Antarctica, the world’s southernmost continent, is almost wholly covered by an ice sheet and is about 5.5 million square miles (14.2 million square km) in size. Though antarctica is really, really chilly, it is considered a desert because it receives very little rain or snowfall The small amount of snow that does fall does not melt but builds up over hundreds and thousands of years to form large, thick ice sheets. Without any ice, antarctica would emerge as a giant peninsula and archipelago of mountainous islands, known as lesser antarctica, and a single large landmass about the size of australia, known as greater antarctica. Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest continent on earth The antarctic ice sheet contains about 7.2 million cubic miles (30 million cubic kilometers) in an area just under 1.5 times.
Despite its massive size, antarctica has no permanent population due to its harsh climate, icy terrain, and remote location. Spanning an area of nearly 5.4 million square miles (14 million km 2), it accounts for 9.4% of the planet’s total land area. Antarctica “the white continent” is the fifth largest continent in the world with its unique wildlife, extreme coldness, dryness, windiness and unexplored territories. Antarctica is earth 's southernmost continent, overlying the south pole Situated in the southern hemisphere and largely south of the antarctic circle, antarctica is surrounded by the southern ocean.
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