Many people quite often confuse Antarctica and the Arctic. Geography experts will say that the Arctic is in the north, and Antarctica is in the south. Fans of Natinal Geographic will add that polar bears in the Arctic and penguins in Antarctica, and these animals never cross.
But most importantly, Antarctica is a huge continent larger than Australia in area! But apart from basic knowledge, what do we know about it?
WuzzUp enlightens 🙂
1. Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.
2. The coldest place on Earth is a high ridge in Antarctica, where the temperature was recorded at -93.2 ° C. 
3. Some areas of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (an ice-free part of Antarctica) have not had rain or snow for the past 2 million years. 
4. Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles. 
5. In Antarctica, there is a waterfall with water red as blood, which is explained by the presence of iron, which oxidizes when it comes into contact with air. 
6. There is only one ATM throughout Antarctica. 
7. About 80% of our planet's fresh water reserves are located in the ice sheet of Antarctica. 
8. To go to work in Antarctica, every person needs to have their wisdom teeth and appendix removed. 
9. There are no polar bears in Antarctica (they are only in the Arctic), but there are a lot of penguins here. 
10. Antarctica is the only continent without a time zone. 
11. Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent on the planet. 
12. Melting ice in Antarctica caused a slight change in gravity. 
13. There is a Chilean town in Antarctica with a school, hospital, hotel, post office, internet, TV and mobile phone network. 
14. The Antarctic ice sheet has been around for at least 40 million years. 
15. There are lakes in Antarctica that never freeze because of the heat coming from the bowels of the Earth. 
16. The highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica was 14.5°C. 
17. Since 1994, the use of sled dogs has been banned on the continent. 
18. Mount Erebus in Antarctica is the southernmost active volcano on Earth. 
19. Once upon a time (more than 40 million years ago) Antarctica was as hot as California. 
20. There are seven Christian churches on the continent. 
21. Ants, whose colonies are distributed over almost the entire land surface of the planet, are absent in Antarctica (as well as in Iceland, Greenland and several remote islands). 
22. The territory of Antarctica is larger than Australia by about 5.8 million square kilometers. 
23. Most of Antarctica is covered with ice, about 1% of the land is free from ice cover. 
24. In 1977, Argentina sent a pregnant woman to Antarctica so that the Argentinean baby would become the first person born on this harsh mainland. 
25. In 2000, the largest iceberg with an area of 11,000 square kilometers broke away from Antarctica. More than Jamaica! 
26. The average ice thickness is about 1.6 km. 
27. Wind speed in some places in Antarctica can reach 320 km/h. 
Your attention Top 15 facts about the coldest and southernmost continent on earth - about Antarctica.
1. The discovery of the sixth and final continent took place on January 28, 1820. The sloops-of-war Vostok and Mirny, led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, approached the continent. However, they did not dare to land on it.
2. In 1911-1912, a real race for the right to be the first to reach the South Pole unfolded between the Norwegian and Australian Arctic expeditions. The South Pole was conquered by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. And the Australian expedition died on the way back.
3. Emilio Marcos Palma is the first person born on this continent. The Argentine government decided to go for a trick. They sent a pregnant woman to Antarctica who gave birth to a child. Thus, the Argentines wanted to claim ownership of the continent.
4. There are no permanent residents here. Only temporary - scientists. They work in Antarctica in shifts. Their total number is about five thousand people. And they live very friendly. There were even several marriages.
5. In 1961, the doctor Leonid Rogozov performed, perhaps, the most unusual operation. Within two hours, he operated on himself, removing his appendix. After this incident, scientists were accepted to the continent only with a remote appendix, as well as with the absence of wisdom teeth.
6. The word "Antarctica" means "the opposite of the Arctic." Officially, the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew proposed this name in 1890. Prior to this, this land was called "Ice Continent" and "Arctic Continent".
7. The territory of the mainland is the driest place on earth. An ice-free area called McMurdo hasn't had rain in about two million years. Therefore, one of the main troubles for the "inhabitants" of the Antarctic is an open fire. It simply cannot be extinguished.
8. The coldest temperature on earth is recorded here - minus 91.2 degrees Celsius. The average temperature ranges from minus 30 to minus 50. And the temperature maximum for Antarctica is 15 degrees above zero.
