A Continentof Extremes Antarctica is the coldest windiest and highest continent in the world It lies at the bottom of the world surrounding the South Pole The name Antarctica means opposite to the Arctic referring to the Arctic Circle on the other side of the world The coldest temperature recorded in Antarctica is also the world’s lowest at 128 6 F A sheet of ice covers the entire continent At its thickest point the ice is almost 3 miles deep and that’s on top of the ground The continent contains most of the world’s ice and much of the world’s freshwater Toward the edges of the continent the ice becomes glaciers creeping rivers of ice Strange and wonderful Antarctica has only one day in the entire year The Sun generally rises on September 21 and sets on March 22 This one long day is the summer From March 22 until September 21 the South Pole is dark and Antarctica has its night or winter People do not live permanently in Antarctica Only scientists and some adventurous tourists visit There are however 45 species of birds in D I D YO U K N O W is a desert a frigid Antarctica d e s e r t I t s e x t r e m e l y c o l d u n l the more common hot sandy deserts moisture during the year that very ike them ife can survive it gets so ittle l ike But l ittle l l 10
ANTARCTICA S EA R C H LIG H T Match the numbers with the correct labels You may have to do some figuring and clever thinking 128 6 bird species 182 5 thickness of ice 3 45 length of one day coldest temperature Antarctica including the emperor penguin and the Adélie penguin that live near the seacoast Also four species of seals breed only in Antarctica Whales live in the water around the frigid continent The killer whale the sperm whale the rare bottle-nosed whale the pygmy whale and seven species of baleen whales can all be found off the coast Oddly there are active volcanoes in Antarctica That means you can find not just the world’s coldest temperatures here but deep down some of the hottest too LEARN MORE READ THESE ARTICLES DESERTS GLACIERS ICEBERGS These emperor penguins are some of Antarctica’s very few inhabitants So in a way they might indeed be considered the rulers of this harsh and beautiful frozen desert continent Galen Rowell Corbis 128 6 F coldest temperature 182 5 days length of one day 3 miles thickness of ice Answer 45 bird species 11
s th a Building E a r L Giant What makes mountains Several different processes n s c apes EA R C H LIG S contribute to mountain building And most mountains are formed by a combination of these usually over millions of years d H T Deep inside the Earth is so incredibly hot that everything is melted or molten This molten material or lava escapes to the Earth’s surface when volcanoes erupt The lava cools and becomes hard and solid This happens again and again collecting until there is a volcanic mountain Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount St Helens in Mountains are made when a volcanoes erupt b earthquakes happen c the Earth pushes together d all of the above Washington state U S are volcanic mountains There are also many undersea volcanic mountains much taller than anything on land In some cases strong earthquakes caused the surface rock for miles and miles to break Part of the surface would then be lower and part of it higher More earthquakes moved the lower parts down and the upper parts up Eventually the high parts became tall enough to make mountains Still other mountains were pushed up from the bottom of an ocean when two enormous portions of the Earth crashed together very slowly over millions and millions of years Some of the largest mountain chains formed this way The Andes of South America are an example Another mountain-building process is called folding If you push a carpet up against a wall it folds and rumples That’s basically the way the Appalachian Mountains in eastern North America were formed At first most mountains were steep and sharp But even hard rocks can be worn away Slowly with the wind and the rain rubbing at them steep sharp mountains grow smoother shorter and rounder LEARN MORE READ THESE ARTICLES CAVES ISLANDS OCEANS DID YOU KNOW To be considered a mountain the land must rise at least 2,000 feet above its surroundings Mount Everest the world’s highest mountain rises 29,035 feet above sea level 12 D a v i d M u e n c h C o r b s i
