AntarcticaIt’s cold here.

• Antarctica is the fifth largest of the seven continents.

• It is situated over the South Pole almost entirely south of latitude 66°30' south (the Antarctic Circle).

• It is a very rough circular shape with the long arm of the Antarctic Peninsula stretching towards South America.

• There are two large indentations, the Ross and Weddell seas and their ice shelves.

Antarctica is a desert

• A Desert is defined as a region that has less than 254 mm (10 in) of annual rainfall or precipitation.

• In the interior of the continent the average annual precipitation (in *equivalent of water) is only about 50 mm (about 2 in), less than the Sahara. 

• Along the coast, this increases, but is still only about 200 mm (8 in) in *equivalent of water. Heavy snowfalls occur when cyclonic storms pick up moisture from the surrounding seas and then deposit this moisture as snow along the coasts.

• Unlike other deserts, there is little evaporation from Antarctica, so the relatively little snow that does fall, doesn't go away again. Instead it builds up over hundreds and thousands of years into enormously thick ice sheets.

Antarctica is the coldest and also the windiest continent.

• The lowest temperature ever recorded anywhere on earth, -89.2° C (-128.6° F) was on July 21st 1983 at the Russian base at the Southern Geomagnetic Pole.

• The continent is also buffeted by strong winds, calm periods are rare and typically last hours rather than days.

• A wind speed of 320 km/h (200 mph) was recorded at the French Dumont d'Urville base in July  1972.

• The winds  flow downwards from the interior toward the coast driven largely by gravity as air cools and becomes denser over the pole.

More than 99 percent of Antarctica is covered with ice

• This contains about 70 percent of the world's fresh water.

• The thick ice cover makes it the highest of all continents, with an average elevation of about 2300 m (about 7500 ft).

• The highest point on the continent is Vinson Massif 4897 m (about 16 066 feet) and the lowest point yet found is the Bentley Subglacial Trench (2499 m/8200 ft below sea level) in West Antarctica.

Antarctica has no trees or bushes at all

• Vegetation is limited to about 350 species of mostly lichens, mosses, and algae.

• In some places bare rocks are colonised by vibrant red, orange and yellow growths of lichens. Where rock is uncovered by ice for large parts of the summer, green lichens that grow to a few centimetres high

• In some places in the Antarctic continent such as in the dry valleys, rather than growing on rocks, some algae actually grow in the rock. Conditions are so harsh that it is easier to live in the rock despite low light levels, than it is exposed at the surface.

Animal life

• There are no land based vertebrate animals in Antarctica.

• All the vertebrates there are dependent on the sea for feeding or are migratory and leave the continent when the winter arrives.

• They are mainly warm blooded and tend to be pretty large as a survival technique against the extreme and relentless cold.

• That Antarctica can support such an abundance of large animals is a result of the productivity of the southern polar sea.

Krill are the engine that powers the Antarctic ecosystem

• They are a small semi-transparent crustacean like a shrimp, about 4-5 cm (2") in length when fully grown,

• They can live for up to 6 years which is quite remarkable considering the wide variety of animals that feed on them in huge quantities.

• Krill belong to the animals that make up the zooplankton.

Elephant seals• are the largest of all seals• Males can grow to 4.5m long (15ft) and weigh up to 4 tonnes

(8800lb). • They are called elephant seals partly because of their size

and also partly because of the males snout or trunk that he inflates to impress and intimidate rivals when competing with other males.

• Have a varied diet that they get from very deep dives, including shark, flatfish, ratfish, crab, squid, and octopus!

Crabeater seals• Probably the most numerous large mammals on earth after humans. It is

difficult to estimate their numbers, but by 2000 there were thought to be about 50 million.

• Crabeaters are large seals of about 220kg (484lb). • Crabeater seals are uniquely adapted amongst seals in that their teeth are

adapted to form a sieve in a similar manner to the baleen plates of the great whales.

• They take a mouthful of seawater and krill and expel the water through gaps in their teeth while the parts that overlap prevent the krill from escaping.

• Each seal consumes about 20kg of krill per day

Adélie penguins

• There are more Adélie penguins than any other penguin species.

• Average Weight: 5kg - 11lb

• Adélie penguins are scared of Leopard seals (main predators of adult birds) and Skuas (prey on eggs and chicks on land).

Chinstrap penguins

• Called Chinstrap penguins because of their characteristic band of dark feathers under the chin that appears to be keeping their dark hats on

• They average about 4.5kg and 68cm tall. • They are particularly noisy and aggressive

Killer Whales

• They toothed whales and while they are quite small compared to the great baleen whales

• They are at the very top of the Antarctic food chain due partly to their formidable array of teeth, but most of all due to the fact that they often hunt in packs or "pods".

• Their tastes are wide ranging from krill, squid, fish and sharks to penguins, seals and even the much larger baleen whales.

• They are found in almost all oceans, from the tropics to the Arctic and Antarctic where they will go deep into the pack-ice to hunt seals and penguins.

• They are commonest in coastal waters and in cool temperate and sub polar seas.

Sperm Whale• Only males are found in Antarctic

waters. The males being about one and a half times longer, but considerably heavier than the females

• Unusually, sperm whales only have teeth in their lower jaw, these fitting into depressions in the upper jaw.

• Sperm whales are found in all oceans and latitudes from the equator to the edge of the polar pack ice

• A whole range of cephalopods (squid, octopuses and cuttlefish), deep-sea fish, and non-food items have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales around the world.

Antarctic skua

• They nest all around continental Antarctica and breed into the deep south.

• They are excellent fliers and have occasionally been sighted deep in the interior hundreds of miles from anything other than ice.

• One of their feeding techniques is to chase and bully other birds into regurgitating the contents of their crop, a strategy successful with some species that are in themselves excellent fliers.

• Skuas eat krill, fish, and penguin eggs and chicks