The Coldest Valley - McMurdo Valley

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of snow-free valleys in Antarctica located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound.   The region is one of the world's most extreme deserts, and includes many interesting features including Lake Vida and the Onyx River, Antarctica's longest river.

Climate

McMurdo Dry Valleys, Landsat 7 imagery acquired on December 18, 1999.

The Dry Valleys are so named because of their extremely low humidity and their lack of snow or ice cover. They are also dry because, in this location, the mountains are sufficiently high that they block seaward flowing ice from the East Antarctic ice sheet from reaching the Ross Sea. At 4,800 square kilometres (1,900 sq mi), the valleys constitute around 0.03% of the continent, and form the largest ice-free region in Antarctica. The valley floors are covered with loose gravel, in which ice wedge polygonal patterned ground may be observed

The unique conditions in the Dry Valleys are caused, in part, by katabatic winds; these occur when cold, dense air is pulled downhill by the force of gravity. The winds can reach speeds of 320 kilometres per hour (200 mph), heating as they descend, and evaporating all water, ice and snow.

Geology

ASTER image of the Dry Valleys.

The valleys cut through the Beacon Supergroup, as well as older granites and gneisses of the Ross Orogeny. Deposited directly from ice, tills dot this bedrock landscape. These are relatively thin and patchy, and differ markedly from the extensive, mud-rich tills of the Laurentide ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere. One reason for the difference is that most of the tills in the Dry Valleys were deposited from cold-based ice (ice with basal temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F)), whereas the Laurentide ice sheet was largely wet-based, with significant melting at the base and at the glacier surface.

Life

Mummified seal carcass

Endolithic photosynthetic bacteria have been found living in the Dry Valleys, sheltered from the dry air in the relatively moist interior of rocks. Summer meltwater from the glaciers provides the primary source of soil nutrients. Scientists consider the Dry Valleys perhaps the closest of any terrestrial environment to the planet Mars, and thus an important source of insights into possible extraterrestrial life.

Anaerobic bacteria whose metabolism is based on iron and sulfur live in sub-freezing temperatures under the Taylor Glacier. It was previously thought that the algae was staining red the ice emerging at Blood Falls but it is now known that the staining is caused by high levels of iron oxide.

Part of the Valleys was designated an environmentally protected area in 2004.