1. The territory of Antarctica does not belong to anyone - not a single country in the world.
2. Antarctica is the southernmost continent.
3. The area of Antarctica is 14 million 107 thousand square kilometers.
4. Antarctica has been depicted on maps since ancient times even before its official discovery. Then it was called the "Unknown Southern Land" (or "Australis Incognita").
5. The warmest time in Antarctica is February. The same month is the time of "shift shift" of scientists at research stations.
6. The area of the continent Antarctica is about 52 million km2.
7. Antarctica is the second largest after Australia.
8. Antarctica has no government and no official population.
9. Antarctica has a dialing code and its own flag. On the blue background of the flag, the outline of the continent of Antarctica itself is drawn.
10. It is generally accepted that the first human scientist in Antarctica was the Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink. But here historians disagree, because there is documentary evidence that Lazarev and Bellingshausen were the first to set foot on the Antarctic continent with their expedition.
11. Opened in 1820, January 28.
12. Antarctica has its own currency, which is valid only on the continent.
13. Antarctica has officially recorded the lowest temperature in the world - 91.2 ° C below zero.
14. The maximum temperature above zero in Antarctica is 15 ° C.
15. The average temperature in summer is -30-50 ° C.
16. No more than 6 cm of precipitation falls annually.
17. Antarctica is the only uninhabitable continent.
18. In 1999, an iceberg the size of London broke off the continent of Antarctica.
19. The obligatory diet of workers at scientific stations in Antarctica includes beer.
20. Since 1980 Antarctica has been accessible to tourists.
21. Antarctica is the driest continent on the planet. In one of its areas - Dry Valley - there has been no rain for about two million years. Oddly enough, there is absolutely no ice in this area.
22. Antarctica is the only habitat on the planet for emperor penguins.
23. Antarctica is an ideal place for those who study meteorites. Meteorites falling on the continent, thanks to the ice, have been preserved in their original form.
24. The continent of Antarctica has no time zone.
25. All time zones (and there are 24) here can be bypassed in a few seconds.
26. The most common form of life in Antarctica is the wingless midge Belgica Antarctida. It is no more than one and a half centimeters long.
27. If someday the ice of Antarctica melts, the level of the world ocean will rise by 60 meters.
28. In addition to the above - a global flood can not be expected, the temperature on the continent will never rise above zero.
29. There are fish in Antarctica whose blood does not contain hemoglobin and erythrocytes, so their blood is colorless. Moreover, the blood contains a special substance that allows it not to freeze even at the lowest temperatures.
30. Antarctica is home to no more than 4 thousand people.
31. There are two active volcanoes on the continent.
32. In 1961, on April 29, in less than two hours, Leonid Rogozov, the doctor of the Soviet expedition to Antarctica, performed an operation to remove appendicitis on himself. The operation went well.
33. Polar bears do not live here - this is a common delusion. It's too cold for the bears.
34. Only two species of plants grow here, and flowering. True, they grow in the warmest zones of the continent. These are: Antarctic meadow and Kolobantuskito.
35. The name of the continent comes from the ancient word "Arktikos", which literally translates as "opposite the bear." The mainland received this name in honor of the constellation Ursa Major.
36. Antarctica has the most powerful winds and the highest level of solar radiation.
37. The cleanest sea in the world in Antarctica: the transparency of the water allows you to see objects at a depth of 80 meters.
38. The first person born on the continent is Emilio Marcos Palma, Argentine. Was born in 1978.
39. In winter, Antarctica doubles in area.
40. In 1999, physician Jerry Nielsen had to self-administer chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. The problem is that Antarctica is a deserted and isolated place from the outside world.
41. In Antarctica, oddly enough, there are rivers. The most famous is the Onyx River. It flows only during the summer - this is two months. The river is 40 kilometers long. There is no fish in the river.
42. Blood Falls - located in the Taylor Valley. The water in the waterfall has taken on a bloody hue due to its high iron content, which forms rust. The water in the waterfall never freezes, because it is four times saltier than normal sea water.
43. The bones of herbivorous dinosaurs, which are about 190 million years old, have been found on the continent. They lived there when the climate was warm, and Antarctica was part of the same continent of Gondwana.
44. If Antarctica was not covered with ice, the continent would be only 410 meters high.
45. The maximum ice thickness is 3800 meters.
46. There are many subglacial lakes in Antarctica. The most famous of them is Lake Vostok. Its length is 250 kilometers, width is 50 kilometers.
47. Lake Vostok has been hidden from humanity for 14,000,000 years.
48. Antarctica is the sixth and last open continent.
49. About 270 people have died since the discovery of Antarctica, including a cat named Chippy.
50. There are over forty permanent scientific stations on the continent.
51. Antarctica has a huge number of abandoned places. The most famous is the camp founded by Robert Scott of Britain in 1911. Today these camps have become a tourist attraction.
