Portal:Antarctica
Antarctica
Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is completely surrounded by the Southern Ocean. The nearest land mass is South America at 965 km.
Its area is close to 14 million km2. Antarctica is the fifth largest continent after Asia, Africa, North America and South America. Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. The minimum recorded surface temperature on the planet, −89.2 °C, was at the Soviet research station Vostok in Antarctica on 21 July 1983. Antarctica has 98% of its total area covered by ice. The mean thickness of the ice sheet is 1829 m and the maximum thickness has been measured as 4776 m. While most of the ice in East Antarctica is on bed rock, in West Antarctica a majority of it floats on water. Due to accumulation of ice over millions of years, the continent has been depressed by about 600 m on average. Since there is little precipitation, except at the coasts, the interior of the continent is technically the largest desert in the world. There is no permanent population and there is no evidence of any existing or pre-historic indigenous population. Only cold-adapted plants and animals survive there, including mosses and lichens, and several species of penguins, ice seals and the Antarctic fur seals. Selected article
The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was an official British exploration mission to the Antarctic regions. The main objectives of the expedition were summarised in the joint committee's "Instructions to the Commander" in the following terms: "to determine, as far as possible, the nature, condition and extent of that portion of the south polar lands which is included in the scope of your expedition", and "to make a magnetic survey in the southern regions to the south of the 40th parallel and to carry out meteorological, oceanographic, geological, biological and physical investigations and researches". The expedition launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Robert Falcon Scott (who led the expedition), Ernest Shackleton, Edward Wilson, Frank Wild, Tom Crean, and William Lashly.
Selected pictureThe Crabeater Seal, Lobodon carcinophaga, is one of the most remarkable, though least known, of the mammals of the world. More than one in every two seals in the world is a Crabeater Seal and the population biomass of Crabeaters is about four times that of all other pinnipeds put together. WikiProjectsThings to do
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Airports in Antarctica • Antarctica agreements • Antarctica geography stubs • Argentine Antarctic Territory • British Antarctic Territory • Chilean Antarctic Territory • Churches in Antarctica • Exploration of Antarctica • Explorers of Antarctica • Fauna of Antarctica • Flora of Antarctica • Geography of Antarctica • Glaciers of Antarctica • Headlands of Antarctica • History of Antarctica • Ice shelves • Indian Antarctic Program • Natural history of Antarctica • New Zealand and the Antarctic • Operation Deep Freeze • Outposts of Antarctica • People of Antarctica • Ross Dependency • South African National Antarctic Programme • South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands • South Shetland Islands • Transport in Antarctica
TopicsHistory: List of Antarctic expeditions • History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands • Research stations in Antarctica Geography: Geology of Antarctica • Climate of Antarctica • Antarctica ecozone • Antarctic Peninsula • Eastern Antarctica • List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands • Extreme points of the Antarctic • McMurdo Sound • Ross Sea • Weddell Sea Geopolitics: Argentine Antarctic Geopolitics • Antarctic Treaty Secretariat • Brazil Antarctic Geopolitics • Chile Antarctic Geopolitics • Flags of Antarctica Demographics: Colonization of Antarctica • Religion in Antarctica Related portalsWikimedia |