Antarctic Ocean

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Underwater noise

Whales and seals depend on their sense of hearing for survival. Man-made underwater sounds can impair their hearing in both the short and long term, displace them from vital habitats, cause a change in important patterns of behaviour and thereby deteriorate the survival capacity of these marine mammals. read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Geology of the Antarctic

The Antarctic continent is located on a continental plate called the Antarctic Plate.

When one considers the mile-thick ice shields which cover the Antarctic continent today, it is hard to imagine that Antarctica used to be fertile land and completely free of ice. Some 170 million years ago Antarctica was still part of the Gondwana supercontinent - until it broke up and Antarctica drifted south and slowly began to freeze over. read more

The Umweltbundesamt

For our environment