Antarctica

Antarctica’s climate is the harshest in the world: in the interior cold, dry Antarctic air forms and builds high pressure, so constant strong winds (30–35 m per second, i.e. 110–125 km/h, sometimes even stronger) blow from the centre toward the ocean, and snowstorms are frequent. In winter (April–September) the average temperature in the interior is about –60 °C; at Russia’s Vostok Station on 21 July 1983 –89.2 °C was recorded — the lowest air temperature on Earth (hence the “pole of cold”). In summer ice and snow reflect more than 80 % of solar energy, the temperature inland usually stays around –30 °C or lower and on the coast is about 0 °C. Precipitation is 30–50 mm a year at the centre and 600–700 mm on the coast; it is Earth’s driest continent. About 70 % of the world’s fresh water is stored in Antarctic ice. There are two climate zones: Antarctic and subantarctic. Inside the continent there are almost no living organisms, but life is rich on the coast and in the ocean: plankton and krill, blue whales, seals, elephant seals, leopard seals and penguins (the best known is the emperor penguin, about 1 m tall and up to 40 kg, and the smaller Adélie penguin). Hunting of blue whales was banned in the 1960s. With present warming, Antarctic ice is melting more and huge icebergs are breaking off; protection of the continent’s nature is carried out under international treaties.