Journey to the end of the Earth (Tishani Doshi)

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The journey is to Antarctica, the coldest, driest, and windiest continent in the world. The narrator travels aboard the Russian research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy.

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The journey began 13.09 degrees north of the Equator in Madras. This detail shows the distance between the starting point and the destination.

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The journey took over 100 hours and involved travel by car, aeroplane, and ship. This long journey adds to the sense of distance and adventure.

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Antarctica is described as the coldest, driest, and windiest continent. It also stores about 90 per cent of Earth's total ice volume, making it a place of extreme conditions.

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Its vast white landscape, blue horizon, isolation, and lack of human markers create a sense of wonder and loss of ordinary scale. It makes time and space feel unfamiliar.

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Gondwana was a giant southern supercontinent that existed 650 million years ago, centred roughly around present-day Antarctica. It later separated into the landmasses we know today.

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Gondwana thrived for 500 million years before breaking apart. Its breakup shaped the modern continents and oceans.

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Antarctica is crucial because it is relatively pristine and has never sustained a human population. Its ice cores also hold half-million-year-old carbon records trapped in layers of ice.