9. There are no polar bears on Antarctica. It's very cold here for them. But the penguins feel great here. Six species live here. The cold continent is the only place where the emperor penguin lives. An arctic penguin can dive to a depth of 500 meters.
10. The continent has been open to tourists since 1980. To visit the southernmost continent, you need to pay a tidy sum - 10 thousand dollars. But this does not stop those who wish to admire the eternal ice. About 40 thousand people visit the continent every year. In 2013, the American rock band Metallica even performed a concert here. It was the first concert in Antarctica.
11. Due to the high iron content, rust forms in the waterfall, which is located in the Taylor Valley. For the reddish color, he was nicknamed the Bloody. By the way, the water in it never freezes. The amount of salt in Blood Falls is four times that of sea water.
12. Antarctica is a great place to study meteorites. Thanks to the eternal ice, they are here in their original form. One of them left a huge crater 500 kilometers in diameter. The most valuable are the breakaway parts from the planet Mars.
13. Being in Antarctica, you can visit all 24 time zones in a couple of minutes. Scientists living here usually adhere to the time zone of their country or the time associated with supplies from the “mainland”.
14. Antarctica has its own flag (the contour of the continent is depicted on a blue background), there is a telephone connection and the Internet.
15. In the Dry Wright Valley, the only river flows - the Onyx. Its length is 40 kilometers. There is no fish in it, only algae and microorganisms.
What is Antarctica? A huge continent covered in ice? Yes, but it's not that simple. In this post, we have collected 10 really interesting facts about the coldest place on earth that few people know.
In Antarctica there is a mountain range comparable in size to the Alps
These mountains are called the Gamburtsev Mountains after the name of the Soviet geophysicist and academician Georgy Gamburtsev, whose expedition in 1958 discovered their existence. The length of the mountain range is 1300 km, the width is from 200 to 500 km. The highest point is 3390 m. Well, now the most interesting thing: this whole hulk rests under a huge layer of ice. On average, the thickness of the ice cover over the mountains is 600 meters, but there are areas where the ice thickness is more than 4 km.
In the subglacial lakes of Antarctica, there may be life that has evolved for millions of years completely separately from the rest of the Earth.
In total, more than 140 subglacial lakes have been discovered in Antarctica. But the most famous of them is Lake Vostok, located near the Soviet and later Russian Antarctic station Vostok, which gave the lake its name. Above the lake there is a four-kilometer thickness of ice, but it itself, thanks to the underground geothermal sources located under it, does not freeze. The water temperature in the depths of the lake is at the level of 10°C. It is precisely this thickness of ice, according to the assumptions of scientists, that could serve as a natural insulator, preserving unique living organisms that have developed and evolved completely apart all these millions of years.
There are no time zones in Antarctica
Antarctica is the only continent on the planet that is not divided into time zones and time zones. There is no specific proper time in Antarctica either. All scientists and expedition members living there are guided either by the time of their home country, or by the time of employees who deliver supplies to them.
Antarctica contains 70% of all fresh water on the planet, but it is the driest place on Earth
Paradoxical, but true. Although, if you look, there is nothing strange here. Fresh water reserves are, of course, ice. Well, the situation here is really bad with precipitation: only 18 mm per year. Even in the Sahara desert, 76 mm of precipitation falls per year.
Antarctica has the cleanest sea in the world
This is the Weddell Sea and it is considered to be the most transparent in the world. However, there is nothing surprising here either, because in Antarctica there is simply no one to pollute it. The water in the Weddell Sea is so clear that you can see objects in it at a depth of up to 79 meters. This almost corresponds to the transparency of distilled water.
Antarctic icebergs can be the size of an entire city
And that's putting it mildly. Just imagine: the largest iceberg that broke off here (of course, from those that managed to be registered) was 295 kilometers long and 37 wide. Once again: 295 kilometers!
Antarctica has its own domain name and phone code
Despite the fact that there is no permanent population in Antarctica, this continent has its own .aq domain name and a unique telephone code 672. And Antarctica also has its own, albeit unofficial, currency - the Antarctic dollar.
Contrary to popular belief, not all of Antarctica is covered in ice.
