sentence-transformers/squad huggingface dataset:
Passage: The climate of Antarctica does not allow extensive vegetation to form. A combination of freezing temperatures, poor soil quality, lack of moisture, and lack of sunlight inhibit plant growth. As a result, the diversity of plant life is very low and limited in distribution. The flora of the continent largely consists of bryophytes. There are about 100 species of mosses and 25 species of liverworts, but only three species of flowering plants, all of which are found in the Antarctic Peninsula: Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass), Colobanthus quitensis (Antarctic pearlwort) and the non-native Poa annua (annual bluegrass). Growth is restricted to a few weeks in the summer.

Question: What can not grow extensively in Antarctica?

Question: What does the climate of Antarctica inhibit?

Question: hat is low and limited in Antarctica?

Question: How many species of Mosses are there in Antarctica?
Passage: New claims on Antarctica have been suspended since 1959 although Norway in 2015 formally defined Queen Maud Land as including the unclaimed area between it and the South Pole. Antarctica's status is regulated by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and other related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System. Antarctica is defined as all land and ice shelves south of 60° S for the purposes of the Treaty System. The treaty was signed by twelve countries including the Soviet Union (and later Russia), the United Kingdom, Argentina, Chile, Australia, and the United States. It set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, established freedom of scientific investigation and environmental protection, and banned military activity on Antarctica. This was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.

Question: Since what year have claims been suspended in Antarctica?

Question: What document regulates Antarctica's status?

Question: What latitude is defined as being Antarctica's border?

Question: How many countries signed the treaty protecting Antarctica from claims?

Question: What does the treaty set Antarctica aside as?
Passage: European maps continued to show this hypothesized land until Captain James Cook's ships, HMS Resolution and Adventure, crossed the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773, in December 1773 and again in January 1774. Cook came within about 120 km (75 mi) of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of field ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals. According to various organizations (the National Science Foundation, NASA, the University of California, San Diego, and other sources), ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica or its ice shelf in 1820: von Bellingshausen (a captain in the Imperial Russian Navy), Edward Bransfield (a captain in the Royal Navy), and Nathaniel Palmer (a sealer out of Stonington, Connecticut). The expedition led by von Bellingshausen and Lazarev on the ships Vostok and Mirny reached a point within 32 km (20 mi) from Queen Maud's Land and recorded the sight of an ice shelf at 69°21′28″S 2°14′50″W﻿ / ﻿69.35778°S 2.24722°W﻿ / -69.35778; -2.24722, which became known as the Fimbul ice shelf. This happened three days before Bransfield sighted land, and ten months before Palmer did so in November 1820. The first documented landing on Antarctica was by the American sealer John Davis, apparently at Hughes Bay, near Cape Charles, in West Antarctica on 7 February 1821, although some historians dispute this claim. The first recorded and confirmed landing was at Cape Adair in 1895.

Question: When did Cook's ships cross the Antarctic circle?

Question: What kept Captain Cook from getting too close to Antarctica?

Question: How many men sighted Antarctica in 1820?

Question: How close did von Bellingshausen and Lazarev come to Antarctica?

Question: When was the first recorded landing on Antarctica?
Passage: Since the 1970s, an important focus of study has been the ozone layer in the atmosphere above Antarctica. In 1985, three British scientists working on data they had gathered at Halley Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf discovered the existence of a hole in this layer. It was eventually determined that the destruction of the ozone was caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) emitted by human products. With the ban of CFCs in the Montreal Protocol of 1989, climate projections indicate that the ozone layer will return to 1980 levels between 2050 and 2070.

Question: What has been an important atmospheric study since the 1970s?

Question: When did scientists discover the hole in the ozone layer?

Question: Where in Antarctica is Halley Station?

Question: What chemical was discovered to have caused the hole in the ozone?

