Fascinating and Fun Facts About Antarctica
Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent in the world and it is the place where the south pole is located. There are no permanent residents on this continent nor is there a country that owns it. Do you know that despite having 90 percent of the freshwater ice that exists on planet earth, Antarctica has the driest place on earth? Keep reading to explore more interesting facts about this icy continent.
Fun Facts About Antarctica
1. Antarctica is full of ice and more than 90 percent of the land is covered by ice.
2. The average thickness of the ice in Antarctica is huge, about 1.6 kilometers.
3. The treaty known as the Antarctic treaty has been signed by about 53 countries to keep the place peaceful and use it for research purposes.
4. Antarctica is big to an extent, it is about 1 and a half bigger than the United States.
5. More than 90 percent of the freshwater ice that exists on planet earth comes from this continent.
6. The ice sheet that exists in Antarctica is the biggest in the world.
7. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Antarctica was – 128.56 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. If the ice sheet on the west of Antarctica melted, it would raise the sea level in the world to about 16 feet.
9. More than 70 percent of the freshwater that exists on earth comes from Antarctica.
10. The driest place on earth is not the Sahara desert, but the dry valleys of Antarctica because it hasn’t received rainfall for two million years.
11. Antarctica has about 5.4 million square miles in area, including its floating islands.
Antarctica Continent Facts
12. If all the continents on earth are compared to Antarctica, it is the coldest place on earth.
13. The only place that is the warmest if other places are compared on the continent is the coastline.
14. More than 5 million penguins live on this continent, Antarctica.
15. With a wind speed of 350 kilometers per hour, Antarctica is the windiest place in the world.
16. Measuring 16000 feet, Mount. Vinson is the tallest mountain in Antarctica.
17. When it comes to how high a continent is, Antarctica is the highest continent in the world at an average of 3000 meters in height.
18. This continent is the only continent with no permanent residents staying there, only researchers.
19. The fifth-largest continent on planet earth is Antarctica, surpassing Australia.
20. When compared to Australia, Antarctica is about 2 times the size of Australia.
21. The largest ice shelves on this continent are the Ross ice shelf.
22. About 18 countries of the world send researchers all the time to different parts of the continent.
Antarctica Animal Facts
23. In Antarctica, leopard seals there can live up to 26 years in the wild.
24. Because of global warming, the number of krill has reduced, and this has threatened the life of the penguins.
25. The vultures in Antarctica are the snowy sheathbills, which scavenge on dead penguins.
26. The ice on this continent determines the lifestyle of all the wildlife in Antarctica.
27. Weddell seals that live in Antarctica are excellent divers and can dive up to 600 meters in the water.
28. Researchers have found out through fossils that they were penguins in Antarctica that were even bigger than the emperor penguins.
29. Penguins are great divers and can dive about 259 meters into the water.
30. Albatrosses in Antarctica spend most of their life in the ocean and only come back home to breed.
31. Penguins have a large variety of food they eat, from fish to crustaceans.
32. The deepest dive that a penguin has ever dived in Antarctica was by a female emperor penguin that dived about 535 meters.
Antarctica Tourism Facts
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33. Tourism in Antarctica is regulated and this is done by the international association of Antarctic tour regulations.
34. Tourism in Antarctica is very risky and requires careful planning in case of an accident.
35. A tour ship in Antarctica carries more people than there are at the research bases on the continent.
36. Although Antarctica is large, most tourists prefer to stay in the place where other people are.
37. Antarctica has a limited tourist season that coincides with the breeding season of the animals there.
38. Most tourists that visit Antarctica stay about 3 to 30 days on the continent before coming back.
39. Tourists that visit this place prefer to visit the wildlife-rich areas of the continent.
40. Unlike before, ships that carry about 500+ people are no longer allowed to go to Antarctica.
41. The two major groups of people that visit Antarctica are those that go there for research purposes and those that go there for tourism.
42. The tourism season in Antarctica is usually around November to March in a year.
43. The tourists in Antarctica greatly outnumber those that come there for research purposes.
Antarctica Geography Facts
44. Because of global warming, many pieces of ice melt every year, up to 252 gigatons.
45. In Antarctica, there’s a canyon there that is as deep as that of the Grand canyon.
46. In size, Antarctica is about 5,000, 000 square miles, bigger than Australia.
47. Antarctica has the largest desert on earth and it is not the Sahara desert.
48. There’s no country that owns or has colonized Antarctica, rather there’s a treaty to make it a research base, where countries can send scientists to research.
49. There is an active volcano in Antarctica that is spewing microscopic crystals of pure gold.
50. The United States is a dwarf when compared to Antarctica in size.
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Mysterious Facts About Antarctica
51. Tinder also exists in Antarctica, when an American researcher found a match in Antarctica.
52. There is no official time zone for Antarctica.
53. Since the year 1979, Antarctica has raised the sea level by about 14 millimeters.
54. There is a waterfall in Antarctica that is blood-red in color.
55. There is a lake that is located in Antarctica that is about 15 million years old.
56. Because they often disrupted the wildlife, sledge dogs have been banned from Antarctica since 1994.
57. In the past, scientists believed that Dinosaurs once existed in Antarctica.
58. There are more meteorites in Antarctica than they are at any other place in the world.
59. Many researchers, up to hundreds, have disappeared as they visited Antarctica.
60. In Antarctica, there are two types of ice there, sea ice and land ice.
61. Before the ice age, this continent was once a tropical rainforest.
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