Information about Antarctica
Once the central part of a tropical supercontinent, Antarctica is now the world’s coldest continent – a polar desert almost completely covered with a permanent layer of ice.
In the winter, Antarctica’s interior is cloaked in constant darkness. Freezing winds rage at up to 320km/h and also the temperature has been known to drop as low as -89.6°C. It is no wonder that Antarctica has no permanent residents, no government and hardly any wildlife. But dive into the surrounding ocean and it is a different story. Krill and fish graze within the algaerich waters. Minke, fin and blue whales feed on the krill, and many species of seals and penguins hunt fish. A whole ecosystem exists where it is difficult to imagine any life could survive.
Finding a frozen continent
Antarctica lies 965km from its nearest neighbour, South America. Australia is some 2500km away, and Africa 4000km. Simply because of its isolation and inhospitable surroundings, the frozen continent of Antarctica wasn’t discovered until the early 19th century, even though the Ancient Greeks predicted its existence when they theorized that the southern hemisphere must have big continents to balance those within the northern hemisphere.
With its winter ice cap, Antarctica is roughly circular and covers just over 14 million sq km – twice the area of the USA. If its covering of ice was removed, its area would halve in size, and a rocky land mass surrounded by many islands would be revealed. The continent has two main areas separated by the Transantarctic mountain range. The Antarctic Peninsula lies in west Antarctica in the western hemisphere, and the larger region, east Antarctica, lies within the eastern hemisphere.
