Antarctica - the facts

Antarctica is the planet’s fifth largest continent (at 5.4 million square miles, it is 1.3 times as large as Europe). It is 98% ice and is home to 90% of the world’s ice, which averages one mile in depth.

The Antarctic is the coldest, driest and windiest place on earth, with the coldest ever recorded temperature of -89.2 centigrade. It is officially a desert, with only 8 inches of rain a year at its coast. Inland, there Is virtually no rainfall. Antarctica has the highest elevation of any continent, with most of it more than 2 miles above sea level. Only cold-adapted plants and animals survive in this environment: penguins, seals, mites, nematodes, algae, other micro-organisms and tundra.

The Antarctic is a vital destination for scientific research in a number of areas including climate studies, oceanography and animal studies. A number of countries have permanent scientific bases on the continent, where the population varies from about 1,000 people in winter to 4,000 in summer.  The UK has been a world leader in Antarctic science and exploration for more than two centuries; the British Antarctic Survey has been responsible for UK scientific research there for 60 years.

The Antarctic is a sensitive indicator of global change; a small increase in global temperature can have a large impact on the melting of Antarctic ice.