10 Fun Facts About Antarctica
November 26, 2012
1. The first confirmed sighting of the continent was in 1820.
2. Explorers first reached the South Pole in 1911.
3. Because Antarctica lies in the southern hemisphere, seasons there are the opposite of seasons in the north — summer runs from October to February and winter covers the remainder of the year.
4. Antarctica is the coldest continent; temperatures in the winter can drop below –73°C (-100°F).
5. The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was at Russia’s Vostok Station in Antarctica: -89.2°C (-128.6°F) on 21st July, 1983.
6. Antarctica is the driest continent; it is almost entirely desert. Very little snow or rain falls on the continent, but because it is so cold, the small amount of precipitation that does fall does not melt.
7. The ice can be more than 4 km thick in some places. This ice flows off the continent and creates floating ice shelves over the ocean; these shelves break up and create icebergs. If Antarctica’s ice sheets melted, the world’s oceans would rise by 60-65 meters.
8. About 70% of Earth’s fresh water is in the Antarctic ice cap.
9. There are no countries in Antarctica; the continent is governed by an international treaty (the Antarctic Treaty).
10. There are no permanent residents. But up to 1,000 people may be wintering over at various research stations. Learn more: Explore the Antarctic with Sylvia Earle The Last Frontier: Antarctica’s Southern Ocean The Last Ocean Education Resource Top photo via wikimedia commons.
So what will happen there if things continued to get worse due to climate change.
this helped with my homework
#5. Now it seems that the lowest temperature in Antarctica is far below than -89 Celsius. It is around -98 Celsius.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/coldest-place-earth-measured-temperature-antarctica-science/
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Same! I’m doing a project in my 6th grade class right now.
Yeagh me too it helped me mate a website about Antarctica for a project too
This so good it helped me with making a fact book and it is going in the library
Hi I think what you are doing is really cool and helpful to a lot of animals!
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Thanks helped me so much with my homework
how many animals live in anartica
there are more than 100 species
i did not know that
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thanks this helped me alot on my papper about antarctica
Question: how old is the snow? I understand the scientists drill ice cores into the snow.
Is there a place in Antarctica called The Brown Desert?
No there isn’t my daughter learnt it in geography a few weeks back
So American
Is there land under the ice—–like dirt and sand?
Thanks for your question, Judy. The Antarctic ice sheet rests on a major land mass in East Antarctica, but in West Antarctica much of the ice sheet extends over the seawater.
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This was extremely useful and helped me with my project!
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I hellò its me and I really like to know learn more about the animals that live in the Antarctic ocean and on land.
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