Antarctica

Because Antarctica is a "polar" region, there is no precipitation, it has no lakes or rivers and is in fact the driest continent. Antarctica is the world's largest desert.
All of the continent of Antarctica is considered a desert. It is the driest continent on earth.

Like anyone who visits Antarctica Shackleton probably observed sea birds, such as penguins and skua, and sea mammals, such as whales and seals. These animals visit Antarctica's beaches to breed, but do not live on the continent: it's too cold there and there is no food chain.

Antarctica is not known for its snow: Antarctica is one of the driest deserts on earth with less than five percent humidity.

Antarctica is known for its ice, which covers 98% of the continent's surface. At the South Pole, its elevation is 2,835 meters, or about 9,300 feet tall.

Africa: Algeria, Egypt and Ethiopia

Antarctica: no countries

Australia & Oceania: Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand

Europe: France, Germany, and Spain

Asia: Russia, China and India

North America: United States, Canada and Mexico

South America: Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela

Australia, Argentina, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. The United States has not made any claims to land in Antarctica, but it reserves the right to do so in the future, if necessary. Also, the United States and many other countries do no recognize the claims of any of the countries above.

An American naval officer, a Captain Wilkes, was in command of the first ship to ever make sightings of the mainland of Antarctica, and hence a long stretch of its seacoast is named "Wilkes Land". He was quite an explorer because there is also a Wilkes Island in the Central Pacific. It is one of the three islands of Wake Atoll.

According to the Antarctic Treaty, the continent of Antarctica, and its surrounding islands, are "no man's land" for all practical purposes.

D.A.W.

Antarctica's average humidity is about five percent. For a continent which is the size of USA and Mexico combined, this makes Antarctica a desert. On the northern coasts, there may be as much as eight inches of precipitation per year, and elsewhere, precipitation is negligible.

snow

The ice sheet is composed of fresh water; the Southern Ocean that surrounds the continent is salty -- sea water.

There are no countries in Antarctica. Antarctica does not have any real countries, some countries on other continents have territory that they have laid claim to there, but there are no real countries on Antarctica, it is just a continent that is basically uninhabited other than research stations, and penguins.
There are no countries in Antarctica

Number who have ever been born---------------------------------106,456,367,669

World population in mid-2002------------------------------------------6,215,000,000

Percent of those ever born who are living in 2002--------------5.8

These figures are the result of a lot of speculation and the application of a certain amount of licence as any population records available for mankind only go back about 1% of their existence in time.

The South Pole is at 90 degrees S latitude and is located on the continent of Antarctica. Antarctica is a continent of approximately 14,000,000 sq km. It is surrounded by the Southern Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. There are no countries on Antarctica and no permanent population. Many countries have scientific research stations on Antarctica. Because Antarctica is a "polar" region, there is no precipitation, it has no lakes or rivers and is in fact the driest continent. Average temperatures in the Antarctic interior get down to -70 degrees Celsius during the winter months and -35 degrees Celsius in the warmer months. The coastal temperatures are much warmer with a range of -15 to -32 Celsius in Winter and -5 to +5 Celsius in Summer. The interior of Antarctica is considered the world's driest desert because the extreme cold freezes water vapour out of the air. Annual snowfall on the polar plateau is equivalent to less than 5 cm of rain. Antarctica has some of the strongest winds on earth, with some winds reaching 320 kph.

Governments representing about 80% of the earth's population signed or ratified the Antarctic Treaty.

According to Wikipedia, there are 46 countries currently -- September 14, 2009 -- signed up with the Antarctic Treaty.

Rain forests require some warmth, a lot of rain and a forest. Antarctica has none of these. It is far too cold, and in fact only receives a small amount of precipitation, and there are no trees on the continent.

It can reach sub-zero temperatures in Antarctica which is way to cold for rainforests.

Antarctica

It is a continent dedicated to the scientific study of the health of planet earth.

Antarctica, the continent and in fact, all of earth south of 60 degrees S, is dedicated to science.

On the continent, scientists use data they gather from the land and from the ice sheet that covers the land, to learn more about the health of planet earth.

Penguins, whale, sea birds but im pretty sure seals dont

1st answer: No, South America covers 17,819,000 Sq. Km while Antarctica is only 13,209,000 Sq. Km wide.

2nd answer: Well, Antarctica is composed of ice. During their summer (our winter) Antarctica gets extremely smaller than in their winter. Yet, the height of their ice is as big as America, so no, it isn't as big as SA.

There are several ways to interpret your question. Perhaps you mean: why do humans go to Antarctica? Humans go to Antarctica for short periods (up to a year or so) to conduct scientific research about the health of planet earth.

For example, science queries address information stored in ice and the atmosphere. There are also astronomy experiments being conducted at South Pole Station, because of its uber-clear, particle-free, and light-pollution-free situation. And since the sky is dark (except for Moon and stars) for six months at a time, some constant celestial monitoring projects are easier to set up. Finally, there is IceCube. This is a huge array of neutrino detectors that have been buried at various depths below the station. Although it has neither lens nor mirror, IceCube is considered to be one of the biggest "telescopes" on Earth.

Four penguin species breed on Antarctica's beaches: Gentoo, Chinstrap, Emperor and Adelie. These sea birds 'live' in ocean water and not on land. They breed on land, because there are no predators.

If you consider blizzards as storms, they are fairly constant on Antarctica.

Whales in Antarctica are usually hunted under the pretext of "scientific research" to understand whales and their diets and thus improve their conservation. However, this type of research is unnecessary and detrimental. Additionally, because the whale meat is sold for consumption after the gut contents have been examined, it seems much more likely that the real reason whales are hunted is to be sold as a "luxury" food.

Since 98% of the continent is covered with an ice sheet, and not all mountains have been identified, so it is not possible to name the lowest mountain point on the continent.

Note that the lowest point on the continent -- the Bentley Subglacial Trench, located at 80°S, 115°W., is 2,555 meters (8,382 ft) below sea level. It is the lowest point on Earth not covered by an ocean, but covered by ice. The lowest mountain may be in this geography.

There are two major predators of penguins in Antarctica, including orca whales and leopard seals. Skua birds sometimes eat unattended or dead penguin chicks.

Unfortunately, too often penguins can be caught accidentally in fishing nets, even when the boat is not fishing for penguins.