Why Antarctica is not a continent. How does the Arctic differ from Antarctica and Antarctica and what do they have in common? Temperatures are lower in Antarctica because
Arctic vs Antarctic
Although the most obvious difference between the Arctic and Antarctic is their geographical position, there are many more reasons why they are on opposite sides globe. The Arctic, also known as the North Pole, is the northernmost part of the world. Antarctica is the South Pole and is the most... southern part peace.
These two areas are considered the coldest climates on the planet and are practically habitable, except for animals and local cultures that are accustomed to the cold. In the Arctic, precipitation is year-round snowfall, and the only area in Antarctica that receives this type of precipitation is on the outer edges of Antarctica. Temperatures in the Arctic and Antarctic regularly fall below 0°F, and the lowest recorded temperature was -128°F in Antarctica. Geographically, there is no Arctic continent, but rather large pieces of ice that formed over the water. Antarctica is a continent, but it is also covered in ice. The size of Antarctica is also almost 3 million km² larger than the Arctic.
The Arctic and Antarctic are home to many different species. In the Arctic there are caribou, beluga whales and polar bears. Antarctica is home to orcs, penguins and seals. Polar bears can only be found in the Arctic, penguins can only be found in Antarctica, all other animals are usually found in both places.
Antarctica is home to the fifth largest continent, Antarctica. The Arctic consists of parts of Greenland, Russia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the United States. Antarctica has no permanent residents, although there are between 1,000 and 5,000 scientists who conduct research. The Arctic is spread over many continents, and between them there are almost 4 million permanent inhabitants.
Although both areas may seem different, they face the same problem of global warming. Ozone depletion has led to melting ice caps in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and the problem is getting worse every day. Global warming threatened the cold climate at the poles, the animals that live there, in addition to creating a rise in ocean personnel around the world. Because the Arctic and Antarctic regions are on opposite sides of the world, there are understandable differences between them, but they still appear to be affected by global warming.
- The Arctic is the northernmost region on Earth. Antarctica is the southernmost region. Both have sub arctic climate.
- Exist different types animals indigenous to both. Polar bears can be found in the Arctic, and penguins can be found in Antarctica.
- Antarctica is home to one entire continent, while the Arctic is made up of parts of eight different countries.
- Temperatures in the Arctic and Antarctica are constantly below zero. The most low temperature The recordings were taken from Antarctica in winter.
- Global warming affects both the Arctic and Antarctic in many ways.
* The Arctic is an ocean under an ice shell, surrounded on all sides by land
* Antarctica is a continent washed on all sides by water
* People have been living in the Arctic for the last four centuries
* Antarctica has never been inhabited, and the first people reached its shores only 200 years ago
* The fauna of these regions is different, Antarctica leads in the number of inhabitants, and the Arctic leads in their species diversity
* The Arctic is home to an abundance of polar birds, walruses, musk oxen and polar bears
* Antarctica, these are giant colonies of penguins, fur seals, and many seabirds
* In the polar regions of the earth, the traveler will always find an abundance of snow of various shades and icebergs of the most bizarre shapes
* Travel to the Arctic can be made from June to September
*Months for cruises to Antarctica: October - March.
The Arctic and Antarctic, the two poles North and South, unknown, lost at the edge of the world and invariably attracting the interest of all mankind. Numerous large and small heroic expeditions were equipped to learn the secrets of the universe; individual daredevils went for it, trying to conquer and unravel mysterious corners planet Earth. And in our time, years after the first expeditions, already open to the world and science, the Arctic and Antarctic, these kingdoms of dazzling snow and light, thousand-year ice and icebergs, silence, cold, and unsolved mysteries continue to attract not only researchers, scientists, but also numerous tourists from all over the world. Modern possibilities of tourism infrastructure allow everyone to choose a direction during a cruise: the Arctic or Antarctic, route, duration, dates and go on an exciting journey.
The polar regions of our planet are one of the last corners wildlife, not affected by human activity and therefore can be considered the cleanest. These ecosystems have unique features and interactions and therefore require special protection measures. The natural and climatic environment of the polar regions is one of the most exceptional, little-studied and harsh on planet Earth, characterized by extreme temperatures, a large amount of snow cover, ice and icebergs, as well as permafrost, and yet the Arctic and Antarctic are rich in living and non-living natural resources.
