Where is the Arctic, Antarctica and Antarctica: the main differences and interesting facts

Where is the Arctic and Antarctica? And how do these regions of the Earth differ from one another? This question puzzles many people, even if they have faithfully studied geography in school. Reply to it will help our article.

The difference between the Arctic and the Antarctic

A rather popular geographical mystery sounds like this: "Do polar bears eat penguins?" The brain of an adult immediately starts to build a logical chain of reflections. Memory pops up pictures of school textbooks, where both those and other animals are imprinted on the background of eternal ice and severe winter landscapes. The man reasons like this: polar bears are predators, and penguins are rather slow birds, easy prey. Therefore, the first should gladly regale the second.

However, all this is not so! Not everyone will guess that these animals in the wild can not meet at all, because they live in absolutely different parts of the world. One of them is the Arctic, and the other is the Antarctic. Therefore, they can see each other only in some zoo.

Where is the Arctic and Antarctica - this will be discussed later. What are the features of nature, climate and organic world of these areas?

Where is the Arctic? Brief description of the region

What is the difference between the Arctic, Antarctica and Antarctica? Let's try to understand this geographical issue.

Where is the Arctic on the globe? In which part of the world do you need to look for it?

At the very beginning, we must remember that our planet Earth has two poles, which are diametrically opposed to each other - the North and the South. This will help to better navigate where the Arctic is, and where - the Antarctic.

So, the Arctic is a polar region of the Earth, directly adjacent to its North Pole. Geographically, it covers the Arctic Ocean, the northern extremities of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The Arctic also includes the outskirts of Eurasia and North America, as well as numerous islands.

Sometimes this physico-geographical macroregion is limited from the south by the Arctic Circle. The area of the region, depending on the conduct of its southern borders, is from 21 to 27 million square kilometers.

Now you know where the Arctic is. What was the mastery of her man? And when did it start?

The history of the conquest of the Arctic and the North Pole

The Arctic has been inhabited for a long time. This is evidenced by numerous archaeological finds. So, man first appeared on the shores of the Arctic Ocean 30 thousand years ago. However, later it began to pull further north. There were also brave souls who wished to conquer the Earth's pole.

Serious and systematic study of the region began in the second half of the XIX century. The most famous polar explorer of the time is the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen. In particular, he went down in history by being the first to cross the ice shell of Greenland, the largest island of the planet. It happened in 1889.

Robert Peary is another important name in the history of the Arctic study. In 1908-1909 he organized an expedition that first reached the North Pole. Interestingly, the goal of this campaign was only this record. No scientific research was conducted by the expedition.

7 amazing facts about the Arctic

The Arctic is an amazing region full of mysteries, mysteries and unusual natural phenomena. Below are the most interesting facts about him:

• The organic world of the Arctic, in spite of such a harsh climate, is rich enough. Huge ice areas are densely populated by polar bears, Arctic Foxes, lemmings, reindeers, dozens of bird species and other animals. You can meet here even an ordinary crow!
• At once five states claim to the Arctic, including Russia;
• The Arctic shelf, according to rough estimates of scientists, hides in itself more than 100 billion tons of gas and oil;
• About 50 million years ago, the climate of the Arctic was much softer. Water in the Arctic Ocean in those days warmed up in the summer to +15 ... 18 degrees!
• The Arctic is the region of the Earth that is most vulnerable to global warming;
• Deserts are not only in the tropical belt, but also in the Arctic. Only here they are called arctic;
• The very first sailing on the Arctic waters was made by the ancient Greek Pipheus back in the 4th century BC.

Antarctica and Antarctica - where are they?

Antarctica geographers call the southern circumpolar region of the Earth, which is located on the opposite side of the Arctic from the planet. It includes a huge land massif - the mainland Antarctica, as well as the southern extremities of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean (many foreign scientists in this area also allocate the fifth ocean of the Earth - the South).

The northern boundary of the Antarctic is rather conditional. Most often it is carried out along the edge of the zone of floating ice (between 50-55 degrees south latitude). Thus, the total area of Antarctica is much higher than the Arctic, and is about 60 million square kilometers.

Antarctica, as already mentioned above, is the sixth continent of the planet Earth - the most southerly and coldest.

The history of discovery and development of the Antarctic

Already in the XVIII century, people assumed that in the south of our planet there is another continent. The first to search for him went James Cook in 1775. During his round-the-world voyage, he approached the mysterious "Southern Earth" closely, opening the South Sandwich Islands.

The discovery of the mainland of Antarctica took place in 1820 during the expedition of Russian seafarers F. Bellingshausen and MP Lazarev. After this, a series of discoveries and cartography of various seas, islands and lands in the Antarctic began.

In 1911, two expeditions (one led by Rual Amundsen and the other by Robert Scott) went immediately to conquer the South Pole of the Earth. But luck only smiled at one of the groups of desperate brave souls. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen installed the Norwegian flag at the pole point. Scott's group reached the expedition's goal 27 days later, and all its members perished on the way back.

The continent of Antarctica has a significant mineral-resource potential. However, the countries of the world signed an agreement on the "inviolability" of the continent until 2048.

7 amazing facts about Antarctica

We bring to your attention 7 interesting facts about Antarctica and Antarctica:

• Antarctica is the coldest continent of the planet. In the 80s, the lowest temperature on the Earth (-89 degrees C) was recorded at the Soviet polar station Vostok;
• Antarctica is also the highest continent of the planet (first of all, thanks to a massive ice cap, which in some places reaches a thickness of 1-1.5 km);
• Antarctica is the windiest and driest place on earth (and this is despite the fact that it contains up to 70% of all fresh water in the world);
• Antarctica is the only continent without a permanent population;
• In the Antarctic, there are 6 species of penguins. Among them - the imperial penguins, which differ in their large size;
• From the shelf glaciers of Antarctica, huge blocks of ice are periodically broken off. One of these was formed in 2000 and went on a free voyage. Its length reached 300 kilometers!
• In the Antarctic there are no time zones. Scientists who live here live according to the time of their states.

Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic

Do you know where the museum of the Arctic and Antarctica is located? Many people are not even aware of the existence of such an institution. It turns out that such a museum exists!

It is located in the city of St. Petersburg, in the building of the former St. Nicholas Church (Marata Street, 24a). In 1930, the temple was closed and within its walls opened this unusual museum. It just acquaints visitors with the history of exploration and study of the Arctic and Antarctic.

The museum displays equipment of polar explorers, unique instruments, rare photographs, models of ships and icebreakers, as well as numerous paintings of artists depicting the wild and severe nature of the circumpolar regions of the Earth.

Finally

Where is the Arctic, Antarctica and Antarctica? Now you can easily answer this question and show the above areas on the globe. Despite the distance of thousands of kilometers between the Arctic and the Antarctic, there is much in common between them. In both parts of the planet it is extremely cold, there are a lot of snow, icebergs and ice, and there is practically no vegetation.