Interesting facts about Antarctica

Antarctica encourages discover its secrets. This involved scientists are not afraid of extreme weather conditions and the tourists who began to discover these places in the past few years.

How cold Antarctica?

Antarctica - the coldest place on Earth, but also the windiest. The lowest recorded temperature was minus 89 degrees Celsius in 1983, while in the warmest day of the summer, it reached about 15 degrees off the coast.

is the driest place on Earth

One of the most interesting facts about Antarctica - the contradiction between the dry climate and the amount of water (70% of water on Earth). This continent - the driest place on the planet. Even the hottest desert in the world sees more rain than the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica. There has been no rain for 2 million years! In fact, the entire South Pole receives an average of 10 cm of precipitation annually.

Population

Antarctica has no permanent residents. The only people who live there for a long time, are part of the scientific community. About 5,000 scientists and support personnel can be on the Antarctic summer, while during the winter is to work only 1,000.

Penguins

Antarctica - the only place in the world, home to Emperor penguins. This species is the tallest and heaviest of all penguin species and is the only species capable of reproducing during the Antarctic winter. A total of 6 lives in Antarctica penguin species.

Who owns Antarctica?

In Antarctica has no government, and no country has the continent. Many countries have tried to get hold of these lands, as a result, there was general agreement, giving Antarctica right to be the sole domain of the earth, which no one controls.

Meteorites

One of the most interesting facts about the continent - is the best place in the world to find meteorites. Obviously, meteorites struck the Antarctic ice sheet, better preserved than anywhere else on Earth. Fragments of the meteorite from Mars - among the most valuable and unexpected discoveries. Escape velocity of the meteor should be about 18,000 kilometers per hour, so that he was able to reach the Earth. In addition, the meteorite is the cause of many disputes related to microbial life on early Mars.

No time zone

It is the only continent without a timezone. Community of scientists in Antarctica tend to maintain the course of his country, or time zone, the delivery line, which gives them food and other goods. In just a few seconds, you can bypass all 24 time zones.

Animals

Set of marine animals such as blue whales, orcas and seals, is the perfect continent, Antarctica is extremely unpopular in terrestrial animals. One of the most common forms of life - an insect, wingless midge Belgica Antarctida, 1.3 cm long. No flying insects because of the extremely windy conditions. However, black springtails, like fleas, live in colonies of penguins. This is not surprising, since these insects live everywhere on earth. Antarctica - the only continent with no native species of ants.

Global warming

If all the ice in Antarctica melted, sea level would rise by about 60 meters! We should pay more attention to global warming, which particularly affects the continent.

A giant iceberg

The last item in the list of interesting facts - iceberg that broke free of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 2000. It is the largest known iceberg in history, reaching 295 km in length and 37 km in width, which is comparable to the size of Connecticut or Qatar.