Question: What agreement banned the use of CFC s?
Passage: During the Cambrian period, Gondwana had a mild climate. West Antarctica was partially in the Northern Hemisphere, and during this period large amounts of sandstones, limestones and shales were deposited. East Antarctica was at the equator, where sea floor invertebrates and trilobites flourished in the tropical seas. By the start of the Devonian period (416 Ma), Gondwana was in more southern latitudes and the climate was cooler, though fossils of land plants are known from this time. Sand and silts were laid down in what is now the Ellsworth, Horlick and Pensacola Mountains. Glaciation began at the end of the Devonian period (360 Ma), as Gondwana became centered on the South Pole and the climate cooled, though flora remained. During the Permian period, the land became dominated by seed plants such as Glossopteris, a pteridosperm which grew in swamps. Over time these swamps became deposits of coal in the Transantarctic Mountains. Towards the end of the Permian period, continued warming led to a dry, hot climate over much of Gondwana.

Question: What type of climate did Gondwana have during the Cambrian period?

Question: In what hemisphere did west Antarctica share during the Cambrian?

Question: Where was east Antarctica during the Cambrian period?

Question: What was the climate of Gondwana at the beginning of the Devonian period?

Question: Where was Gondwana located by the end of the Devonian period?
Passage: Antarctica (US English i/æntˈɑːrktɪkə/, UK English /ænˈtɑːktɪkə/ or /ænˈtɑːtɪkə/ or /ænˈɑːtɪkə/)[Note 1] is Earth's southernmost continent, containing the geographic South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres (5,400,000 square miles), it is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. For comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km (1.2 mi; 6,200 ft) in thickness, which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Question: What is the Earth's most southern continent?

Question: Which pole is located in Antarctica?

Question: What ocean surrounds Antarctica?

Question: What is the size of Antarctica?

Question: How much of Antarctica is ice covered?
Passage: Antarctica is the coldest of Earth's continents. The coldest natural temperature ever recorded on Earth was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at the Soviet (now Russian) Vostok Station in Antarctica on 21 July 1983. For comparison, this is 10.7 °C (20 °F) colder than subliming dry ice at one atmosphere of partial pressure, but since CO2 only makes up 0.039% of air, temperatures of less than −150 °C (−238 °F) would be needed to produce dry ice snow in Antarctica. Antarctica is a frozen desert with little precipitation; the South Pole itself receives less than 10 cm (4 in) per year, on average. Temperatures reach a minimum of between −80 °C (−112 °F) and −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) in the interior in winter and reach a maximum of between 5 °C (41 °F) and 15 °C (59 °F) near the coast in summer. Sunburn is often a health issue as the snow surface reflects almost all of the ultraviolet light falling on it. Given the latitude, long periods of constant darkness or constant sunlight create climates unfamiliar to human beings in much of the rest of the world.

Question: Where was the coldest temperature recorded on Earth?

Question: What was the coldest temperature ever recorded?

Question: On what date was the Earth's coldest temperature recorded?

Question: What is Antarctica topographically ?

Question: What light caused condition is a serious problem for humans in Antarctica?
Passage: Aristotle wrote in his book Meteorology about an Antarctic region in c. 350 B.C. Marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century A.D. The Roman authors Hyginus and Apuleius (1–2 centuries A.D.) used for the South Pole the romanized Greek name polus antarcticus, from which derived the Old French pole antartike (modern pôle antarctique) attested in 1270, and from there the Middle English pol antartik in a 1391 technical treatise by Geoffrey Chaucer (modern Antarctic Pole).

Question: Who wrote a book describing a cold region in 350 B.C.?

Question: What did authors Hyginus and Apuleious call the South Pole?

Question: What map maker used the name Antarctica in his map of the 2nd century A.D.?

Question: What did Chaucer call the area in 1391?

