Antarctica Facts
>
Antarctica is larger than Europe and twice as big as Australia,
but only 2% is ice-free
> It's the world's driest continent, with an annual snowfall equating
to just 200 millimeters of water. That's even less than the annual
rainfall of the world's hot deserts!
>
The entire continent of Antarctica has just one ATM
>
The coldest temperature ever recorded on earth was in Antarctica:
-89.6°C at Vostok station in July 1983
>
Antarctica holds 70% of the planet's fresh water and 90% of the
planet's freshwater ice. The average ice sheet is a whopping
1.4 kilometres thick!
>
Antarctica is the only continent which doesn't have its own
endemic species of ant
> During winter the pack-ice zone in the Southern Ocean almost
doubles in size, extending to between 19 and 22 million
square kilometres
>
Australia has three permanent bases in the wilderness: Mawson
(1954), Davis (1957) and Casey (1969). Don't forget to give them
a wave if we fly over!
N AT U R E'S M AS T ER PI EC E
It's over 100 years since Ernest Shackleton
made his pioneering expedition across
the South Pole. Knowledge of the driest,
coldest and windiest continent on earth
has come a long way since then…
Weddell Sea
Average minimum
extent of sea ice
Ross Sea
Southern
Ocean
South
Pacific
Ocean
Indian
Ocean
South Atlantic
Ocean
Shackleton
Ice Shelf
Amundsen
Sea
An
t
a
r
c
ti
c
C
ir
c
l
e
Bellingshausen
Sea
Ronne
Ice Shelf
Ross
Ice Shelf
Amery
Ice Shelf
4 Freecall 1800 633 449
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