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ANTARCTICA AND THE ARCTIC: FACTS, FIGURES, AND STORIES

The Poles On a globe, the Arctic is at the very top, in the northern hemi- sphere . The Antarctic is at the bottom, in the southern hemi- sphere. The North Pole, then, is in the Arctic; the South Pole is in Antarctica. But while the South Pole is a fixed point of land (or, more precisely, ice-covered land), the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.The water there is 13,400 feet (4,084 meters) deep. The ice sheets in the Arctic Ocean are up to 10 feet (3 meters) thick and always on the move, so there’s no actual pole there! A pole planted in the ice could soon be miles away. TheArctic is part of an area called theArctic Circle. Scientists sometimes use the northern limit of the tree line as the border for the Arctic. The Arctic tree line is the northernmost point where trees can grow; beyond that,where it’s too cold for trees, is tundra, a treeless area of plain with permanently frozen subsoil. Antarctica is its own continent. Scientists believe that several hundred million years ago, the landmass on the Earth existed in one supercontinent called Pangaea. About 175 million years ago, the land began breaking into seven smaller continents. In addition toAntarctica, the other continents areAfrica,Asia,Aus- tralia, Europe, North America, and South America. The Arctic is water (the Arctic Ocean) surrounded by the land of North America, Russia, and Europe; the Antarctic is land (mostly covered in ice that can be up to three miles thick) surrounded by water.