• The continent of Antarctica lies over the South Pole. Its actual size is bigger by about 30% than the continental United States, covering almost 14 million square kilometers.
• Only about 2% of Antarctica is visible (primarily the tips of a vast mountain range) above the thick sheets of ice that cover the continent.
• Antarctica averages about 2.4 kilometers in height above sea level making it 1.5 kilometers higher than the global average land height.
• Each year the continent receives less than an inch of snow with which to make its enormous ice sheets and glaciers. By acting as a huge heat sink, Antarctica helps to control our global climate and weather.
• The continent holds about 70% of our planet’s freshwater and roughly 91% of Earth’s ice. Cold, dense oxygen enriched waters originate around the continent, replenishing the ocean’s supply of bottom water and helping to drive ocean circulation. The seas surrounding Antarctica support a huge assortment of marine life from tiny ice-dwelling algae to the great whales.
• Antarctica has two seasons - a very brief summer lasting about 5 to 6 weeks and a very long winter lasting over 6 months. Because the continent is in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are opposite to those in the Northern Hemisphere with "summer" in January to early February and "winter", or various stages of winter, the rest of the year.

Billions of years ago, the continent we now know as Antarctica broke away from all the other landmasses and through eons of continental drift, it became the southern most continent of our planet. Fossils from Antarctica have proven that it once had a very moderate climate, much like most of present day North America. Antarctica can be divided into three parts: East and West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula. The Transantarctic Mountain range divides East from West Antarctica. These mountains are similar in height to the North American Rocky Mountains but because of the thickness of the ice sheet, only the tips are visible. When looking at a map of the continent, if you were to imagine Antarctica as an elephant’s head, East Antarctica would be the ear, West Antarctica the face, and the trunk would be the Antarctic Peninsula. Two enormous, thick sheets of ice cover Antarctica, with the East Antarctic Ice Sheet being the largest. This sheet is land-based, meaning that most of its base lies above sea level. Without the weight of the ice, the land would rise even higher through isostatic adjustment and East Antarctica would form a single large landmass above sea level. If the ice of West Antarctica were removed, much of the isostatically-adjusted bedrock would still be below sea level. Large islands and seaways would exist instead of the ice. But because much of the ice mass lies below sea level, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is said to be a marine-based ice sheet. These two massive ice sheets are very different from each other. The East Sheet is fairly stable, whereas the West Sheet is capable of very rapid change.

There are also "Dry Valley" in several spots on the continent. These are devoid of snow for the most part and brutally cold for most of the year. The Dry Valleys had long been thought to be lifeless, barren polar deserts. Not so. Research has proven that the rocks in these Valleys are actually home to a thriving ecosystem made up of tiny organisms such as bacteria, cyanobacteria and algae. Many tiny invertebrates such as mites, springtails and midges make up the fauna that live exclusively on land. Many of these creatures survive the cruel, freezing temperatures of winter because their body fluids contain glycerol, which is a type of antifreeze. This remarkable adaptation allows these organisms to stay alive in temperatures as low as -35C. Some will freeze solid and amazingly still come back to life to reproduce when the temperature rises in the brief Antarctic summer. However, because of its inhospitable nature and isolation, no indigenous human population has ever occupied Antarctica. Only about 3000 tourists and perhaps 4000 researchers, various scientists and geologists visit the Antarctic continent each year.

Perhaps as an opposite to the Dry Valleys is another phenomenon: scientists, using deep radar, have discovered at least 76 sub-glacial lakes lying buried under thousands of meters if ice high on the Antarctic Plateau. The largest of these unique, pristine Lakes lies under the Vostok research station. Researchers now believe that these lakes and Lake Vostok in particular are home to unique inhabitants and micro organisms that have lived in these isolated environments for literally hundreds of thousands of years. To confirm the existence of life forms in these unique biological niches without contaminating these fresh water lakes is indeed a significant scientific challenge. All of these unspoiled lakes, although capped by ice thousands of meters thick, do not freeze solid simply because of heat rising from the Earth’s interior. Scientists are presently designing new technology that will allow Lake Vostok and the other sub-glacial lakes to be explored without polluting them.

Antarctica lies nearly centered on the earth’s southern rotational pole, isolated from the rest of the globe by the vast Southern Ocean that encircles the continent. A desert of ice at the bottom of the world, the continent is so cold that in some places ice two miles thick covers the bedrock. But it has not always been that way.

Over 400 million years ago (MYA), all the continents as we now see them were glued together in one super landmass called "Pangaea" which began to separate through the mechanics of plate tectonics. This exquisite theory explains the movements of the earth. Simply put, the earth’s crust (made up of both continental and seafloor rocks) is a thin layer riding over a molten layer, called the mantle. Like a hard-boiled eggshell, the crust is broken into sections, called plates. Currents, generated by heat from the planet’s core, circulate through the mantle, pushing and pulling the plates away from, towards, or alongside one another. The relationship of movement between the plates causes mountains to form, volcanoes to erupt, earthquakes to rattle, and oceans to open or close. Many other geologic features ensue, some of which had a profound effect on the continent that would become Antarctica.

Around 530-510 MYA, the land that would become Antarctica was located closer to the equator (as evidenced by limestone deposits in the Transantarctic Mountains). During the Upper Paleozoic Era, between 410 and 250 MYA, Pangaea split into two supercontinents: Laurasia, the northern landmasses and Gondwana, the southern landmass. That these southern continents were connected comes from paleontological evidence based on the discovery, in Antarctica, of plant fossils (ferns and beech trees) and vertebrate animal fossils (reptiles, amphibians, dinosaurs, and later mammals) common to Africa, India, Australia, and South America. A number of continental break-ups followed, fragmenting these supercontinents into smaller ones. It was only in the early Eocene, about 53 MYA, that Antarctica finally separated from its last connection, a slender geologic thread to Australia, and began its final drift into its present position. During the Oligocene Epoch (38 to 30 MYA) the final southern rotation of Antarctica occurred and the Drake Passage opened up as a deepwater channel. With the circumpolar current developed, Antarctica now was both physically and climatologically isolated. As the climate cooled, Antarctica moved into its glacial period, which began about 25 MYA.

The continent is divided into two very distinctive parts, East and West Antarctica, by the towering Transantarctic Mountains, a 3000 km long stretch of peaks, some of which soar to heights of 4000 meters, that jut above the ice and snow. The immense weight of the great ice sheets that averages 2.5 km thick depresses the land as much as 2000 meters below sea level. If this ice were to be removed, the mountains would actually be 7000 meters high! With the land being so heavily depressed, the continental shelves around Antarctica are deep below the sea, a feature that has important consequences for the fish fauna around the continent.

Beneath the ice sheets, East Antarctica is comprised of a large, very ancient tectonic plate that was once part of Gondwana. It represents the nucleus of the continent. West Antarctica, which includes the Peninsula, is made up of 5 younger, smaller tectonic plates that have collided with, and become attached to, the East Antarctic plate. Were the ice to be removed, West Antarctic might look like a number of island groups separated by straits and seas. There has been major volcanic activity here in recent geologic times and a few active volcanic centers remain both in East and West Antarctica.