Antarctic Book Review: Ice Wreck by Lucille Recht Penner

Ice Wreck by Lucille Recht Penner is an illustrated chapter book about Shackleton’s Endurance expedition. This book is appropriate for grades K to 2. This book is an easy read about Shackleton’s expedition for the lower grades as well as for reluctant or struggling readers. This book is also more visually appealing for those that want a more colorful representation of the expedition instead of just the historic black and white photos from the expedition (some of these are still included).

Antarctic Book Review: Can You Survive Antarctica? by Rachel Teresa Hanel

Can You Survive Antarctica?: An Interactive Survival Adventure by Rachel Teresa Hanel is a choose your own adventure style book.  It is both historical fiction and contemporary realistic fiction with options to be an adventurer in the race to the South Pole in 1911-12, part of the first team of women crossing Antarctica in the 1990s, or work with modern day researchers in Antarctica. The book contains historical and modern photos of the actual expeditions, animals, and bases, which can make the book more appealing for reluctant readers as well as visual learners. This book is appropriate for grades 3 to 5. This book is useful for helping students learn about survival in Antarctica, especially how it continues to be dangerous in modern times. It also also encourages critical thinking skills through allowing students to make choices about what to do next.

Antarctic Book Review: A for Antarctica by Jonathan Chester

A for Antarctica by Jonathan Chester is an informational picture book that features a few short blurbs about topics related to Antarctica that start with each letter of the alphabet. This book is appropriate for grades K to 2. Photographs accompany the topics making it visually engaging as well as help further understanding of what exactly the item is, such as the difference between what a regular compass looks like and a sun compass. While this book is slightly dated with its inclusion of dogs (now banned from the continent and book makes it seem they live there), it is still a good introduction to the continent with its coverage of animals, gear used, and research activities that go on in Antarctica. This book is useful for introducing learners to the continent in an appealing alphabet book format that might encourage them to learn more through other resources made available to them.

Antarctic Book Review: Life Under Ice by Mary M. Cerullo

Life Under Ice by Mary M. Cerullo is a picture book that provides a brief overview of the animals and climate of Antarctica with the main focus being on the life under the ice. The book also provides some insight on how scientists work in Antarctica, especially the divers. This book is geared towards grades 3 to 5. The use of photography alongside descriptive text is the main highlight of the book. Having the photographs of actual Antarctic life makes this book more appealing to visual learners as well as those that may be weaker readers while the descriptive text provides similar fulfillment for learners that are more linguistically inclined. For example, when discussing how penguins warm themselves by turning their black backs to the sun and cool themselves by turning their white fronts to the sun there are two full page photos that are a great example of them warming themselves in one and cooling themselves in the other.

Chinese fishing vessel that caught fire has now sunk in the Antarctic

Last week the Kai Xin caught fire in the Antarctic and the crew was evacuated from the ship.  The Chilean government had already sent a tugboat to try to tow it back to port or at least monitor and combat the potential environmental impact of fuel spillage.  However, before the tugboat got there the ship had sunk.  The tugboat will still monitor for fuel spillage, but it appears that there is not much chance of an issue from fuel because the fire is thought to have burned off most if not all of what was aboard.

Source:  Chile says Chinese factory fishing ship that burned off Antarctica has sunk with no one aboard (Washington Post)

Related Posts:

• Chinese fishing ship fire in Antarctica
• Chilean Tug Boat Sent to Chinese Ship on Fire in Antarctica

Chilean Tug Boat Sent to Chinese Ship on Fire in Antarctica

Back on April 17, 2013, the Chinese factory fishing ship Kai Xin caught fire and the crew was evacuated to a Norwegian ship.  The Chilean military and government have been working with the Chinese embassy in Chile to help minimize the ecological impact of the ship.  On Friday, a tug boat was dispatched by Chile's Third Navy Zone equipped to deal with the potential pollution issue of the ship being abandoned and on fire in the Antarctic waters.

Source: Chile sends ship to Antarctica to prevent post-fire pollution by Thomas Whittle

Chinese fishing ship fire in Antarctica

Yesterday, the crew of 97 was rescued from the Chinese factory fishing ship, Kai Xin, by a Norwegian vessel Juvel.  The ship was abandoned due to the fire, but it appears that at least for now it is not sinking.  Chile's Air Force has flown over it and will fly over it again to check its condition.  Chile's military is coordinating to try to minimize the ecological impact of the fishing vessel in the Antarctica including potentially using a tugboat from Puntas Arenas to tow it back to port if the Kai Xin remains seaworthy.

Source: 97 saved from Chinese ship afire off Antarctic by Marianela Jarroud, Associated Press

China plans to set up two new bases by 2015

A few years ago I remember reading about China planning to set up a fourth research base sometime between 2015 and 2030.  Today, though, I read an article about China planning to not only add their fourth Antarctic base by 2015, but also a fifth one.  One of the new stations will a year round station in Victoria Land and the other will be a summer season station located between their current bases of Zhongshan and Kunlun.

Related Articles:

• China to set up two more research stations at Antarctica (from The Economic Times)

First Ever Whale Skelton Found in Antarctic Waters

While I do not find it particularly surprising that the first whale skeleton was only recently found in Antarctic waters, I did find it interesting that only six naturally occurring ones have ever been found on the sea floor worldwide.  It was also interesting to read about how the whale skeletons are part of the ocean's circle of life in that they become reefs.  In this particular case they actually found nine new species on the whale skeleton.  Learn more here.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong is nonfiction informational book geared towards grades 3 and up.  The purpose of the book is to tell the story of Shackleton's 1914-1916 Endurance expedition.  The book also provides some good introductory information about Antarctica as it explains some aspects of the continent's history, climate, and geography in depth to provide a more complete understanding of the struggles the expedition faced and highlight how significant their accomplishments were for the time.  The book reprints some of the actual photographs taken during the expedition expedition to help make the story come to life visually for the readers.  This book has won several awards and honors including the 1999 Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction.