KIDCYBER TOPICS

Antarctica and the Arctic: What's the difference?
Antarctica is a continent surrounding the South Pole.
The Arctic is an ocean surrounding the North Pole.

There are three South Poles!
1. Go back to read about the Geographic South Pole

The sign that is moved with the marker each year to the new location of the Geographic South Pole

2. The South Magnetic Pole is in the Antarctic Ocean and not even located on Antarctica! It is the southern pole of the Earth's magnetic field, and its technical name is the south magnetic dip pole. It is at the point on the Earth where a compass needle, which is able to move vertically as well as horizontally, points straight up.The magnetic pole is due to magnetic fields that are generated deep in the core of the Earth. These fields change slowly and flip from south to north on a very long time scale. For that reason, the south magnetic pole is rarely found precisely at the real South Pole of the Earth. It varies by several kms a year and was last located precisely in 1986 when it was at 65.3º south (latitude) and 140 º east (longitude).

3. The South Geomagnetic Pole moves because of the motion of the fluid in the centre of the Earth. It was first located in 1841 by James Ross. The Russian station Vostok is at the South Geomagnetic Pole, which is where the coldest temperature ever recorded occurred.

Highest continent
The South Pole is at a high altitude of 2 835 metres (Australia's Mt Kosciusko is 2 228m), located on what is called the Antarctic Plateau. Some parts of the Antarctic Plateau are higher than 4 215 mHighest

Antarctica's Highest Point
The Vinson Massif, 4 897 metres high, is the tallest mountain in Antarctica. It is part of the Ellsworth Mountains.

Last rainfall?
No rain has fallen in the part of Antarctica called the Dry Valleys for over 2 million years.

World's Longest Glacier
The longest glacier in the world is in East Antarctica. It is the Lambert -Fisher Ice Passage which runs through the Prince Charles Mountains. It is 515 kilometres long and 40 kilometres wide. It moves at speeds of up to nearly 1005 metres per year and is up to 2 499 metres deep.

First Idea of Antarctica?
The ancient Greeks were the first to think that a land such as Antarctica may exist.

Seal Hunting History
In 1801, Captain Edmund Fanning from the USA took home 57 000 fur seal skins from a single voyage to South Georgia.

Some Early Explorers
British explorers Wilson, Bowers and Cherry-Garrard coped with temperatures of -61°C on a 1911 winter journey to Cape Crozier to see Emperor penguins.

Medical Fun Fact
In 1961, a Russian doctor on an Antarctic expedition conducted a successful appendicitis operation... on himself.

Frozen fact
Only one fifth of an iceberg is visible, and four-fifths is below the water.

First Motor Transport
Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition,1907-1909, was the first to use motor transport in the Antarctic. It proved to be almost completely useless in the soft snow.

Church in the South
The southernmost church in the world is at Grytviken on South Georgia.

Polyna
Even in the middle of winter, there can still be large areas of open water in the pack ice. They are called polynas (say poll-ee-nuz). They are important feeding grounds for marine animals. Scientist do not know why this happens when everything else freezes, but ocean currents and salinity could be the reasons.

International Expedition
Will Steger's 1989-90 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition travelled 6 019 kilometres by dog sled across the widest part of Antarctica.

Dog Teams in the Antarctic
Dog teams are no longer used in the Antarctic to protect the seals from diseases such as distemper.

Active Volcano
Mt Erebus, 3 794 metres located on Ross Island in the Ross Sea, is an active volcano with a lava lake within its crater. It has been continuously active since 1972. Most of its eruptions are small.

If you use any part of this, acknowledge it in your bibliography like this:
Antarctica (2001). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au