Facts about Antarctica

1. 13

   No country owns Antarctica; the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, signed by 12 nations, designated the continent as a scientific preserve free from military activity.

   AntarcticaJun 8sharegeopoliticstreatyhistory
2. 12

   Massive icebergs calving from Antarctica's ice shelves can exceed 10,000 square kilometers in area, with the 2021 Brunt Ice Shelf collapse releasing a tabular iceberg roughly the size of Rhode Island.

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3. 11

   Winds exceeding 300 kilometers per hour have been recorded in Antarctica, making it the windiest continent on Earth with sustained katabatic winds flowing down from the polar plateau.

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4. 10

   Ozone depletion above Antarctica reaches its maximum each September, with the ozone hole expanding to roughly 29 million square kilometers before naturally recovering by December.

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5. 09

   Adelie penguins breeding in Antarctica have declined by nearly 70 percent over the past 25 years due to changing sea ice patterns and warming ocean temperatures.

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6. 08

   Krill swarms in Antarctic waters can span areas larger than cities, with some populations containing roughly 500 million tons of biomass that sustain whales, seals, and penguins across the region.

   AntarcticaMay 14sharebiologymeasurementecosystem
7. 07

   Approximately 90 percent of Antarctica's land area lies beneath a thick ice sheet averaging 1.9 kilometers in depth that contains enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by 58 meters if completely melted.

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8. 06

   During the 2013 drilling season, Russian scientists reached Lake Vostok, a subglacial freshwater lake buried beneath 3.7 kilometers of Antarctic ice that has been isolated for 15 million years.

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9. 05

   In 1912, Scott's South Pole expedition team discovered fossils of Glossopteris plants proving Antarctica was once warm and forested 300 million years ago.

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10. 04

    The Vostok Station in Antarctica recorded the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth at negative 89.2 degrees Celsius on July 21, 1983.

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11. 03

    Emperor penguins in Antarctica can dive deeper than 500 meters and hold their breath for over 20 minutes while hunting fish beneath the ice.

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12. 02

    Seventy-five percent of the world's ice exists in Antarctica, containing roughly 26.5 million cubic kilometers of frozen water.

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13. 01

    At 2,160 meters below sea level, the Bentley Subglacial Trench in Antarctica is the lowest point on Earth's continental crust.

    AntarcticaMay 13sharemeasurementgeology