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).

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Polar icecap
tips & insights

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Thickness

Its maximum thickness is approximately 5 kilometers (3 miles).

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The earth's fresh water tank

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.

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Polar icecap is moving

It forever glacially creeps 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.

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Speed

It takes a molecule in a snowflake that lands on the South Pole at least 50,000 years to reach the ocean.

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Massive blanket

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.

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Learn more Polar Icecap tips ...

    

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Antarctica cruise
Deception Island
Dry Valleys
Iceberg Calving
Jagged Mountain Peaks
Lemaire & Neumayer Channels
Paradise Harbor
Penguin Colonies
Polar Icecap
Ross Ice Shelf

South Pole

Wonders of Antarctica - Home page

World's Top 100 Wonders

World's Top 1000 Wonders

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