Antarctica

Antarctica – The Stunning Ice Crowned Wonder

Antarctica is covered 99% with ice and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. The continent contains the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere.

It is the fifth largest southernmost continent on Earth, 14,000,000 square kilometersor 5,400,000 square miles. Antarctica is larger than Europe, twofold the size of Australia.

The continent comprises about 90% of the planet’s freshwater ice, 70% fresh water with the largest mass of ice the Antarctica Ice Sheet. Penguins and seals live in Antarctica. It is mostly a desert due to very little rainfall. Antarctica has -89.2 °C (-128.6 °F) as the lowest temperature in 1983 at Vostok Station while temperatures average at -63 °C (-81 °F) in the coldest time of the year.

Lake Vostok is afreshwater lake that is buried 2.5 miles (3.7 kilometers) under solid ice. It is the largest lake among more than 200 lakes under the ice scattered around the continent. Vinson Massif is the highest peak located in the Ellsworth Mountains at 4,892 m or 16,050 feet.

There are several other mountains on the continent as well as the islands surrounding it. World's southernmost mountain, Mount Erebus is an active volcano on Ross Island. The longest mountain range on Earth is the Transantarctic Mountain range, which divides the entire continent into two sections - East and West. It is 2,175 miles or 3,500 kilometers long.

Being the only continent with lava lakes, Antarctica has large coal resources near the Beardmore Glacier on an expedition, however, low-grade coal is found throughout the Transantarctic Mountains. There are significant iron ore deposits in the Prince Charles Mountains. The other most valuable resources of Antarctica lying offshore are oil and natural gas, which was found in the Ross Sea in 1973.

Cape Adare, Ross Island, McMurdo Station, Stanley, and the Falkland Islands are some of the places worth visiting on the continent.