For many, Antarctica seems like an endless icy desert, where there is nothing but snow and ice. And for the most part, of course, it is. But in Antarctica there are quite extensive snowless valleys and even sand dunes. However, do not flatter yourself, there is no snow there, not because in these areas it is warmer than in others, on the contrary, the conditions there are even more severe. In the dry valleys of McMurdo, terrible katabatic winds blow at speeds up to 320 km / h. It is they who cause the evaporation of moisture and therefore there is neither snow nor ice here. Living conditions here are so close to Martian that NASA even conducted tests of the Viking landers in the McMurdo Valleys.
There are several active volcanoes in Antarctica
In general, Antarctica is a very calm place in terms of seismic activity. Although, it also has its own volcanoes and not only dormant, but also quite active. At least two of them have erupted within the last 200 years. And the most famous volcano of Antarctica, which is also the most active, is called Erebus, it is also often called "the volcano guarding the path to the South Pole."
Antarctica has the largest known asteroid crater
This crater is located in the region of Ulkis Land and has a funnel diameter of about 482 km. According to scientists, it was formed approximately 250 million years ago during the Permian-Triassic period as a result of an asteroid falling to Earth at least 48 kilometers in diameter. The dust raised during the fall and explosion of the asteroid led to centuries of cooling and, according to one hypothesis, the death of most of the flora and fauna of that era.
What you should know about the most mysterious continent of the planet!
1. Literally, the name "Antarctic" is translated as "opposite the bear." The ancient Greeks named the icy north Arktikos, after the Great Bear located at the North Pole.
2. Officially, Antarctica was discovered only in 1820 during the Russian round-the-world naval expedition led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev.
3. Antarctica does not belong to any state Although several countries (including Australia, Argentina and the UK) at one time tried to claim ownership over Antarctica, it remains a state-free space to this day. In 1959, the "Antarctic Treaty" was concluded, proclaiming it "a natural reserve intended for peace and science." The treaty was signed by 48 states.
4. Antarctica is the only continent without time zones. The scientists living here live either according to the time of their homeland, or according to the time of the employees who supply them with food and equipment.
5. Antarctica is not only the coldest place on Earth, but also the driest. The average rainfall in Antarctica is only 10 centimeters. The so-called McMurdo Dry Valleys is a place where the combination of cold and dryness reaches its absolute. There has been no precipitation here for more than two million years! The surface and climate of this area are so reminiscent of the surface of Mars that NASA tested the Viking space program here.
6. However, despite its dryness, Antarctica contains 70% of the reserves of all fresh water on the planet - naturally, in the form of ice!
7. Cold and dryness are not the only records of the continent. Here are the points of the strongest and longest wind and the most powerful solar radiation.
8. The most "positive" record of the region belongs to the Antarctic Weddell Sea: it is considered the cleanest in the world. Which, however, is logical: there is absolutely no one here to pollute it. The waters of the sea are so transparent that through them you can see objects at a depth of 80 meters!
9. There are no permanent residents in Antarctica. The only people who live in these inhospitable lands are scientists. In the summer months, their number is about 5 thousand people. In winter, this figure drops to 1,000.
10. By the way, the most "summer" month in Antarctica with the warmest weather is February. At this time, the change of scientists at the stations takes place.
11. The first person was born in Antarctica only in 1978 - an Argentine named Emilio Marcos Palma.
12. Among scientists working in Antarctica, the percentage of polar explorers from Russia is the highest - from 4 to 10 percent.
13. Icebergs in Antarctica reach record sizes. So, in 2000, an iceberg broke off here, reaching 295 kilometers in length and 37 in width. The captain of the Titanic would definitely have spotted him from afar!
14. In winter, the mainland of Antarctica significantly increases in size. Ice covers the seas surrounding it at a rate of 65,000 square kilometers every day! As a result, Antarctica is almost doubling in size: 20 million square kilometers are added to it. This is equivalent to half the US, two Australia or 50 UK! And with the onset of the polar day, these masses of ice are slowly melting.
15. The Amundsen-Scott Polar Station at the South Pole is so isolated from the outside world that in 1999, the doctor Jerry Nielsen, who worked at the station, discovered she had breast cancer, managed to do chemotherapy herself: she had no choice.
1. The territory of Antarctica does not belong to anyone - not to any country in the world.
2. Antarctica is the southernmost continent.
3. The area of Antarctica is 14 million 107 thousand square kilometers.
4. Antarctica has been depicted on maps since ancient times even before its official discovery. Then it was called "Unknown Southern Land" (or "Australis Incognita").
