Map of Antarctica ©National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London Antarctica is the most inhospitable place on the planet. It is a continent surrounded by the Southern Ocean whereas the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land. Antarctic conditions are much more extreme. The lowest recorded temperature is -89.2 °C. Household freezer boxes are about -10 to -15 °C, which gives you an idea of the Antarctic cold. It is also the highest place on Earth. Once you are on the Polar plateau the ice cap is up to 4km thick and explorers are likely to suffer from altitude sickness as much as frostbite.

Antarctica is huge – about 14 million square km – and devoid of life, apart from around the coast, where there are penguins and seals. However, once you reach the interior you have to depend on whatever you are carrying. Only in recent times has the use of aircraft given Antarctic explorers an alternative means of supply.

Antarctica is also the windiest continent on Earth. 'Katabic' (descending) winds pour off the Antarctic plateau in gales which can reach 100 miles an hour.

Antarctica is also a desert, with only 150mm of snowfall a year around the South Pole, so Antarctic blizzards really consist of ice crystals being whipped up by the wind. They are sometimes so fine that they can get between the slits of your closed eyes. There is a theory that the extreme conditions which finally marooned Scott and his party in their tent were part of an extremely cold snap which affected Antarctica in 1912. That season, temperatures reached -50°C, conditions which exhausted, exposed and starving men cannot survive.

Amundsen had returned from the Pole much earlier in the season, without suffering such extreme weather.

Interesting Facts

• Antarctica is the coldest, driest, highest and windiest continent on earth
• Antarctica is nearly 14 million square kilometres, slightly larger than Europe
• Ice covers 99% of Antarctica and is up to 4km thick
• Antarctica is a cold desert with an average snowfall of only 150mm
• The coldest recorded temperature in Antarctica is -89.2°, the lowest on earth
• Antarctica is an isolated continent surrounded by the Southern Ocean
• In winter over half the Southern Ocean freezes, doubling the size of Antarctica
• Antarctica has been covered with ice for 15 million years
• Dinosaurs inhabited Antarctica before it became cold
• There is no life in Antarctica except on the coast
• Antarctica is over 1000km from the nearest continent, South America
• South America and Australia were once connected to Antarctica