Question: What was the old French words for the Antarctic?
Passage: Some scientific studies suggest that ozone depletion may have a dominant role in governing climatic change in Antarctica (and a wider area of the Southern Hemisphere). Ozone absorbs large amounts of ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere. Ozone depletion over Antarctica can cause a cooling of around 6 °C in the local stratosphere. This cooling has the effect of intensifying the westerly winds which flow around the continent (the polar vortex) and thus prevents outflow of the cold air near the South Pole. As a result, the continental mass of the East Antarctic ice sheet is held at lower temperatures, and the peripheral areas of Antarctica, especially the Antarctic Peninsula, are subject to higher temperatures, which promote accelerated melting. Models also suggest that the ozone depletion/enhanced polar vortex effect also accounts for the recent increase in sea ice just offshore of the continent.

Question: In what do some scientists believe ozone depletion may have a role ?

Question: How much cooling can ozone depletion cause over Antarctica?

Question: What light does ozone absorb?

Question: What can the wind changes due to cooling cause in the Antarctic ice?

Question: What does ozone depletion cause in the southern atmosphere?
Passage: Several governments maintain permanent manned research stations on the continent. The number of people conducting and supporting scientific research and other work on the continent and its nearby islands varies from about 1,000 in winter to about 5,000 in the summer, giving it a population density between 70 and 350 inhabitants per million square kilometres (180 and 900 per million square miles) at these times. Many of the stations are staffed year-round, the winter-over personnel typically arriving from their home countries for a one-year assignment. An Orthodox church—Trinity Church, opened in 2004 at the Russian Bellingshausen Station—is manned year-round by one or two priests, who are similarly rotated every year.

Question: Who has research stations in Antarctica?

Question: What is the span of population density per million square kilometers of researchers in Antarctica?

Question: About long long do researchers stay when researching in Antarctica?

Question: What station has an Orthodox church representative?

Question: When did the Trinity Church begin its posting at Bellinshausen station?
Passage: Positioned asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle, Antarctica is the southernmost continent and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean; alternatively, it may be considered to be surrounded by the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, or by the southern waters of the World Ocean. It covers more than 14,000,000 km2 (5,400,000 sq mi), making it the fifth-largest continent, about 1.3 times as large as Europe. The coastline measures 17,968 km (11,165 mi) and is mostly characterized by ice formations, as the following table shows:

Question: What is the southern most continent?

Question: What is the size of Antarctica in square miles?

Question: What is Antarctica's ranking among the continents?

Question: How many miles long is Antarctica's coast line?
Passage: Some species of marine animals exist and rely, directly or indirectly, on the phytoplankton. Antarctic sea life includes penguins, blue whales, orcas, colossal squids and fur seals. The emperor penguin is the only penguin that breeds during the winter in Antarctica, while the Adélie penguin breeds farther south than any other penguin. The rockhopper penguin has distinctive feathers around the eyes, giving the appearance of elaborate eyelashes. King penguins, chinstrap penguins, and gentoo penguins also breed in the Antarctic.

Question: What sea plankton doe many sea creatures rely on to live?

Question: During what season does the emperor penguin breed?

Question: What breed of penguin lives in Antarctica?

Question: What feature does the rockhopper penguin have around its eyes?

Question: Which penguin breeds the furterest south of all the penguin breeds?
Passage: Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antarctica at 4,892 m (16,050 ft), is located in the Ellsworth Mountains. Antarctica contains many other mountains, on both the main continent and the surrounding islands. Mount Erebus on Ross Island is the world's southernmost active volcano. Another well-known volcano is found on Deception Island, which is famous for a giant eruption in 1970. Minor eruptions are frequent and lava flow has been observed in recent years. Other dormant volcanoes may potentially be active. In 2004, a potentially active underwater volcano was found in the Antarctic Peninsula by American and Canadian researchers.

Question: What is the highest peak in Antarctica?

Question: How high is the Antarctic mountain Vinson Massif?

Question: In what mountainous area of Antarctica is Vinson Massif?

Question: What type of volcano was located in 2004 by researchers?

