Frozen Antarctica

• The continent holds several records as the highest, driest, coldest and windiest on earth

• The ice caps are up to 4 km thick in places. The weight of this ice cap is so immense that much of the ground below it is pressed below sea-level

• Antarctica the 5th largest of the world’s 7 continents is a large land mass buried under a vast ice cap and surrounded by oceans

• Antartica has the highest average elevation of all the continents.

• The South Pole, near the centre of the Plateau, is at a physical altitude of 9,301 ft and so the atmospheric pressure is roughly 60 % of that at sea level
• Such high altitudes can cause shortness of breath and even altitude sickness for recent arrivals at the Pole

• A physiological altitude of between 10,000 and 11,500 ft is created as the pressure drops further with the earth’s rotation leading the atmosphere to bulge at the equator and flatten at the Pole.

• Antarctica is the driest continent on earth with an absolute humidity lower than that of the Sahara Desert

• The temperatures reach a minimum of between -121 °F and -130 °F (-85 °C and -90 °C) in the winter and about 30 degrees higher in the summer months

• In 1997 Antarctica recorded the lowest ever temperature on Earth, -91C

• The seasonal thinning of the ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere above Antarctica causes abnormal amounts of ultra-violet light to reach the earth’s surface in those regions

• The increased ultra violet light reaching the surface poses a medical hazard and without suitable protection can cause rapid sunburn and potentially more serious skin damage

• Sunburn is often a health issue as the snow reflects 90 percent of the sun rays falling on it

• The land mass is scoured by a regime of persistent and powerful Katabatic, or gravity, winds that rings the continent, producing clouds, fog and extremely sever blizzards
• These winds on a normal summer day would blow at an average speed of –80 to –100 kmph and last for hours if not days
• Blinding conditions can result in which objects less than a 3 feet away may be invisible. A severe blizzard may last for a week at a time with winds blasting at over 100 miles per hour

Cool Links....

www.coolantarctica.com

www.antarcticconnection.com

www.antarcticaonline.com

www.southpole.com

www.southpolestation.com

www.thepoles.com


www.voyageconcepts.co.uk(OUR AGENCY)


www.adventure-network.com


www.antarctic-circle.org


www.polarworlds.info


www.antarctica.ac.uk