5. The warmest time in Antarctica is February. The same month is the time of the “shift change” of scientists at research stations.
6. The area of the Antarctic continent is about 52 million km.
7. Antarctica is the second largest after Australia.
8. Antarctica has no government and official population.
9. Antarctica has a dialing code and its own flag. On the blue background of the flag, the outline of the continent of Antarctica itself is drawn.
10. It is generally accepted that the first human scientist in Antarctica was the Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink. But here historians disagree, because there is documentary evidence that Lazarev and Bellingshausen were the first to set foot on the continent of Antarctica with their expedition.
12. Antarctica has its own currency, which is valid only on the continent.
13. Antarctica has officially recorded the lowest temperature in the world - 91.2 ° C below zero.
14. The maximum temperature above zero in Antarctica is 15°C.
15. The average temperature in summer is minus 30-50°C.
16. No more than 6 cm of precipitation falls per year.
17. Antarctica is the only uninhabitable continent.
18. In 1999, an iceberg the size of London broke off from the continent of Antarctica.
19. Beer is included in the mandatory diet of workers at scientific stations in Antarctica.
20. Since 1980, Antarctica has been accessible to tourists.
21. Antarctica is the driest continent on the planet. In one of its regions - the Dry Valley - there has been no rain for about two million years. Oddly enough, there is no ice at all in this area.
22. Antarctica is the only habitat for emperor penguins on the planet.
23. Antarctica is an ideal place for those who study meteorites. Meteorites falling on the territory of the continent, thanks to the ice, have been preserved in their original form.
24. The continent of Antarctica has no time zone.
25. All time zones (and there are 24 of them) can be bypassed here in a few seconds.
26. The most common form of life in Antarctica is the wingless midge BelgicaAntarctida. It is no more than one and a half centimeters long.
27. If the ice of Antarctica ever melts, the level of the world's oceans will rise by 60 meters.
28. In addition to the above - the global flood can not be expected, the temperature on the continent will never rise above zero.
29. There are fish in Antarctica whose blood does not contain hemoglobin and red blood cells, so their blood is colorless. Moreover, the blood contains a special substance that allows it not to freeze even at the lowest temperatures.
30. No more than 4 thousand people live in Antarctica.
31. There are two active volcanoes on the continent.
32. In 1961, on April 29, in less than two hours, Leonid Rogozov, a doctor on a Soviet expedition to Antarctica, performed an operation on himself to remove appendicitis. The operation went well.
33. Polar bears do not live here - this is a general misconception. It's too cold for bears.
34. Only two types of plants grow here, and flowering ones. True, they grow in the warmest zones of the mainland. These are: Antarctic Meadow and Kolobantusquito.
35. The name of the mainland comes from the ancient word "Arcticos", which literally translates as "opposite the bear." This name was given to the mainland in honor of the constellation Ursa Major.
36. Antarctica has the most powerful winds and the highest level of solar radiation.
37. The cleanest sea in the world in Antarctica: the transparency of the water allows you to see objects at a depth of 80 meters.
38. The first person born on the continent is Emilio Marcos Palma, an Argentinean. Born in 1978.
39. In winter, Antarctica doubles in area.
40. In 1999, doctor Jerry Nielsen had to self-administer chemotherapy after discovering he had breast cancer. The problem is that Antarctica is a deserted place and isolated from the outside world.
41. In Antarctica, oddly enough, there are rivers. The most famous is the Onyx River. It flows only during the summer - it's two months. The length of the river is 40 kilometers. There are no fish in the river.
42. Blood Falls - located in the Taylor Valley. The water in the waterfall has acquired a bloody hue due to the high content of iron, which forms rust. The water in the waterfall never freezes because it is four times saltier than regular sea water.
43. On the continent were found the bones of herbivorous dinosaurs, which are already about 190 million years old. They lived there when the climate was warm, and Antarctica was part of the Gondwana continent.
44. If Antarctica was not covered with ice, then the height of the continent would be only 410 meters.
45. The maximum ice thickness is 3800 meters.
46. There are many subglacial lakes in Antarctica. The most famous of them is Lake Vostok. It is 250 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide.
