Antarctica

Antarctica is a continent. It is not shrinking any more or less than any other continent on earth.

In case you may be looking for how much the ice surrounding the continent has shrunk in the last 30 years, you can read more, below.

Antarctica should be protected so all the poor animals can stay living there and scientists can continue lookng for further amazing discoveries about life there! We want to see further into this world, this cold world, so protect it!

That would be Antarctica.

Using this description of 'plains': "An extensive, level, usually treeless area of land," one could consider vast expanses of Antarctica as 'plains'.

However, since the continent is covered -- 98% -- by ice, and since it's too cold there for life to survive, there is no food chain there, so no trees can grow: Antarctica is often described as having 'long horizons', based on the flatness of the ice that covers the continent. This is especially true at the South Pole.

Antarctica is a continent. It has no countries bordering it, it is completely surrounded by water.

Most insects of Antarctica are parasites that live on birds and seals. The only known free-living insect is the springtail, which lives on algae and fungi, and are only active during the summer months.

There are many islands dotted around the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, but the nearest major land is the southern tip of South America, Argentina and Chile.

Ice shelves are attached to about 44% of the continent. Less than 40 named shelves remain in July 2015.

The average temperature of Antarctica is about -49 degrees Celsius or about -56.2 Fahrenheit.

The annual average temperature is -50°C (-58°F). Winter temperatures drop quickly, then level out. Summer is short, from mid-December to mid-January, however, temperatures can reach a balmy -30°C (-22°F)!

Antarctica covers 10% of the Earth's surface -- about as much land as USA and Mexico combined. It is the highest, driest, windiest, coldest, darkest continent. Averages don't mean much in Antarctica.

Most expeditions go from the sea to the South Pole and return to the sea the same direction. Roald Amundsen was one of the first to do so, the Scott Expedition, and Ernest Shackleton did it. A woman recently completed her solo round trip.

The largest animal on the Antarctic continent is the human animal, an invasive animal hired by countries to work there and live there in support of science.

There are no native animals in Antarctica: it's too cold and there is no food chain.

According to The Association of Religion Data Archives (2010), among the members of the scientific personnel in Antarctica, 72% are Christians, 2.71% are Muslim, 1% are Hindu, 0.7% are Buddhist, and 23.6% have no religion.
I hope you are kidding. There is no civilization of people in Antarctica. Antarctica is the southernmost continent of the earth and is extremely cold, dry, and dangerous. Only scientists are allowed to study the environment and take tests down there because it's an internationally preserved habitat. Even penguins- one of the very few species of life living on the continent, only occupy the shores of the land because they wouldn't be able to survive further inland. Religion is a practice of beliefs by humans. It's pretty generally known that nobody lives in Antarctica.

No animals live on the Antarctic continent.

Russia supports several research stations, including Vostok, Bellinghausen, Novolazarevskaya and Mirny stations , which are permanent. Others, including summer stations, are Druzhnaya 4, Leningradskaya Station, Progress Station, Russkaya Station and Molodyozhnaya Station.

Antarctica is the most pollution-free continent on earth. The air is so clear that humans used to judging distances through polluted air cannot judge distance in Antarctica. For example, mountain peaks that are 30 miles away appear to these humans, to be about 70 miles away.
Antarctica is the least polluted continent on earth. In fact, there is so little particulate in the air, that there is no indoor dust.

The Distance between Los Angeles International Airport (California,Los Angeles County,US) [Airport] and Sakalaly (,Madagascar) is :
18015.34 kilometers (km).

In Other Units:
11194.21 miles.
9721.05 nautical miles.
Note: the distance is straight line distance (may be called as flying or air distance) between the two locations calculated based on their latitudes and longitudes. This distance may be very much different from the actual travel distance.

On an attempt to reach the South Pole in 1908, all of his ponies died and he had to abandon the attempt due to heavy storms. On a second attempt to reach the South Pole in 1914, his ship was crushed by pack ice, forcing the expedition to walk 1,200 km to South Georgia. Five months later they were rescued by a Chilean warship. On a third attempt to reach the South Pole in 1921, Shackleton died from a heart condition.

During a few months in December, there are sufficient nutrients (fertilizers such as N, P, and K) in the surface ocean waters to support tremendous blooms of marine plants. The nearly constant sunlight (sunset can be at 11:30pm and sunrise at 3:30am along the Antarctic Peninsula) during summer creates perfect conditions for the microscopic marine plants (phytoplankton) to multiply in vast quantities.

Antarctica is covered -- 98% -- by an ice sheet, not snow. You can find snow sometimes on the Antarctic Peninsula.

The beaches are ice-free, as are the nunataks -- the mountain tops that poke above the ice sheet.

There are no countries but there are seven territories: Adélie Land, Antártica, Argentine Antarctica, Australian Antarctic Territory, British Antarctic Territory, Dronning Maud Land, and The Ross Dependency. For more on these, visit the Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_territorial_claims#Official_claims

Calling them "territories" is stretching the meaning of the word "territory", especially since the above are not recognized by most of the countries of the world.

Also, the United States has not claimed any part of Antarctica, but it reserves the right to do so in the future, if necessary. A large part of the Antarctic coast is named "Wilkes Land", named for the American naval captain who discovered it.

Wilkes Land is just as important as any of the other ones named above, since none of them is internationally recognized.

D.A.W.

Native peoples of the Arctic have learned over the millenia, to construct homes from ice blocks. These are called igloos.

There are no native peoples on Antarctica, and no permanent population. People who live and work there temporarily sleep in dorms or tents, eat in cafeterias or mess tents and work in work buildings or in the field.

The South Pole is the most southern part of Antarctica.

Penguins are birds, not mammals.

The whale is the largest mammal in Antarctica - whales are not fish, because they are warm blooded, breath air through lungs (not gills, like fish), and they give birth to live young who feed off their mother's milk (unlike fish who either lay eggs or do not feed their young).

The other mammal on Antarctica is the seal, which are larger than penguins.

The penguin is not even the largest bird in Antarctica- that is the albatross.

If deforestation continues at the current rate, there could be a time when rainforests around the world disappear. It is up to all of us to act responsibly. You can help protect ecosystems and the people and wildlife that depend on them by holding an Adopt-A-Rainforest fundraiser and buying responsibly produced foods, wood and paper products. Most importantly, keep learning about rainforests and teach your friends and family how important they are.