Antarctica The Arctic

The Antarctic is a continent surrounded by ocean

The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents

Maximum sea ice extent: 8 million square miles

Maximum sea ice extent: 7 million square miles

The area is 6 million sq miles The area is 5.4 million sq milesTotal coastline: 18,000 miles Total coastline: 25,000 miles The sea ice accumulates and

recedes annually and more than doubles the size of the continent

Sea ice accumulates over several years into multiyear ice

                                                                                           

Comparison of the North and South Poles

Key Definitions• Glaciers – huge mass of ice over land• Crevasse – a deep crack in a glacier• Ice Shelf – an ice sheet attached to land but

is projected out over water• Ice Cap – dome shaped ice mass over the

top of a mountain• Icebergs – large mass of floating ice in

water• Pack Ice (or Ice Pack) – floating sea ice

that is driven together over many years by wind & current (i.e. the North Pole)

Comparison of the North and South Poles

Both are located at 90 degrees latitude.

North Pole lies under the permanent ice pack of the Arctic

Ocean

South Pole is on the continent (LAND) of Antarctica

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

The Climate and WeatherThe North and South Poles have lots of permanent SNOW and ICE! There is hardly any new precipitation (dry)The depth of the ice cap that covers Antarctica is between 9,000-14,000 feet deep.Average temperatures:

South Pole: -76oF in winter, -18oF in summer (landmass is higher elevation)North Pole: -40oF in winter, 32oF in summer (sea level and heat from water)

Wind = average 48 mph all the way to gusts of 150 mph in Antarctica!

Vegetation & Animal Life

•Both the North and South Poles have SEALS on them.

•Only the South Pole has penguins.

•Only the North Pole has polar bears.

• There are no TREES in Antarctica but Arctic has

trees and shrubs.

Magnetic North & South Poles• Earth has a magnetic field (imagine a gigantic bar magnet inside the Earth)

made of molten iron from Earth's outer core.

• Two geographic poles (North and South) where spin axis passes through. Also two magnetic poles (North and South) near but not quite in the same places as the geographic poles.

• The needle in a compass points towards a magnetic pole. When you are far away from a pole, a compass is very helpful if you want to find your way around. The compass needle points due North (or South if you live in the Southern Hemisphere!). However, if you are near either pole, a compass becomes useless. It points towards the magnetic pole, not the true geographic pole.

• In 2005, the North Magnetic Pole (NMP) was about 503 miles from the Geographic North Pole. The NMP was in the Arctic Ocean north of Canada. The South Magnetic Pole (SMP) was about 1,756 miles from the Geographic South Pole. The SMP was off the coast of Antarctica in the direction of Australia.

• The magnetic poles actually move around! Remember, swirling motions of molten metal in Earth's outer core make our planet's magnetic field. Those swirling motions are changing all the time. That means the magnetic field is changing, so the magnetic poles move! In the first part of the 20th century, the poles usually moved about 5.6 miles per year. Then, around 1970, they started moving faster. In recent years they have been moving about 25 miles per year!

• The aurora (Northern & Southern Lights) mostly happen near the magnetic poles. The charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) follow along magnetic field lines towards the magnetic poles. When the particles run into air in the Earth’s atmosphere, the air glows in pretty colors - making the beautiful aurora!

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Magnetosphere/earth_magnetic_poles.html

Seasons at the North and South Poles

The North Pole

Summer Solstice (around June 21) = Summer (sun never sets)

Winter Solstice (around Dec 21) = Winter (sun never rises)

The South Pole

June 21= ________

Dec 21= __________

WHY???? Explain.

Rotation of the Earth

“Ice berg caught in winter sea-ice”

This ice berg is grounded on the ocean floor (and the other 80-90% of it

that you can't see!) and sea-ice has formed

around it. The stripes in the ice are formed by

snow build up in different temperatures (probably

thousands of years ago)  when the ice berg was a

part of a glacier on continental Antarctica.

The small figure is a full-size person.

I've never been anywhere in the world where it is so possible to get as good an impression of the geography of a place as Antarctica. With the land stripped bare of vegetation and virtually nothing in the way of human influences to get in the way, you can just simply see the landscape so much more clearly. From this particular vantage point it is possible to see about 80 miles in all directions to the two peaks 40 miles away and to the ice covered sea an equal distance behind that.

1772-1775: James Cook (English) crossed the Antarctic Circle – never sighted land but was convinced it was there.1820: Nathaniel Palmer (English) discovered Antarctica.1880s: Everybody wanted a piece of the new land, but countries must occupy the land to be in control of the territory. Lots of seal & whale hunters begin to come to Antarctica.

In 1911…

Roald Amundsen and Robert

Scott (Norwegians) led the first major expedition to the

South Pole. R.S. DIED on his adventure, but we have the diary that records their

important and detailed findings.

1961: Antarctic Treaty

44 Countries Pledged:

•To use Antarctica for peaceful purposes (international scientific cooperation) and not to endorse any further territorial claims

Banned:

•Military activity•Nuclear explosions•Disposal of radioactive waste•1991 – mining of fossil fuels

1990

Scientists begin to study the ozone problems from Antarctica.

2006

Scientists say that Antarctica’s ice sheets are melting faster than snow can

fall. Researchers determined that between 2002-2005, Antarctica lost its ice at a rate of 36 cubic miles a year.

This global warming makes the oceans rise and could over take the low islands in the Pacific and other places around

the world.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released nearly unanimous findings that it is "unequivocal" that the climate is and will continue to change, and that human generation of greenhouse gases is responsible for most related changes since the 1950s.