47. Lake Vostok was hidden from mankind for 14,000,000 years.
48. Antarctica is the sixth and last discovered continent.
49. About 270 people have died since the discovery of Antarctica, including a cat named Chippy.
50. There are more than forty permanent scientific stations on the continent.
51. Antarctica has a huge number of abandoned places. The most famous is the camp founded by Robert Scott from Britain in 1911. Today, these camps have become a tourist attraction.
52. Shipwrecked ships were often found off the coast of Antarctica - mostly Spanish galleons of the 16th-17th centuries.
53. In the region of one of the regions of Antarctica (Wilkis Land) there is a giant meteorite impact crater (500 kilometers in diameter).
54. Antarctica is the highest continent of the planet Earth.
55. If global warming continues, trees will grow in Antarctica.
56. Antarctica has huge reserves of natural resources.
57. The biggest danger for scientists on the continent is open fire. Due to the dryness of the atmosphere, it is very difficult to put out.
58. 90% of the ice reserves are in Antarctica.
59. Over Antarctica, the world's largest ozone hole - 27 million square meters. km.
60. 80 percent of the world's fresh water is concentrated in Antarctica.
61. In Antarctica, there is a famous ice sculpture of natural origin, called the “Frozen Wave”.
62. In Antarctica, no one lives permanently - only in shifts.
63. Antarctica is the only continent in the world where ants do not live.
64. The largest iceberg on the planet is located in the waters of Antarctica - it weighs approximately three billion tons, and its area exceeds the area of the island of Jamaica.
65. Pyramids similar in size to those of Giza have been discovered in Antarctica.
66. Antarctica is surrounded by legends about Hitler's underground bases - after all, it was he who closely explored this area during the Second World War
67. The highest point of Antarctica is 5140 meters (Sentinel Ridge).
68. Only 2% of the earth “peeps out” from under the ice of Antarctica.
69. Due to the gravity of the ice of Antarctica, the southern belt of the earth is deformed, which makes our planet oval.
70. Currently, seven countries of the world (Australia, New Zealand, Chile, France, Argentina, Great Britain and Norway) are trying to divide the territory of Antarctica among themselves.
71. The only two countries that have never claimed the territory of Antarctica are the USA and Russia.
72. Above Antarctica is the clearest patch of sky, best suited for space exploration and observing the birth of new stars.
73. Every year in Antarctica, a hundred-kilometer ice marathon is held - a race in the area of Mount Ellsworth.
74. Mining has been banned in Antarctica since 1991.
75. The word "Antarctica" is translated from Greek as "the opposite of the Arctic."
76. A special breed of tick lives on the surface of Antarctica. This mite can secrete a substance similar in composition to an automobile “anti-freeze”.
77. The famous Hell's Gate canyon is also located in Antarctica. The temperature in it drops to 95 degrees, and the wind speed reaches 200 kilometers per hour - these are unsuitable conditions for humans.
78. Before the Ice Age, Antarctica had a hot, tropical climate.
79. Antarctica affects the climate of the entire planet.
80. The installation of military installations and the installation of nuclear power plants is strictly prohibited on the continent.
81. Antarctica even has its own Internet domain - .aq (which stands for AQUA).
82. The first conventional passenger plane arrived in Antarctica in 2007.
83. Antarctica is an international conservation area.
84. The surface of the McMurdo dry valley in Antarctica and its climate are very similar to the surface of the planet Mars, so NASA occasionally test launches of their space rockets here.
85. 4-10% of polar scientists in Antarctica are Russians.
86. A monument to Lenin was erected in Antarctica (1958).
87. New bacteria, unknown to modern science, were discovered in the ice of Antarctica.
88. Scientists at the Antarctic bases live so friendly that as a result many interethnic marriages have been concluded.
89. There is an assumption that Antarctica is the lost Atlantis. 12,000 years ago, the climate on this continent was hot, but after an asteroid hit the Earth, the axis shifted, and the continent along with it.
90. An Antarctic blue whale eats about 4 million shrimp in one day - that's about 3,600 kilograms.
91. There is a Russian Orthodox Church in Antarctica (on the island of Waterloo). This is the Church of the Holy Trinity near the Arctic station of Bellingshausen.
92. Apart from penguins, there are no land animals in Antarctica.
93. In Antarctica, you can observe such a phenomenon as mother-of-pearl clouds. This happens when the temperature drops to 73 degrees Celsius below zero.
