Portal:Antarctica

The Antarctica Portal

Welcome to the portal about Antarctica — the southernmost continent on Earth.

Antarctica (/ænˈtɑːrktɪkə/ ^ⓘ) is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being about 40% larger than Europe, and has an area of 14,200,000 km² (5,500,000 sq mi). Most of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).

Antarctica is, on average, the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents, and has the highest average elevation. It is mainly a polar desert, with annual precipitation of over 200 mm (8 in) along the coast and far less inland. About 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen in Antarctica, which, if melted, would raise global sea levels by almost 60 metres (200 ft). Antarctica holds the record for the lowest measured temperature on Earth, −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F). The coastal regions can reach temperatures over 10 °C (50 °F) in the summer. Native species of animals include mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. Where vegetation occurs, it is mostly in the form of lichen or moss.

The ice shelves of Antarctica were probably first seen in 1820, during a Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The decades that followed saw further exploration by French, American, and British expeditions. The first confirmed landing was by a Norwegian team in 1895. In the early 20th century, there were a few expeditions into the interior of the continent. British explorers Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David, and Alistair Mackay were the first to reach the magnetic South Pole in 1909, and the geographic South Pole was first reached in 1911 by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. (Full article...)

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Amundsen, Hanssen, Hassel, and Wisting at Polheim at the South Pole

The first expedition to reach the Geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four other crew members made it to the geographical South Pole on 14 December 1911, which was to be five weeks ahead of the British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and about a year later heard that Scott and his four companions had perished on their return journey.

Amundsen's initial plans had focused on the Arctic and the conquest of the North Pole by means of an extended drift in an icebound ship. He obtained the use of Fridtjof Nansen's polar exploration ship Fram, and undertook extensive fundraising in a country that had gained its independence only some six years earlier. Preparations for this expedition were disrupted when, in 1909, the rival American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole - both claims are highly disputed. Amundsen then changed his plan and began to prepare for a conquest of the South Pole; uncertain of the extent to which the public and his backers would support him, he kept this revised objective secret. When he set out in June 1910, he led even his crew to believe they were embarking on an Arctic drift, and revealed their true Antarctic destination only when Fram was leaving their last port of call, Madeira, on 9 September 1910. (Full article...)

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The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica. (Full article...)