Question: What is the Earth's most southern volcano?
Passage: In 1983, the Antarctic Treaty Parties began negotiations on a convention to regulate mining in Antarctica. A coalition of international organizations launched a public pressure campaign to prevent any minerals development in the region, led largely by Greenpeace International, which established its own scientific station—World Park Base—in the Ross Sea region and conducted annual expeditions to document environmental effects of humans on Antarctica. In 1988, the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resources (CRAMRA) was adopted. The following year, however, Australia and France announced that they would not ratify the convention, rendering it dead for all intents and purposes. They proposed instead that a comprehensive regime to protect the Antarctic environment be negotiated in its place. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (the "Madrid Protocol") was negotiated as other countries followed suit and on 14 January 1998 it entered into force. The Madrid Protocol bans all mining in Antarctica, designating Antarctica a "natural reserve devoted to peace and science".

Question: When did negotiations start to regulate mining in Antarctica?

Question: When was the treaty to regulate mining agreed upon?

Question: What group led the fight to prevent mineral development in Antarctica?

Question: Which two countries refused to ratify the treaty to regulate mineral use in Antarctica?

Question: What was the alternate treaty offered by Australia and France?
Passage: As a result of continued warming, the polar ice caps melted and much of Gondwana became a desert. In Eastern Antarctica, seed ferns or pteridosperms became abundant and large amounts of sandstone and shale were laid down at this time. Synapsids, commonly known as "mammal-like reptiles", were common in Antarctica during the Early Triassic and included forms such as Lystrosaurus. The Antarctic Peninsula began to form during the Jurassic period (206–146 Ma), and islands gradually rose out of the ocean. Ginkgo trees, conifers, bennettites, horsetails, ferns and cycads were plentiful during this period. In West Antarctica, coniferous forests dominated through the entire Cretaceous period (146–66 Ma), though southern beech became more prominent towards the end of this period. Ammonites were common in the seas around Antarctica, and dinosaurs were also present, though only three Antarctic dinosaur genera (Cryolophosaurus and Glacialisaurus, from the Hanson Formation, and Antarctopelta) have been described to date. It was during this era that Gondwana began to break up.

Question: What did most of Gondwana become when the polar ice melted?

Question: What plants were abundant during this time?

Question: What type of reptiles were common during the early Triassic?

Question: When did the Antarctic peninsula form?

Question: During what period did Gondwana begin to break apart?
Passage: Meteorites from Antarctica are an important area of study of material formed early in the solar system; most are thought to come from asteroids, but some may have originated on larger planets. The first meteorite was found in 1912, and named the Adelie Land meteorite. In 1969, a Japanese expedition discovered nine meteorites. Most of these meteorites have fallen onto the ice sheet in the last million years. Motion of the ice sheet tends to concentrate the meteorites at blocking locations such as mountain ranges, with wind erosion bringing them to the surface after centuries beneath accumulated snowfall. Compared with meteorites collected in more temperate regions on Earth, the Antarctic meteorites are well-preserved.

Question: What astronomical study is important research for Antarctica?

Question: What is the supposed source of most Antarctica meteorites?

Question: When was the first meteorite found in Antarctica?

Question: What expedition found nine meteorites in 1969?

Question: What is it about Antarctic meteorites that is different form meteorites found in other places?
Passage: Due to its location at the South Pole, Antarctica receives relatively little solar radiation. This means that it is a very cold continent where water is mostly in the form of ice. Precipitation is low (most of Antarctica is a desert) and almost always in the form of snow, which accumulates and forms a giant ice sheet which covers the land. Parts of this ice sheet form moving glaciers known as ice streams, which flow towards the edges of the continent. Next to the continental shore are many ice shelves. These are floating extensions of outflowing glaciers from the continental ice mass. Offshore, temperatures are also low enough that ice is formed from seawater through most of the year. It is important to understand the various types of Antarctic ice to understand possible effects on sea levels and the implications of global cooling.

