer and warm ocean currents circled Antarctica which meant that it was totally ice-free and inhabited by rich plant and animal life. At this time the sea level was generally much higher than it is today. At other times, during Ice Ages, much more water was locked up as ice at the Poles and the sea level was much lower than at present.\n\nNo-one knows what is under every part of the Antarctic ice but people have drilled down to the rock in a number of places. Any remains of lost civilisations or other such surface features are likely to have been crushed and ground to dust by the weight of millions of tons of ice. It is known that there are large coal deposits left over from the compacted remains of the plants that once thrived there and there are other mineral deposits as well. At least one prehistoric lake has also been found - frozen solid, of course beneath hundreds of feet of ice and snow.\n\nThe magnetic poles are gradually shifting all the time and many maps such as UK Ordnance Survey maps indicate the rate of variation... on the most recent map I have it states that Magnetic North is moving by 09' East each year. Historically a number of "polar reversals" have been recorded where basically the magnetic north and south poles swap places (282 times in the last 10 million years).  This seems to happen quite suddenly and probably when the gradual shift reaches a critical balance point.\n\nThe main evidence comes from rocks produced from mid-ocean ridges which erupt as liquid magma and rapidly solidify retaining the magnetic field that they were subjected to as they hardened. From this it is possible to see that the North and South Poles have "flipped" and quite regular intervals for millions of years - and in fact in geological terms we seem about due for another such an event.\n\nIt appears that when the poles swap in this way there are often several rapid exchanges before the new arrangement is reached so that the North Pole may go N-S-N-S-N-S in a short space of time before sticking at the new reversed state. This would probably cause all sorts of temporary problems such as disruption to navigation and possibly interference with radio signals and so forth. As some of the rocks of the Earth contain a certain amount of iron which is susceptible to magnetic influences there may also be earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
624759
The polar ice caps formed from snow fall, and the moisture in the snow originally came from the ocean. Water is picked up by the atmosphere and dropped on ice caps. These ice caps are also called ice sheets, which cover most of Greenland and Antarctica, over 2 miles thick in places. The North Pole is an ocean with thin layer of frozen ocean, called sea ice. Snow falling on ice sheets packs into solid ice, and the ice flows back into ocean, some as icebergs and some as water where caps melt at edges in summer. We don't know whether the ice sheets are growing or shinking now, but the laser altimeter on NASA's ICESat(launched in the summer of 2002)is designed to tell us whether the ice sheets are getting thicker or thinner.
358691
They are far apart from one another!\nThey are cold! EXTREMELY COLD! brrrrrrrr \n\nThe South Pole is the southernmost point on the Earth.\nThe North Pole is the northernmost point on the Earth.\n\nThe Geographic South Pole is the one of two points where the earth's axis of rotation intersects the surface (the other being the Geographic North Pole). This is the point usually meant when an unspecified "south pole" is mentioned.\nThe Geographic North Pole, also known as True North, is close to the northern point at which the Earth's axis of rotation meets the surface. Geographic North defines latitude 90° North. In whichever direction you travel from here, you are always heading south. The pole is located in the Arctic Ocean. Classically (19th century) this pole was exactly where people believed the pole of rotation met the Earth's surface, but soon astronomers noticed a small apparent variation of latitude as determined for a fixed point on Earth by observing stars. This variation had a period of about 435 days and the periodic part of it is now called the Chandler wobble after its discoverer. It is desirable to tie the system of Earth coordinates (latitude, longitude, and elevations or orography) to fixed landforms. Of course, given continental drift and the rising and falling of land due to volcanos, erosion and so on, there is no system in which all geographic features are fixed. Yet the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the International Astronomical Union have defined a framework called the International Terrestrial Reference System that does an admirable job. The North pole of this system now defines geographic North and it does not quite coincide with the rotation axis. Also see polar motion.
580853
Great answers - basically, lack of moisture in the air.\n\nFor some great pictures:\n\nhttp://www.coolantarctica.com/gallery/Antarctica_gallery_home.htm
1062855
"Contours, which are lines drawn through points the same height above sea-level, allow both the direction and gradient (steepness, see page 18) of slopes to be determined from the map with much greater accuracy than either of the above techniques" [Hachures is the only other technique I can see.] "Contours are included on almost all modern topographic maps.  The vertical distance between two adjacent contour-lines is known as the vertical interval (V.I.).  A V.I. of 20 metres is often used on modern metric maps.  On older pre-metric editions a V.I. of 50 feet was widely used.\n"When contours are close together, slopes are steep, merging when the gradient (steepness, see page 18) approaches verticality, whereas on gentle slopes the contour-lines are well spaced (Figure 5).  Where slopes are even, the contours on a map are evenly spaced, while on irregular slopes the distance between contours varies widely."\nMap Reading by Patrick Armstrong, Publishied in Australia by Rigby Limited 1980, p15.\nISBN  0 7270 0999 0\n\nI cannot reproduce Figure 5, nor will I explain gradient from p18.  Note that it is an OLD book, published 26 years ago, so when it says modern, it does not mean modern today.
