Did you know?
Antarctica
by
Sophie Walker
Welcome to Antarctica! It is at the very bottom of our world. It is the coldest, windiest, and driest place on Earth. Our friends Lars and Pippa are arriving on a big red ship to explore the “White Continent.” Even though it is covered in ice, Antarctica is actually a giant desert because it rarely rains or snows there!
Brrr! It is freezing. Lars wears many layers of clothes to stay warm. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica was nearly -90 degrees Celsius. That is much colder than your freezer at home! In such extreme cold, even boiling water would turn into ice crystals before it hit the ground.
Nobody lives in Antarctica forever. There are no cities, no shops, and no schools. Pippa looks at a research station. This is where scientists from all over the world come to study the ice and the stars. During the summer, about 5,000 people live here, but in the dark winter, only about 1,000 stay behind.
Most of Antarctica is covered in a thick layer of ice. In some parts, the ice is four kilometers deep! Lars learns that this ice is very important. It holds about 70 percent of all the fresh water on our planet. If all of Antarctica’s ice melted, the sea level around the world would rise by about 60 meters!
Antarctica is the land of the penguins. These birds cannot fly, but they are amazing swimmers. Pippa watches a group of little Adélie penguins. They love to slide on their bellies across the snow to move faster. It is called “tobogganing,” and it looks like they are having a lot of fun!
Under the cold waves, huge animals are swimming. Lars spots a giant tail splashing in the ocean. It is a humpback whale! Many whales travel to Antarctica because the water is full of tiny, shrimp-like creatures called krill. One blue whale can eat up to four tons of krill in a single day!
Many people think polar bears live here, but they do not! Polar bears only live in the Arctic, near the North Pole. Pippa reads her guidebook and discovers that penguins and polar bears never meet in the wild. In fact, the word “Antarctica” actually means “opposite to the Arctic.”
Some parts of Antarctica have no ice at all. These are called the Dry Valleys. Lars and Pippa walk through a rocky desert where it has not rained or snowed for millions of years! The air is so dry and the wind is so strong that it is the closest place on Earth to the planet Mars.
Pippa finds something very strange: a waterfall that looks like it is flowing with blood! It is called Blood Falls. The water is actually coming from a lake trapped deep under the glacier. It is very salty and full of iron, which turns bright red when it finally touches the air.
Antarctica is a peaceful place. Many countries signed a special treaty to protect it and use it only for science and peace. Lars and Pippa wave goodbye to the ice. They have learned that even though it is a frozen land, Antarctica is full of life and secrets that we must protect forever.