Question: What location means that Antarctica get little solar radiation?

Question: In what condition is most water in the Antarctica?

Question: What is the usual condition of precipitation in the Antarctic?

Question: What does the massed snow in Antarctica produce?

Question: What are ice streams otherwise called?
Passage: The first semi-permanent inhabitants of regions near Antarctica (areas situated south of the Antarctic Convergence) were British and American sealers who used to spend a year or more on South Georgia, from 1786 onward. During the whaling era, which lasted until 1966, the population of that island varied from over 1,000 in the summer (over 2,000 in some years) to some 200 in the winter. Most of the whalers were Norwegian, with an increasing proportion of Britons. The settlements included Grytviken, Leith Harbour, King Edward Point, Stromness, Husvik, Prince Olav Harbour, Ocean Harbour and Godthul. Managers and other senior officers of the whaling stations often lived together with their families. Among them was the founder of Grytviken, Captain Carl Anton Larsen, a prominent Norwegian whaler and explorer who, along with his family, adopted British citizenship in 1910.

Question: Where did the first semi-permanent residents of the Antarctic area live?

Question: In what year did the sealers start staying on South Georgia?

Question: What was the profession of the residents of South Georgia?

Question: What was the nationality of most whalers?

Question: When did explorer Carl Anton Larsen become a British citizen?
Passage: Some of Antarctica has been warming up; particularly strong warming has been noted on the Antarctic Peninsula. A study by Eric Steig published in 2009 noted for the first time that the continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is slightly positive at >0.05 °C (0.09 °F) per decade from 1957 to 2006. This study also noted that West Antarctica has warmed by more than 0.1 °C (0.2 °F) per decade in the last 50 years, and this warming is strongest in winter and spring. This is partly offset by autumn cooling in East Antarctica. There is evidence from one study that Antarctica is warming as a result of human carbon dioxide emissions, but this remains ambiguous. The amount of surface warming in West Antarctica, while large, has not led to appreciable melting at the surface, and is not directly affecting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's contribution to sea level. Instead the recent increases in glacier outflow are believed to be due to an inflow of warm water from the deep ocean, just off the continental shelf. The net contribution to sea level from the Antarctic Peninsula is more likely to be a direct result of the much greater atmospheric warming there.

Question: Where in Antarctica has warming been noticed?

Question: What do some researchers believe to be that cause of this warming?

Question: How much has west Antarctica warmed per decade in the last 5o years?

Question: What is thought to be the cause of glacier outflow?

Question: What is the thinking of the cause of the Antarctic Peninsula sea level.
Passage: The Antarctic fur seal was very heavily hunted in the 18th and 19th centuries for its pelt by sealers from the United States and the United Kingdom. The Weddell seal, a "true seal", is named after Sir James Weddell, commander of British sealing expeditions in the Weddell Sea. Antarctic krill, which congregate in large schools, is the keystone species of the ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, and is an important food organism for whales, seals, leopard seals, fur seals, squid, icefish, penguins, albatrosses and many other birds.

Question: What animal was greatly hunted during the 18th and 19th centuries?

Question: What did Sir James Weddell command?

Question: For whom is the Weddell seal named ?

Question: What is a very important species in the Southern Ocean?

Question: Why is the krill so important to the Antarctic area?
Passage: The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (also known as the Environmental Protocol or Madrid Protocol) came into force in 1998, and is the main instrument concerned with conservation and management of biodiversity in Antarctica. The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting is advised on environmental and conservation issues in Antarctica by the Committee for Environmental Protection. A major concern within this committee is the risk to Antarctica from unintentional introduction of non-native species from outside the region.

Question: When did the Environmental Protocol become effective?

Question: What is the main concern of the Protocol?

Question: What is seen as a major risk to Antarctica?

Question: What group advises the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting?

Question: Besides conservation, what is the Environmental Protocol's goal to manage?