Antarctica, the southernmost continent and site of the South Pole it’s the fifth-largest continent at over 14 million square kilometers in size. The average temperature is -76 degrees Fahrenheit at the highest points to 14 degrees along the coast.
Most of Antarctica is covered in ice. There is only 2% of the land that is not covered by ice. The ice that covers it is 1.9 kilometers deep.
The climate is very harsh.
Antarctica is so dry that it is called a “Polar Desert”
Sometimes, in May and August, the temperature will get less than -100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The further away from the coastal areas, the drier and colder the weather gets.
The average temperature along the coast is around 14 degrees Fahrenheit to -22 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the summer months, the weather is usually around 32 degrees Fahrenheit and can reach up to 48 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the mountain areas, the temperatures are much cooler and can get as low as -76 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter months and around -4 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer.
The amount of precipitation that Antarctica gets is hard to calculate because it usually is snowfall.
It is thought they get around 2 to 4 inches of precipitation a year but only in the form of snow.
The desert is one of the driest areas on Earth.
It’s important for many reasons one being that it helps to balance the heat on the Earth.
Since it is covered in ice, the ice helps to reflect the radiation from the sun out of the Earth’s surface.
If the ice would melt, it would cause there to be more heat on the Earth because the atmosphere would collect the heat instead of reflecting it.
This would cause there to be a climate change and would make global warming happen.
When the climate warms up, it causes more ice to form in some parts of Antarctica.
When this happens, a strong wind can come. This strong wind is called a Polar Vortex.
When a Polar Vortex happens, it causes wind temperatures to get lower and more ice to form.
The waters that surround Antarctica are very important.
These waters are part of what is called the “ocean conveyor belt.”
The ocean conveyor belt is what causes the water to circulate around the world.
Since the water is very cold, it is heavy and pushes against the floor of the ocean.
When this happens, it causes warmer water in the oceans to rise to the top.
The cold water is called the Antarctic Bottom Water.
When the water moves around Antarctica, it pushes water around the whole world.
The winds help to make the water move even quicker.
It is twice as big as Australia. It is the size of Mexico and the United States of America combined together.
When it is wintertime, it doubles in size because of all of the ice that forms around the coastal areas.
There are several landmasses that are from 600-2500 miles away from Antarctica.
Some of these include:
It has the most ice that is found on the Earth’s surface.
The elevation of the ice is 2,000 meters above sea level around the coastal areas and 4,000 meters in the center of Antarctica. These ice sheets grow bigger and bigger when it snows.
During the wintertime, the surface of the ice increases from 1.2 million square miles all the way to 7.3 million square miles, and most of the ice grows where the coastal shelves are.
Coastal ice shelves are ice sheets that float and connect to a continent.
Two of Antarctica’s ice shelves are:
There are some mountain summits that are located in Antarctica and these are found over 4,500 meters above sea level.
Antarctica is the only continent that is covered with one large sheet of ice. The ice sheet is divided into parts, the East and the West Ice Sheets.
Antarctica is divided into two parts:
The two parts are divided by mountains that are called the Transantarctic Mountains.
These mountains are found all around Antarctica but most of them are buried under all of the ice.
There are two different volcanoes that are active volcanoes.
These two volcanoes are:
Mount Erebus is the most active volcano in Antarctica.
Antarctica is part of the “Ring of Fire” that is known to have a lot of tectonic activity or the movement of plates. This can cause a lot of earthquakes and volcanoes.
There is a mountain that is in Antarctica that is shaped like a pyramid.
Scientists believe that this is just a mountain that has a shape like a pyramid.
Antarctica is a different kind of continent because it has no countries.
There are seven different nations that say that they are part of Antarctica, including:
There are also some islands that are located in Antarctica such as:
Even though there are all of these islands and territories, there are not people that live in Antarctica.
There are many different plants that grow in Antarctica, mostly around the coastal areas and very little in the inside of Antarctica. Some of these include:
There are so many different fish and marine life that is found in the water around Antarctica.
Some of these include:
There are also many different types of animals that live in Antarctica such as:
As we said above, there are no people that live in Antarctica, but that does not mean that people do not visit Antarctica.
As a matter of fact, Antarctica has many areas for scientists and government officials to go and be able to do research there. Many of these people include:
In Antarctica, there are many research stations. Some of them include: