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Why the polar icecap
of Antarctica is special
 The pristine icecap crowns 98% of the continent, an area
greater than that of the USA. (Note: My map pinpoints just one tiny part of
the total icecap).
Polar icecap
tips & insights
Its maximum thickness is
approximately 5 kilometers (3 miles).
About two-thirds of the world's
fresh water (in frozen form) is stored in the icecap. And that ice
accounts for 90% of the amount on earth.
The polar icecap is forever
glacially creeping northward from the continent's interior to the sea. The
movement is caused by the incremental weight of new snow and the effect of
gravity, which press the mass outward, like a spreading pancake on a griddle
until it reaches the coast.
Antarctica's
icecap blankets vast plateaus and high mountain ranges. Of the latter, one sees only their
protruding peaks, which means that the mountains are significantly taller than
the eye suggests.
The polar icecap is void of
bushes and trees - as well as of wildlife (except along the Antarctica coast
where penguins and seals live).
At
least one tour company is conducting trips into remote spots on the vast icecap.
If global warning were to
melt the icecap, coastal cities around the globe would be covered by water. (See
related comments on my Rose Ice Shelf web page).
Incredibly, despite its
vast quantity of ice, Antarctica by definition is mainly a desert because its
annual rainfall is measly. The icecap slowly developed over 100,000 years, snowflake by snowflake. The snow does not melt because of the freezing
temperature. Instead, it gradually compacts into ice.
It
takes a molecule in a snowflake that lands on the South Pole at least 50,000
years to reach the ocean.
Clickable Antarctica
wonder map
Antarctica
wonder menu
 
What it's like
on an Antarctica
cruise ship
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