Despite the significant similarities between the Arctic and Antarctic, there are fundamental differences between them: political, geographical and natural. And, probably, the basis of the differences can be seen primarily in the fact that Antarctica is a continent, and the Arctic is a partially frozen ocean, the ice cover of which is formed by glaciers, sea ice and icebergs. Sea ice covers the surface of the Arctic Ocean over 8 - 15 million square kilometers, with an average thickness of about three meters.
The sixth continent on our planet, Antarctica, is surrounded by an ocean. With its outlines, Antarctica slightly resembles the Arctic Ocean. Antarctica is very different from all other continents. This is the coldest, windiest, driest, highest continent on the Planet. The surface of Antarctica is 99 percent covered by an ice sheet that rises on average 2,500 meters above sea level. The total amount of ice in Antarctica represents 91 percent of the world's ice reserves. If all the ice in Antarctica melted, then general level the world's oceans would rise by 60 meters. For comparison, the largest ice mass in the Arctic is the Greenland Ice Sheet, and if everything melts Greenland ice The level of the world's oceans will rise by 7 meters.
Antarctica is similar to all other continents with complex terrain - mountains, plains and deep depressions, but this could be seen if all the ice cover was removed from this continent.
An important difference between Antarctica and other continents is the complete absence state borders and permanent population. This continent does not belong to any state, no one lives there permanently. Antarctica is a continent of peace and cooperation.
Antarctica has no permanent land vertebrates, but large populations of seabirds and seals visit it for breeding purposes and spend most of their time in the ocean surrounding Antarctica. IN summer period In the waters of Antarctica you can find toothed and smooth whales. The lands and ice of the sixth continent are home to 45 species of breeding birds, but 85 percent of the total biomass of Antarctic seabirds are penguins.
There is no indigenous population in Antarctica, however, the number of scientists living here temporarily and employees of year-round research stations is constantly growing, as is the number of tourists.
The northern polar region of our land, including the Arctic Ocean and its seas, as well as the Canadian archipelago, with its numerous bays and straits, the Northern parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, New and Northern lands The New Siberian and Wrangel Islands, as well as the northern coasts of the continents of Eurasia and North America, form the Arctic.
In most Arctic regions there are no trees, but in some areas there are pine, spruce and birch forests. Typical tundra vegetation consists of sedges, lichens and dwarf trees.
The fauna of the Arctic has its own characteristics - limited species composition and abundance of individuals of each species. Representatives of the animal world of the Arctic region are reindeer, musk oxen, polar bears, polar wolves, hares, arctic foxes, lemmings and others. The polar seas abound with beluga whales, narwhals, seals and walruses.
In many areas of the Arctic, people appeared more than 10 thousand years ago. They were most recently inhabited northern regions Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Greenland.
The population of the Arctic consists of indigenous and newcomers who are carriers of different cultural traditions. The most homogeneous group of aborigines living in the American Arctic. It consists mainly of Eskimos, or Inuit (as they call themselves in Canada and Greenland).
In northern Alaska, the Eskimo population predominates, but many visitors are employed in the oil fields. In the far north of Eurasia, the indigenous population includes the Sami in northern Scandinavia and Finland, the Nenets in the north, and the Chukchi in northeast Russia. The traditional occupations of the peoples of the North are hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding.
The Arctic and Antarctic, mysterious lands crowned with glaciers, dazzlingly shining in the sun, seas covered with ice or floating icebergs, have long attracted travelers. Nowadays, there is an opportunity, within the framework of a chosen Antarctic or Arctic cruise, to join the secrets of the universe, listen to the silence, and feel the magnetism and energy of these unrealistically beautiful landscapes of places. Your companions on your travels will be polar birds, and, depending on the chosen direction, numerous colonies of penguins, or polar bears appearing on ice floes.
June 09, 2013 First, about the similarities. The Arctic and Antarctic are regions of the Earth located around the North and South poles, respectively. The similarity in the names is explained by the fact that they are based on the ancient Greek word arktos (bear).The northernmost part of the Earth was called the Arctic by the ancient Greeks, because they determined the direction to the north by the Polar Star, located in the constellation Ursa Minor. Antarctica is named so in contrast to the Arctic, the prefix anti in ancient Greek means “against”.
Both areas are almost always very cold, average annual temperature does not rise above zero. In both the Arctic and Antarctica, there is a polar night in winter, and a polar day in summer. This is where the similarities end.
