Antarctica

Antarctica is the southernmost continent on Earth and the one with the fewest people. It sits almost entirely within the Antarctic Circle, surrounded by the Southern Ocean, and holds the geographic South Pole. In terms of size, it ranks fifth among the continents, covering 14,200,000 square kilometers—roughly 40% larger than Europe. The Antarctic ice sheet, averaging 1.9 kilometers thick, blankets most of the land.

On average, Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and it also has the highest average elevation. Much of it qualifies as a polar desert, with coastal areas receiving over 200 millimeters of precipitation annually and inland regions getting far less. About 70% of the world’s freshwater is locked up in Antarctica’s ice; if it all melted, global sea levels would rise by nearly 60 meters. The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth, −89.2 °C, was measured here. In summer, coastal temperatures can climb above 10 °C. Native animal life includes mites, nematodes, penguins, seals, and tardigrades, while vegetation is mostly limited to lichen and moss.

The ice shelves of Antarctica were likely first sighted in 1820 during a Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. Subsequent decades brought French, American, and British explorers. The first confirmed landing occurred in 1895 by a Norwegian team. Early in the 20th century, several expeditions ventured into the continent’s interior. British explorers Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David, and Alistair Mackay became the first to reach the magnetic South Pole in 1909, and the geographic South Pole was first reached in 1911 by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

Around 30 countries govern Antarctica under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System. The treaty bans military activity, mining, nuclear explosions, and nuclear waste disposal. The main human activities are tourism, fishing, and research. In summer, about 5,000 people live at research stations; that number drops to roughly 1,000 in winter. Despite its remoteness, human activity significantly affects the continent through pollution, ozone depletion, and climate change. The melting of the potentially unstable West Antarctic ice sheet is a major source of uncertainty in century-scale sea-level rise projections, and it also disrupts the Southern Ocean overturning circulation, which could eventually alter climate and productivity across the Southern Hemisphere.

The name “Antarctica” comes from the word “antarctic,” which traces back through Middle French and Latin to Greek roots meaning “opposite to the Arctic.” The Greek philosopher Aristotle mentioned an “Antarctic region” in his work Meteorology. The Greek geographer Marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name on his world map from the second century AD, though that map is lost. Roman authors Gaius Julius Hyginus and Apuleius used the romanized Greek name for the South Pole, which led to Old French and then Middle English forms, first found in a treatise by Geoffrey Chaucer. For centuries, Europeans imagined a vast southern continent—Terra Australis—to balance the northern landmasses. This idea persisted until Australia was discovered. In the early 19th century, explorer Matthew Flinders doubted a separate continent south of Australia and argued for using “Terra Australis” for Australia instead. In 1824, colonial authorities in Sydney officially renamed New Holland to Australia, making “Terra Australis” unavailable for Antarctica. Geographers then used phrases like “the Antarctic Continent” and sought a more poetic name, suggesting Ultima and Antipodea. “Antarctica” was adopted in the 1890s, first used by Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew.

Antarctica sits asymmetrically around the South Pole, mostly south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. It has rivers, the longest being the Onyx. The continent covers over 14.2 million square kilometers, nearly twice the area of Australia, making it the fifth-largest continent and comparable in surface area to Pluto. Its coastline stretches about 18,000 kilometers: 44% is floating ice in the form of ice shelves, 38% consists of ice walls resting on rock, 13% is ice streams or glacier edges, and the remaining 5% is exposed rock. Lakes beneath the continental ice sheet are found mainly in the McMurdo Dry Valleys or various oases. Lake Vostok, discovered under Russia’s Vostok Station, is the largest subglacial lake in the world and one of the largest lakes overall. Scientists once thought it had been sealed off for millions of years, but now estimate its water is replaced every 13,000 years by the slow melting and freezing of ice caps. In summer, ice at the edges of the continent melts.