Antarctica was adopted in the 1890s, with the first use of the name being attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. They searched for a more poetic replacement, suggesting various names such as Ultima and Antipodea. Over the following decades, geographers had to make do with clumsy phrases such as "the Antarctic Continent". In 1824 the colonial authorities in Sydney officially renamed the continent of New Holland to Australia, leaving the term "Terra Australis" unavailable as a reference to Antarctica. ĭuring the early 19th century the explorer Matthew Flinders doubted the existence of a detached continent south of Australia, then called New Holland, and thus advocated for the "Terra Australis" name to be used for Australia instead. The belief of such a land lasted until the discovery of Australia. Until the discovery belief by Europeans in the existence of a Terra Australis-a vast continent in the far south of the globe to balance the northern lands of Europe, Asia and North Africa-had existed as an intellectual concept since classical antiquity. The Roman authors Hyginus and Apuleius used for the South Pole the romanised Greek name polus antarcticus, from which derived the Old French pole antartike (modern pôle antarctique) attested in 1270, and from there the Middle English pol antartik, found in a treatise written by the English author Geoffrey Chaucer. The Greek geographer Marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his world map from the 2nd century CE, now lost. The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote in Meteorology about an "Antarctic region" in c. Antarcticus is derived from the Greek ἀντι- ('anti-') and ἀρκτικός ('of the Bear', 'northern'). The name given to the world's southernmost continent originates from the word antarctic, which originates from the Middle French antartique or antarctique ('opposite to the Arctic') and the Latin antarcticus ('opposite to the north'). According to the terms of the treaty, military activity, mining, nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal are all prohibited.Ī speculative representation of Antarctica labelled as ' Terra Australis Incognito' on Jan Janssonius's Zeekaart van het Zuidpoolgebied (1657), Het Scheepvaartmuseum The first confirmed landing was by a Norwegian team in 1895.Īntarctica is governed by about 30 countries, all of which are parties to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System. The Wilkes expedition-though it did not make a landing-remained long enough in the region to survey 1,300 km (800 mi) of the coast. The continent was discovered in January 1840 by the United States Exploring Expedition, under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes and a separate French expedition under Jules Dumont d'Urville.
The continental mass of Antarctica was probably first seen in 1820, when the Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev sighted the Fimbul ice shelf. Native species of animals include mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. The average temperature for the third quarter (the coldest part of the year) is −63 ☌ (−81 ☏). Antarctica holds the record for the lowest measured temperature on Earth, −89.2 ☌ (−128.6 ☏). About 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen there, which if melted would raise global sea levels by about 60 metres (200 ft). It is mainly a polar desert, with annual precipitation of 200 mm (8 in) along the coast and far less inland. Most of Antarctica is covered by ice, with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).Īntarctica is on average the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents, and has the highest average elevation. During the summer months 5,000 people reside at research stations, a figure that drops to around 1,000 in the winter.
Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being nearly twice the size of Australia, and has an area of 14,200,000 km 2 (5,500,000 sq mi). Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole.
Antarctica ( / æ n ˈ t ɑːr k t ɪ k ə/ ( listen) or / æ n ˈ t ɑː r t ɪ k ə/) is Earth's southernmost continent.
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