The Arctic is located in the northern hemisphere of the earth, and Antarctica is in the southern hemisphere, therefore, when it is winter in the first, it is summer in the second.
The Arctic is an ice-covered ocean surrounded by land, Antarctica is an ice-covered part of the land (continent) surrounded by seas.
The territory of Antarctica is twice as large as the Arctic.
There are penguins in Antarctica, and polar bears in the Arctic.
The territory (or rather, water area) of the Arctic is divided between adjacent countries; Antarctica is considered the property of all humanity.
The Arctic and Antarctic - what is it, where is it located and how is it different, and in general are they two different places or two names for the same thing? Since school years, these questions have caused some uncertainty in many. Doubts are provoked by the similarity not only of the names, but also of the climatic conditions. For now, understand once and for all what is what, what are the similarities and differences between the Arctic and Antarctic. Let's start with what they have in common.
Titles. In fact, this is not a similarity, but a contrast. "Arctic" - word Greek origin, and the root "arktos" means "bear". They use the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor to navigate in search of the North Star, the main northern landmark, in the sky. The history of the name “Antarctica” is much less ancient (the name appeared only in the 20th century) and romantic. Antarctica is the anti-Arctic, that is, literally translated, the opposite of the Arctic. And the opposite of the bear! This is the easiest way to remember that there are no permanent residents of the Arctic expanses in the Arctic antipode.
Climate. Indeed, the polar territories are characterized by harsh climatic conditions. This icy deserts, eternal snow, icebergs. But even here the similarity is not as complete as we think. Warm currents extend far enough along the northern coast of Eurasia to make the Arctic climate milder, with higher temperature minimums and milder temperature variations than in Antarctic latitudes.
Probably, this is where the similarities end and the differences begin, the main one of which is the geographical location at different poles of the globe. The North Pole and the adjacent water-ice expanses and islands up to the coast of the continents of Eurasia and North America- “possessions” of the Arctic. The South Pole and adjacent areas, limited by the Antarctic convergence - the meeting place of cold Antarctic currents with more warm waters Pacific Ocean and Atlantic - Antarctica. This phenomenon is observed at the 48-61 southern parallel and is characterized by a sharp change in water temperature by several degrees. Thus, the area of the southern antipode of the Arctic - Antarctica - is almost twice as large.
Another difference is the mainland territories. The Arctic and Antarctic can be considered antipodes here too. The center of the Arctic - the North Pole lies in the Arctic Ocean, and the continental Arctic territories are only small coastal parts of large formations of Eurasia and North America, “framing” Arctic zone around the edges. The center of Antarctica rests on land, its own Antarctic continent, and at the edges of the territory, on the contrary, it is limited only by the line of temperature changes in the vast oceans.
Climatic differences are caused not only by warm currents that freely penetrate into Arctic territories and do not flow into Antarctic waters. Largely on temperature regime influence by altitude. The difference between the Arctic is the absence of continental formations and ice rising above sea level by a maximum of several meters. Average height of the Antarctic continent - 2 thousand meters, of which about 1.8 thousand are ice fields. Due to this, average temperatures here are lower, the difference is more than 10 degrees.
Animal and vegetable world Polar territories are also strikingly different. And it’s not even about polar bears, who prefer the Arctic polar territories, and penguins, who have chosen the surrounding area to live Southern mainland. The differences are much more serious. Thus, the flora of Antarctica is limited to an extremely meager selection of algae, lichens, mosses and literally two types of flowers - meadow grass and colobanthus.
The Arctic has a richer flora in this regard - hundreds of plant species, from the same algae, mosses and lichens to grasses, cereals, shrubs and even trees closer to the southern borders of the territories. The situation is similar with the animal world - on the Antarctic continent and in its environs, few species of animals can live and reproduce. Marine animals and organisms predominate here (their greatest density gravitates towards the boundaries of warm waters), and birds. Arctic island and continental territories are concentrated mainly away from the pole and have a milder climate, therefore animal world sushi here is much more varied.
A significant difference is also the degree of development of territories and economic activity. The Arctic is being actively developed, fish and seafood are being harvested here, and exploration and development of mineral resources is being actively carried out. Arctic territories were also used as testing grounds - for example, for testing nuclear weapons. Antarctic territories protected from human activity international agreements(1959 Convention). Any economic activity, weapons testing are prohibited here, warships are not allowed to cross the 60th parallel. In Antarctica, only scientific activity, there are about 45 scientific stations from different countries located here.