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Featured biography

Amundsen c. 1923

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (UK: /ˈɑːmʊndsən/, US: /-məns-/; Norwegian: [ˈrùːɑɫ ˈɑ̂mʉnsən] ^ⓘ; 16 July 1872 – c. 18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen began his career as a polar explorer as first mate on Adrien de Gerlache's Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899. From 1903 to 1906, he led the first expedition to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage on the sloop Gjøa. In 1909, Amundsen began planning for a South Pole expedition. He left Norway in June 1910 on the ship Fram and reached Antarctica in January 1911. His party established a camp at the Bay of Whales and a series of supply depots on the Barrier (now known as the Ross Ice Shelf) before setting out for the pole in October. The party of five, led by Amundsen, became the first to reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various Antarctica-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Sir Hubert Wilkins pioneered the exploration of the Arctic regions by aircraft. Pictured, his plane and encampment as part of the Detroit Arctic Expedition, 1926. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 2RRS Discovery carried an expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott in 1901. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 3Hut built at Hope Bay in 1903. It was there that the only instance of shots fired in anger on the Continent occurred in 1952. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 4The Antarctic ice sheet's changing height (from Antarctica)
Image 5The Canadian-born oceanographer Dr John Murray was the driving force behind the renewal of interest in Antarctic exploration at the beginning of the 20th century. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 6An aerial view of McMurdo Station, the largest research station in Antarctica (from Antarctica)
Image 7Omond House was built in 1904 by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition as the first permanent base in Antarctica. It was later sold to Argentina. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 8An orange lichen (perhaps Caloplaca) growing on the Yalour Islands, Wilhelm Archipelago (from Antarctica)
Image 9Gabriel González Videla inaugurating the Base General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme in Antarctica in 1948. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 10A speculative representation of Antarctica labelled as 'Terra Australis Incognita' on Jan Janssonius's Zeekaart van het Zuidpoolgebied (1657), Het Scheepvaartmuseum (from Antarctica)
Image 11The cruise ship Silver Cloud in Wilhelmina Bay (from Antarctica)
Image 12Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashes on Mt. Erebus (from History of Antarctica)
Image 13Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen was one of the first to spot the continent of Antarctica. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 14As time wore on it became more and more evident that the ship was doomed by Frank Hurley. (The Endurance trapped in pack ice.) (from History of Antarctica)
Image 15Overlapping Argentine and Chilean Antarctic claims on Antarctica (1946–present). (from History of Antarctica)
Image 16The "ceremonial" South Pole, at Amundsen–Scott Station (from Antarctica)
Image 17Commemorative stamp of the Chilean Antarctic declaration of 1940 (from History of Antarctica)
Image 18Emperor penguins with juveniles (from Antarctica)
Image 19Map of exploration routes, 1911 (from History of Antarctica)
Image 20Antarctica is a very good place for meteorite hunting (ANSMET). (from Antarctica)
Image 21The first base on Antarctica of Carstens Borchgrevink's Southern Cross Expedition (1899). The hut (HSM 22) still stands and is located on Cape Adare, the cape where in 1895 Borchgrevnik participated in the first documented landing on Antarctica. (from Antarctica)
Image 22The first women at the South Pole are Pam Young, Jean Pearson, Lois Jones, Eileen McSaveney, Kay Lindsay and Terry Tickhill. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 23Positions of Farthest South records: pre-1521 possibly by Yaghan people (B), 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan (A), 18th century
by James Cook (D/E), early 19th century by James Weddell (F) and James Clark Ross (G) and around the turn to the 20th century from 1900 by Carsten Borchgrevink (H), after landing and setting up base for the first time on Antarctica, to Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole in 1911 (K). (from Antarctica)
Image 24"The Magellan Strait and the new strait commonly known as Le Maire." 1633's map of Strait of Magellan, showing Strait Le Maire at the right, marked Fretum le Maire (Latin) and Straet Le Maire (Dutch) (from History of Antarctica)
Image 25Terra Nova bore Robert Falcon Scott and his team on their ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 26Glossopteris sp. leaf from the Permian of Antarctica (from Antarctica)
Image 27Norwegian expedition landing on Peter I Island in 1929 (from History of Antarctica)
Image 28Image of the largest hole in the ozone layer recorded, in September 2006 (from Antarctica)
Image 29The Princesses Astrid and Ragnhild Coasts (from Geography of Antarctica)
Image 30Jameson Adams, Frank Wild and Eric Marshall (left to right) of the Nimrod Expedition plant the Union flag at their southernmost position. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 31East Antarctica on the right. (from Geography of Antarctica)
Image 32Antarctica without its ice cover. This map does not consider that sea level would rise because of the melted ice, nor that the landmass would rise by several hundred meters over a few tens of thousands of years after the weight of the ice was no longer depressing the landmass. (from Geography of Antarctica)
Image 33A whale in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (from Antarctica)
Image 34Erich von Drygalski led the First German Antarctic Expedition in 1901. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 35In 1570, a rudimentary map by Ortelius showed the imagined link between the proposed continent of Antarctica and South America. Note also the proposed landmasses surrounding the North Pole. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 36Eastern Antarctica is to the right of the Transantarctic Mountains and Western Antarctica is to the left. (from Antarctica)
Image 37The MV Explorer in Antarctica in January 1999. She sank on 23 November 2007 after hitting an iceberg. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 38Typical landscape for the Antarctic Peninsula area, with fjords, high coastal mountains and islands. Click on the image for geographical details. (from Geography of Antarctica)
Image 39Map of the Spanish Governorate of Terra Australis (1539–1555), the first territorial claim over the lands near the South Pole; later it was incorporated into the Governorate of Chile. (from Antarctica)
Image 40King Charles I of Spain authorized the creation of the Governorate of Terra Australis by means of a royal decree, and ratified its existence by means of other subsequent decrees. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 41The U.S. delegate Herman Phleger signs the Antarctic Treaty in December 1959. (from Antarctica)
Image 42Tongan canoes, with sails and cabins, and two Tongan men paddling a smaller canoe from "Boats of the Friendly Isles" a record of Cook's visit to Tonga, 1773-4 (from History of Antarctica)
Image 43The first base on Antarctica of Carstens Borchgrevink's Southern Cross Expedition (1899). The hut (HSM 22) still stands and is located on Cape Adare, the cape where in 1895 Borchgrevnik participated in the first documented landing on Antarctica. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 44Formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current from the final fragmentation of the Antarctic land bridge (from Antarctica)
Image 45The Main Base Hut of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (from History of Antarctica)
Image 46Vinson Massif from the northwest, the highest peak in Antarctica (from Antarctica)
Image 47The Antarctic Plate (from Antarctica)
Image 48The Banzare, Sabrina, and Budd Law Dome Coasts (from Geography of Antarctica)
Image 49Edmund Hillary (left) with Rear-Admiral George J. Dufek at Scott Base just before the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition's departure from the base (from History of Antarctica)
Image 50Adrien de Gerlache, leader of the Belgian expedition (from History of Antarctica)
Image 51Map of the Spanish governorate of Terra Australis (1539–1555); later it was incorporated into the Governorate of Chile. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 52An Antarctic meteorite, Allan Hills 84001 on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (from Antarctica)
Image 53Refuse littering the shoreline at Bellingshausen Station on King George Island, photographed in 1992 (from Antarctica)
Image 54Map from 1771, showing "Terres Australes" label without any charted landmass (from History of Antarctica)
Image 55Painting of James Weddell's second expedition, depicting the brig Jane and the cutter Beaufoy (from History of Antarctica)
Image 56Discovery Hut (1902) at Hut Point Peninsula of Ross Island, Antarctica, one of the earliest repeatedly temporarily used dwellings on Antarctica. In the background McMurdo Station, the largest base on Antarctica today, with cargo operations of the supply ship MV American Tern of Operation Deep Freeze 2007. (from Antarctica)
Image 57Deschampsia antarctica at Collins Glacier, Antarctica. This species is one of only two flowering plants native to Antarctica, the other one being Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis). (from Antarctica)
Image 58James Cook's 1777 south-up map of South Georgia (from History of Antarctica)
Image 59West Antarctica on the left. (from Geography of Antarctica)
Image 60Discovery by Jules Dumont d'Urville of Adélie Land in 1840. This served as a basis for the French claim to this region in 1924. (from History of Antarctica)
Image 61Drake Passage map (from History of Antarctica)

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Did you know

... that Antarctica is the only continent without native terrestrial mammals?
... that the coldest recorded temperature on Earth was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station in 1983?
... that the Antarctic ice sheet contains about 60% of the world's fresh water?
... that the first confirmed sighting of Antarctica was in 1820?
... that the largest penguin species, the emperor penguin, breeds only in Antarctica?

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