What place on Earth should be called the driest and most devoid of life? The first thing that comes to mind is the Saharan or Atacama sands, but there is a point on the planet where there has been no precipitation for more than two million years, and the weather resembles the Martian one. It's about the dry McMurdo Valleys in Antarctica.
Ice Hell
This is a conglomerate of territories in the southern part of the sixth continent, completely free of snow and ice. The total area of almost 5,000 square kilometers - and this is 0.035% of the territory of the continent as a whole. Their relief gave the geographical object the nickname - the oases of Antarctica.
For nothing, the oases - the conditions there are prepogable. The valleys are replete with futuristic species: waterfalls of blood, hurricane winds, and the climate contributes only to the survival of the most stable and simplest forms of life. There's even cockroaches dying!
- In order – Bloody Falls. The name is due to the color, and the latter - a large content of iron oxides. There are several rivers on the planet whose waters are painted red: the most famous among them is the Spanish Rio Tinto (it appeared because iron was mined in those places for centuries, soils and waters poisoned by its salts and heavy metals), but nowhere do they look so bizarre as in permafrost conditions.
- Further. The winds of this place are catabatic; we are talking about the fall of dense conglomerates of cold air, which collapse down the slope of the mountains under the influence of gravity. In some valleys, their speed exceeds 320 km / h - despite the fact that the most powerful hurricane recorded by forecasters (the American Camilla, which successfully defeated half of the southern states in 1969, slightly did not reach 311 km / h).
This was enough to lift and carry away cars tens of kilometers away, tear off roofs and throw ashore ships of the merchant and passenger fleet along with cargo and crews.
There are no people in these latitudes, and the wind has to deal with ice and snow. The breeze of such a breeze completely evaporates the moisture encountered along the way, replacing the melting under the influence of non-existent heat.
Is there life on Mars?
In the McMurdo Valleys, this issue is directly addressed by employees and specialists of the US National Aerospace Agency. They conduct tests here in conditions as close as possible to space: the thing is that life in this place resembles to the maximum what you will have to face during a trip to Mars.
Of the permanent residents of this place, bacteria have the most extensive representation. In addition to them, you can find endolytic fungi that live in the rock and extract organic matter from it through the conversion of potassium, sulfur, iron and zinc - by complex chemical reactions, they turn into something suitable for nutrition. Well, lichens - the benefit they almost do not need anything.
