The belief of such a land lasted until the discovery of Australia. Until the discovery, belief by Europeans in the existence of a Terra Australis-a vast continent in the far south of the globe to balance the northern lands of Europe, Asia and North Africa-had existed as an intellectual concept since classical antiquity. The Roman authors Hyginus and Apuleius used for the South Pole the romanised Greek name polus antarcticus, from which derived the Old French pole antartike (modern pôle antarctique) attested in 1270, and from there the Middle English pol antartik, found first in a treatise written by the English author Geoffrey Chaucer. The Greek geographer Marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his world map from the second century CE, now lost.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote in Meteorology about an "Antarctic region" in c. Antarcticus is derived from the Greek ἀντι- ('anti-') and ἀρκτικός ('of the Bear', 'northern'). The name given to the continent originates from the word antarctic, which comes from Middle French antartique or antarctique ('opposite to the Arctic') and, in turn, the Latin antarcticus ('opposite to the north'). Despite its remoteness, human activity has a significant impact on the continent via pollution, ozone depletion and climate change.Ī speculative representation of Antarctica labelled as ' Terra Australis Incognita' on Jan Janssonius's Zeekaart van het Zuidpoolgebied (1657), Het Scheepvaartmuseum During the summer months, about 5,000 people reside at research stations, a figure that drops to around 1,000 in the winter. Tourism, fishing and research are the main human activities in and around Antarctica. According to the terms of the treaty, military activity, mining, nuclear explosions, and nuclear waste disposal are all prohibited in Antarctica.
British explorers were the first to reach the magnetic South Pole in 1909, and the geographic South Pole was first reached in 1911 by Norwegian explorers.Īntarctica is governed by about 30 countries, all of which are parties of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System. In the early 20th century, there were a few expeditions into the interior of the continent. The first confirmed landing was by a Norwegian team in 1895. The decades that followed saw further exploration in French, American, and British expeditions. The ice shelves of Antarctica were probably first seen in 1820, during a Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. Where vegetation occurs, it is mostly in the form of lichen or moss. Native species of animals include mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. The coastal regions can reach temperatures over 10 ☌ (50 ☏) in summer. Antarctica holds the record for the lowest measured temperature on Earth, −89.2 ☌ (−128.6 ☏). 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). It is mainly a polar desert, with annual precipitation of over 200 mm (8 in) along the coast and far less inland. Most of Antarctica is covered by ice, with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).Īntarctica is on average the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents, and it has the highest average elevation. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being nearly twice the size of Australia and larger than Europe, and has an area of 14,200,000 km 2 (5,500,000 sq mi). Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Composite satellite image of Antarctica (2002)Īntarctica ( / æ n ˈ t ɑːr k t ɪ k ə/ ( listen)) is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent.
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