585209
Its not so much one pole attracting the needlepoint so much as the entire magnetic metal beneath the needle aligning to the magnetic field lines*. North and South are just directional names; the most powerful magnet at the time magnetism was discovered was the earth, so naturally, they used the locations of the Earth's poles to name every magnet's pole.\n\n*Magnetic field lines are lines of force connecting the North and South poles of every magnetic object. Place a magnet under a piece of paper and sprinkle iron filings on top, and you'll be able to 'see' them. \n\nThe magnetosphere is the name given to the Earth's magnetic field, which extends into space and gives us protection against much of the charged particle radiation from the sun. This 'solar wind' interacting with our magnetosphere is what causes the auroras over the poles.
326897
You mean emperor penquins. They migrate hundreds of miles inland on Antarctica. They have to move inland to find land solid enough to support the weight of thousands of nesting penquins. The ice shelf around the continent would not be sufficient.
494502
This question is answered very well in solid geometry.\n\nOn a plane, it's a straight line.\n\nOn the surface of a sphere, it's a curved-line called a great circle.\n\nIn space, considering the curvature caused by the masses of any nearby bodies between you and the destination point, it may be a complex three-dimensional curve.
17266
Neither.  It is more of an oval thanks to the strong magnetic pull at the *top* and *bottom* (North and South Poles) of the earth which also have to do with gravity.  Were these features any different, the fowl of the air would not know where to go in the winter.
710321
I guess by now you know its the Nazca lines in Peru.  I'm just a little curious as to how George knows that it was clever humans who did these markings and not aliens.  \n\nI don't wish to dispute the fact, that people might have been clever enough - (despite the claims I've heard saying that it would be impossible).\n\nA friend of mine went to Peru and said they were mind blowing!  I'd like to go one day.
7571
map makers esentiallt did what is known as graphing.  what they did is basically take a piece of graphing pad marking out latitudes and longatudes respectively. they then took measurements as to where they were with a device known as a sextant which they use to determine thire position on the planet LAT/LONG by using the stars as they traveled they marked on the grid paper what thier lat/long was then simply connected the dots this technique can be used to mark coastlines  or if inland plot your course (eg make a line on the map known to be dry land) this course can then be translated to be the border between utah and montana for example the lines for borders between states were mostly arbatrary some were set forth by the gov't where the lines were to be drawn others may have been a natural boundary such as a river or other waterway.\n\ni hope that is what you were looking for
983230
antarctica is split and belongs to countries like england, france, new zealand, and russia, etc. therefore you would be under their jurisdiction.
627881
Try to look for an earth science book that has pictures of the continents one million years ago and at the present, with arrows showing the direction of drift. Then try to imagine doing the drift again. I tell you, this would require huge amounts of brain power.\n\nI can tell you this: Los Angeles will go north along with the rest of California, the Himalayas will rise higher, the Mediterrainean will disappear, Australia will move northward, squishing Southeast Asia, Central America will move north, Antarctica will spin, and so will Asia, more islands will arise in the widening Pacific, while Africa will be split in two. You do the drawing.
460190
Article 2 states that the boundary between U.S. territory and the British possessions to the north would run "…through the Lake of the Woods to the most northwesternmost point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi…" The parties did not suspect that the source of the Mississippi, Lake Itasca, was south of that point.\n\nIn the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, the error was corrected by having the boundary run due south from the northwest point of the lake to the 49th parallel and then westward along it. When this north-south line was surveyed, it was found to intersect other bays of the lake and therefore cut off a portion of U.S. territory, now known as the Northwest Angle.\n\nFun facts: according to the 2000 Census, the Northwest Angle has a population of 152. \nThere's nobody guarding that bit of the US-Canada border. People passing from one country to the other are supposed to use a telephone that was placed along the road to declare their belongings! lol
528153
Convergent boundaries move toward each other - in oceanic/continental convergence volcanic mountains form; the same for oceanic/oceanic convergence except they are usually referred to as island arcs such as the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska; in continental/continental convergence, mountain ranges are formed such as the Himalayas & Appalachians\n\nDivergent boundaries move away from each other making the crust thinner - rift valleys such as that in Africa in continental divergent boundaries; oceanic ridges such as the Mid Atlantic Ridge in the Atlantic Ocean\n\nTransform boundaries slide past each other horizontally & don't really create any kind of landform that I know of. They just offset things like in California w/ the San Andreas fault. It has been known to move fences & rows of trees out of line.