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You could paint the entire Antarctic landscape with only white, black, and a little bit of blue and green. There are no other colors here.

A Study in Four Colors January 6, 2004

Ttrealtravels
2005-12-25 00:17:23

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You could paint the entire Antarctic landscape with only white, black, and a little bit of blue and green. There are no other colors here.

Black rock hills jut up from deep green seas. White snow and ice adorn the mountains and land. In the ocean float chunks of white ice, and the oldest bergs glow blue from inside. Submerged icebergs turn the sea into brilliant turquoise. And, when we are lucky, the white and gray clouds part to reveal blue skies.

Likewise, the animals are all in the same shades as the landscape. This protects and camouflages them from harm. Penguins and most other birds are shadow colored. Their backs are dark so they blend in with the ocean when they swim for food. Their undersides are light so when they're viewed from below, they fade into the sky, even if they're seen from deeper in the water. A very few birds are all white. These are less sea-dependent fowl that need to blend into snow and sky.

Seals are mostly dark because they spend nearly all their time in the water. The Weddell and Leopard seals have faint pale spots, and the Crab-Eater seal can be dark or silvery. A seal's dark body glides sleekly through the dark waters and evades much notice.

lichen Plants are extremely rare here, but dark green lichens tenaciously cling to a few rocks. Plush mats of Antarctic hairgrass sprout foresty greens between the rocks. There are no colorful blossoms in this harsh clime.

The ocean here is as unsullied as parts of the Caribbean, but rougher and more likely to be capped with white. The water around icebergs is most lovely, as the vast bodies of bergs underneath the waves tint it with aquamarine tones of blues and greens. This makes the bergs into sparkling diamonds set into the dark sea.