Antarctica
Its average annual temperature ranges from about −10°C on the coast to −60°C in the interior.[1] The continent covers more than 14.2 million km², making it the fifth-largest continent.[2] Among Earth's continents, Antarctica is the one with the most extreme conditions: the lowest temperatures, the strongest winds, and the least precipitation.[1]
Quick Facts
- Area
- 14200000 km2
- Population
- 1,300 (winter); 5,100 (summer)
- Density
- 0.00009/km; 2; to 0.00036/km; 2 (seasonal)
- Adjective
- Antarctic
- Countries
- 7 territorial claims
- List countries
- Antarctic Treaty System
- Time
- All time zones
- Internet
- .aq
Facts from the source article.
Geography and history
Antarctica is positioned asymmetrically around the South Pole and is largely south of the Antarctic Circle.[2] The Antarctic ice sheet averages 1.9 km in thickness and covers almost all of the continent.[3] Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana from the Neoproterozoic until the Cretaceous.[4] Gondwana began to break apart around 183 million years ago, forming modern Antarctica.[4]
The term "Antarctica" was first put into use by Scottish mapmaker John George Bartholomew in the 1890s.[5] The Transantarctic Mountains serve as the boundary separating the continent into two regions: West Antarctica and East Antarctica.[3] Due to its greater altitude, the eastern part of Antarctica experiences lower temperatures than the western part.[6] The Ellsworth Mountains contain Vinson Massif, which rises to 4892 meters, making it the continent's tallest mountain.[7]
On Ross Island, Mount Erebus stands as the most southerly active volcano found anywhere on the planet.[7]
What the cited sources add
The Australian Antarctic Program reports that wind gusts well over 200 km/h have been measured in Antarctica.[1] A NASA report from 2020 states that the Antarctic ozone hole that year was the 12th largest by area in 40 years of satellite records.[8] The record for the coldest naturally occurring air temperature on Earth's surface was set at Vostok station on 21 July 1983, when the mercury dropped to −89.2°C.[1] The census was conducted during the International Polar Year and involved 500 researchers from more than 25 different countries.[9]
References
- "Antarctic Weather", Australian Antarctic Program, 18 February 2019. facts only, no text reused. antarctica.gov.au
- Wikipedia, "Antarctica" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Antarctica", The World Factbook, 3 May 2022; Drewry 1983 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Antarctica" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Carroll Lopes 2019, p. 99; Ji, "Variations of the effective elastic thickness over the Ross Sea and Transantarctic Mountains and implications for their structure and tectonics", Tectonophysics, 2017, p. 127–138; Fretwell, "Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica", The Cryosphere, 28 February 2013, p. 375–393; Lucibella, "The Lost Dry Valleys of the Polar Plateau", The Antarctic Sun, 21 October 2015; Hallberg, "Ice Sheet Dynamics", Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, 2019 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Antarctica" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Browne 1995, p. 109; Trewby 2002, p. 115; Klages, "Temperate rainforests near the South Pole during peak Cretaceous warmth", Nature, 2 April 2020, p. 81–86 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Antarctica" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cameron-Ash 2018, p. 20; "Highlights from the Bartholomew Archive: The naming of Antarctica", The Bartholomew Archive, 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Antarctica" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Antarctica", The World Factbook, 3 May 2022 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Antarctica" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Monteath 1997, p. 135 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Bates, "Large, Deep Antarctic Ozone Hole Persisting into November", NASA, 30 October 2020. facts only, no text reused. nasa.gov
- Kinver, "Ice oceans 'are not poles apart'", BBC News, 15 February 2009. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Antarctica (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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