Page 5 - The Call of Antarctica: Exploring and Protecting Earth's Coldest Continent

–140°F (–95.5°C) in winter. Even in summer, temperatures only rise
above 32°F (0°C) in the warmest coastal areas. The winds blowing
across Antarctica can be ferocious, clocking in at nearly 200 miles
(322 km) per hour near the edge of the ice sheet.
The South Pole tilts away from the sun in winter (June to September
in the southern half of the globe). Because of this tilt, almost all of
Antarctica is covered in darkness—with no daylight—in wintertime.
In summer (December through March), Antarctica tilts toward the
sun, meaning that the sun doesn’t set for months at a time. Sometimes
Antarctica is said to have only two seasons, summer and winter, because
it has about six months of darkness and then six months of daylight.
The continent covers 5.5 million square miles (14 million sq. km).
That’s larger than the United States and Mexico combined. Thousands
of rocky islands line its coasts. The continent is surrounded by
the Southern Ocean, a vast expanse of water comprised of the
southernmost reaches of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Also
known as the Antarctic Ocean, the Southern Ocean is full of icebergs.
It’s also the roughest, harshest sea on the planet. Powerful winds from
the west drive towering waves, sometimes more than 30 feet (9 m)
high. These same winds create currents that propel huge volumes of
water, the largest in the world.
Most of Antarctica is covered by a massive ice sheet, an enormous
layer of ice that flows slowly across the land. Antarctica’s ice sheet
is divided into two sections, one in the Eastern Hemisphere of the
continent (the side near Africa, India, and Australia) and one in the
Western Hemisphere (south of the Pacific Ocean and South America).
The Antarctic Peninsula, south of Cape Horn in South America, is
home to a coast of fjords, rocky islands, and hundreds of glaciers.
The miles-thick ice sheet and myriad Antarctic glaciers hold about
90 percent of the world’s ice and 70 percent of its fresh water.
The word Antarctica comes from the Greek word antarktike,
meaning “opposite of the Arctic.” The Arctic is the region surrounding

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