These blizzards fill the air with powdery snow that buries the camps and reduces visibility to zero. Blizzards with the wind velocity as high as 300km/hr have been recorded in the coastal region of Antarctica . They present formidable obstacles to the movement of tracked and wheeled vehicles due to high wind velocity, zero visibility and very high windchill factor. It severly affects the working conditions in the coastal region. They also cause the burial of any object left on the surface , or any structure constructed over an area . The duration of blizzard is highly unpredictable, it may vary from a day to as much as over fifteen days at a stretch . Many explorers have suffered heavily in blizzards by way of casualties or by way of non-achievement of their goals. The British explorer Scott and his team of four lost their lives in one such blizzards on the Ross Ice Shelf in March 1912 while on their return from pole.
The Heroic Era of Antarctica Exploration :.
As early as 3000 BC ,in ancient Greece, it was believed that the earth was a globe , a round ball. They knew that the earth had a North Pole at one end , and a South Pole at the other end and the line dividing the hemisphere was the equator. This belief was based on the assumption that if there was land north of the equator , there ought to be land south of the equator too .("Terra Australis Incognita ").
As late as 1420 , no European is said to have crossed the equator. In the 15th century ,Europeans were very anxious to discover a sea route to India , as transporting goods by the land route through various countries cost them heavily. In 1432 , a Portuguese navigator ,Diogo Cao finally reached the equator & went beyond . He was probably the first European to do so. In 1488 another Portuguese navigator , Bartholomew Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope, the Southern tip of Africa . In 1497 , another Portuguese navigator , Vasco da Gama went all around Africa & reached India .