Poles Apart

People surprised that Antartica is nearly twice the size of U.S. Antartica was coined to mean opposite to the Artic. The climate of the two areas is very different. Antartica is the coldest area in the world and 30 degrees colder than the Artic. Mean temperature run below zero in nearly 10,000 feet high. Antartica rise about freezing in the summer, but North Pole rise above freezing. Winter temperature sometimes fall below -100 degrees Fahrenheit at the American South Poles Station. A temperature of -127 degrees Fahrenheit was measured  in August 1960 on south polar plateau. It is the world’s record low temperature. Animals and plants of two regions are very different. Moses, lichens, and algae are found in Antartica. Penguins are not found in Artic. Foxes, bears, reindeer, and lemmings lives in Artic. Ice is great feature of Antartica. More than 4.5 million square miles of ice sheet cover the area. Antartica store 85 percent of the total world supply of ice. The icecap is very thick, averaging nearly 8,000 feet. The distance from the surface to the rock to be more than 13,000 feet. The volume of the ocean and sea level would increase if ice of Antartica were to melt. Extreme atmospheric changes would have to take places for this to happen.