Creation and unification
The new antarctic geography


Doom Traps have severely changed the antarctic geography more than the entire Lentocene itself. The once major islands (Weddell, Ellsworth, Marie Byrd) are now united with Polarica, a geographic condition that was already lost in the Holocene, reforming a giant continent that will be called Neopolarica, with an overall surface (about 15 million km2) greater than holocenic Antarctica.

Large eruptions in the continental shelf have formed a myriad of small islands that run along the coast of the new Antarctic Peninsula, forming The Infinite Archipelago. Sea life here is favored by the warm and shallow waters, which are just 30 meters deep on average (100 feet). Due to their volcanic origin, these islands often fuse or separate after large eruptions, which are still frequent but more effusive, with gentle lava flows.

The Fire Bridge on the other hand is way more explosive and can locally cause great damage to the antarctic biota; it's a volcanic arc, formed by the subduction of the newly formed Sedia Microplate under the Antarctic Plate; while the Infinite Archipelago hosts an enormous number of insular species, the highly disturbed environment of the Fire Bridge lives little room for large terrestrial organisms. Flying vertebrates often use this arc as a nesting site, due to the scarcity of predators.

A separate lava plume emerged also in the central portion of the Transantarctic Mountains, which contributed to the unification of Marie Byrd to the mainland; part of the Ross Sea was cut away after this event, forming the Incense salt lake endorheic basin. Despite the "salt lake" name, water salinity is variable depending on the flow of its tributaries, ranging from brackish to briny (minimum salinity recorded: 8 ppt; maximum salinity recorded 53 ppt).

Some late eruptions have also created two islands of discrete size:

  • Boitomb island: this island is located near the South Pole, next to the once small Balleny Islands of the Holocene period. With a total size of 50.000 km2, this island is even smaller than the once called Ellsworth Island and, due to its extreme south position, it's impacted by the polar night and possesses frigid temperatures. Few animals are cable to survive in the low-growing woodlands that cover the entire island.

  • Centro Island: probably caused by the latest mega-eruption of the entire Doom Traps, this island emerged from the Weddell Sea, joining with Berkner Island and forming a fairly large archipelago of around 100.000 km2, more or less the size of Tennessee/Iceland. Thanks to its northern position, Centro Island possesses a regular circadian cycle, with hot summers and cool winters. Seasonal precipitations create large mediterranean forests separated by arid grasslands.

A short description of each antarctic biome of the chapter. Click on the image for full resolution