ANTARCTICA The name means the opposite of the Arctic Since this vast continent at the bottom of the world was discovered in 1820 explorers and scientists have braved gale-force winds mountainous waves thick fog and giant icebergs to study one of the few wild places left on our planet Antarctica is a land of extremes the coldest driest windiest and highest continent A big tabular iceberg in the Weddell Sea Antarctica
Ninety percent of the world’s ice 70 percent of the world’s fresh water is locked in antarctic glaciers up to two miles thick If those glaciers were broken up there would be enough to supply every person on earth with an ice cube as large as the Great Pyramid Antarctica doubles in size in the winter as sea ice spreads out from its coast 4
On its surface Antarctica is a frozen desert But beneath the sea ice lies a strange oasis home to an amazing variety of animals and plants that thrive in sub-freezing water sheltered by the ice that covers their home like a glass roof 5