52. Off the coast of Antarctica, wrecked ships were often found - mostly Spanish galleons of the 16-17th centuries.
53. In the area of one of the regions of Antarctica (Wilkes Land) there is a giant crater from a meteorite fall (500 kilometers in diameter).
54. Antarctica is the highest continent of the planet Earth.
55. If global warming continues, trees will grow in Antarctica.
56. Antarctica has huge reserves of natural resources.
57. The greatest danger to scientists on the continent is open fire. Due to the dry atmosphere, it is very difficult to extinguish it.
58. 90% of the ice reserves are in Antarctica.
59. Above Antarctica, the world's largest ozone hole - 27 million square meters. km.
60. 80 percent of the world's fresh water is concentrated in Antarctica.
61. Antarctica is home to a famous natural ice sculpture called The Frozen Wave.
62. In Antarctica, no one lives permanently - only in shifts.
63. Antarctica is the only continent in the world where ants do not live.
64. The largest iceberg on the planet is located in the waters of Antarctica - it weighs approximately three billion tons, and its area exceeds the area of the island of Jamaica.
65. In Antarctica discovered pyramids similar in size to the pyramids of Giza.
66. Antarctica is surrounded by legends about Hitler's underground bases - after all, it was he who closely explored this area during World War II
67. The highest point of Antarctica is 5140 meters (Sentinel ridge).
68. Only 2% of the land “looks out” from under the ice of Antarctica.
69. Due to the weight of Antarctica's ice, the southern belt of the earth is deformed, which makes our planet oval.
70. Currently, seven countries of the world (Australia, New Zealand, Chile, France, Argentina, Great Britain and Norway) are trying to divide the territory of Antarctica among themselves.
71. The only two countries that have never claimed the territory of Antarctica are the USA and Russia.
72. Above Antarctica is the clearest area of the sky, best suited for space exploration and observation of the birth of new stars.
73. Annually in Antarctica hold a hundred-kilometer ice marathon - a race in the area of Mount Ellsworth.
74. Mining operations have been prohibited in Antarctica since 1991.
75. The word "Antarctica" is translated from Greek as "opposites of the Arctic".
76. A special breed of tick lives on the surface of Antarctica. This mite can secrete a substance similar in composition to an automobile "anti-freeze".
77. The famous Hell's Gate canyon is also located in Antarctica. The temperature in it drops to 95 degrees, and the wind speed reaches 200 kilometers per hour - these are conditions unsuitable for humans.
78. Antarctica had a hot, tropical climate before the Ice Age.
79. Antarctica affects the climate of the entire planet.
80. The installation of military installations and the installation of nuclear power plants is strictly prohibited on the continent.
81. Antarctica even has its own Internet domain - .aq (which stands for AQUA).
82. The first conventional passenger aircraft arrived in Antarctica in 2007.
83. Antarctica is an international conservation area.
84. The surface of the dry McMurdo Valley in Antarctica and its climate are very similar to the surface of the planet Mars, so NASA occasionally conducts test launches of its space rockets here.
85.4-10% of polar scientists in Antarctica are Russians.
86. A monument to Lenin was erected in Antarctica (1958).
87. In the ice of Antarctica, new bacteria unknown to modern science were discovered.
88. Scientists at the Antarctic bases live so well together that as a result, many inter-ethnic marriages have been concluded.
89. There is an assumption that Antarctica is the lost Atlantis. 12,000 years ago, the climate on this continent was hot, but after the asteroid hit the Earth, the axis shifted, and the continent along with it.
90. The Antarctic blue whale eats about 4 million shrimp in one day - this is about 3600 kilograms.
91. There is a Russian Orthodox Church in Antarctica (on the island of Waterloo). This is the Church of the Holy Trinity near the Bellingshausen Arctic station.
92. Apart from penguins, there are no terrestrial animals in Antarctica.
93. In Antarctica, you can observe such a phenomenon as nacreous clouds. This happens when the temperature drops to 73 degrees Celsius below zero.
94. Chinstrap penguins are able to conquer a depth of 500 meters and stay there for 15 minutes.
95. Even the full moon in Antarctica has its own name - "DeLak Full Moon", in honor of a polar biologist at the end of the 20th century.
96.40,000 tourists visit Antarctica annually.
97. The cost of a tour to Antarctica is $ 10,000.
98. The Russian research station Vostok is located in such a cold and remote area that during the winter season it is impossible to reach it either by plane or by ship.
99. In winter, only 9 people live at Vostok station all alone.
100. Do not think that Antarctica is completely isolated from the outside world - there is the Internet, television, and telephone communications.
