It is claimed as a dependency of Norway, and along with Queen Maud Land and Bouvet Island comprises one of the three Norwegian dependent territories in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic.

Lying on the Pacific Ocean side of the Transantarctic Mountains, West Antarctica comprises the Antarctic Peninsula ( with Graham Land and Palmer Land ) and Ellsworth Land, Marie Byrd Land and King Edward VII Land and offshore islands such as Adelaide Island, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf on the Weddell Sea, and the Ross Ice Shelf on the Ross Sea.

* Southern Ocean also known as the Great Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean and the South Polar Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60 ° S latitude and encircling Antarctica

A careful study of the original reports, maps and photographs, and comparison with materials from subsequent expeditions such as the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition, 1947, and the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, 1960, has led to the conclusion that the range described comprises at least the core of Ellsworth's Eternity Range and appropriately commemorates his discovery.

The Antarctic continent, located in the Earth's southern hemisphere, is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle.

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ATS, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population.

* 1959 – Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.

* 1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent approaching the Antarctic coast.

* 1961 – Cold War: the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959.

* 1978 – Emilio Palma, first person born on the Antarctic continent

The Kerguelen Islands, along with the islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul, and the Crozet archipelago were officially annexed by France in 1893, and were included as possessions in the French constitution in 1924 ( in addition to that portion of Antarctica claimed by France and known as Adélie Land ; as with all Antarctic territorial claims, France's possession on the continent is held in abeyance until a new international treaty is ratified that defines each claimant's rights and obligations ).

Shortly thereafter, the United States began its own program to search for Antarctic meteorites, operating along the Transantarctic Mountains on the other side of the continent: the ANtarctic Search for METeorites ( ANSMET ) program.

* December 1 – Cold War – Antarctic Treaty: 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a landmark treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent ( the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War ).

On this second voyage Cook crossed three times into the Antarctic Circle to determine whether the fabled great southern continent existed.

The ozone hole occurs during the Antarctic spring, from September to early December, as strong westerly winds start to circulate around the continent and create an atmospheric container.

Where Schöner departs most conspicuously from Waldseemüller is in his globe ’ s depiction of an Antarctic continent, called by him Brasilie Regio.

In 1513, the Ottoman Turkish admiral Piri Reis drew a world map that has been said to show part of the Antarctic continent.

He thereby laid open the way for future Antarctic exploration by exploding the myth of a habitable southern continent.

After the race to the South Pole ended in 1912 with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to what he said was the one remaining great object of Antarctic journeying — the crossing of the continent from sea to sea, via the pole.

Mawson chose to lead his own expedition, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, to King George V Land and Adelie Land, the sector of the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which at the time was almost entirely unexplored.

The Adélie penguins breed from October to February on shores around the Antarctic continent.

Mirages on the Antarctic continent tend to be even more spectacular than in Arctic regions, creating, for example, a series of apparent sunsets and sunrises while in reality the sun remains under the horizon.

The continent of Antarctica forms a land mass covering much of the area within the Antarctic Circle.

Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, the world's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water.

Western Antarctica is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

* Antarctic Digital Database ( Topographic data for Antarctica, including web map browser )

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current ( ACC ) is an ocean current that flows clockwise from west to east around Antarctica.

Chile also claims about of Antarctica, although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty.

After the tectonic creation of Drake Passage, when South America fully detached from Antarctica during the Oligocene, the climate cooled significantly due to the advent of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which brought cool deep Antarctic water to the surface.

The islands are located from the Isla de los Estados in Argentina ( and from the Argentine mainland ); from Chile ; west of the Shag Rocks ( South Georgia ) and north of the British Antarctic Territory ( which overlaps with the Argentine and Chilean claims to Antarctica in that region ).

* Vostok, the lead ship of Faddey Bellingshausen, who discovered Antarctica during the First Russian Antarctic Expedition.

* February 11 – Burgess Ice Rise lying off the west coast of Alexander Island, Antarctica is first mapped by the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ).

* January 28, 1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev approaches the Antarctic coast ( see History of Antarctica ).

* January 30, 1820 – Edward Bransfield lands on the Antarctic mainland ( see History of Antarctica ).

There are also many abandoned scientific and military bases in Antarctica, especially in the Antarctic Peninsula.

South America was originally part of the supercontinent of Gondwana, which included Africa, Australia, India, New Zealand, and Antarctica, and the Neotropic shares many plant and animal lineages with these other continents, including Marsupial mammals and the Antarctic flora.

Tens of millions of years ago, continental plate movement formed a land-free gap around Antarctica, allowing formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current | ACC which keeps warm waters away from Antarctica.

A consortium, the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica ( EPICA ), has drilled at Dome C in the East Antarctic ice sheet and retrieved an ice core which dates to roughly 740, 000 years old.

For all ice shelfs see List of Antarctic ice shelves.

For all ice shelfs see List of Antarctic ice shelves.

Antarctic sea ice cycles seasonally, in February – March the amount of sea ice is lowest, and in August – September the sea ice is at its greatest extent.

Penguins on the dimly lit Antarctic ice ; ... a family of gorillas, the male beating his chest, ... an American grizzly bear standing on his hind legs, ten or twelve feet tall, and staring me right in the eye.

The total number of degree confluences is 64, 442, of which 21, 543 are on land, 38, 409 on water, and 4, 490 on the Antarctic and Arctic ice caps.

Probably the largest population lives in Antarctic waters, where they range up to the edge of the pack ice and are believed to venture into the denser pack ice, finding open leads much like beluga whales in the Arctic.

In 1969, the 10th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition found nine meteorites on a blue ice field near the Yamato Mountains.

On its journey from New Zealand to the Antarctic, Terra Nova was trapped in pack ice for 20 days, far longer than other ships had experienced, which meant a late-season arrival and less time for preparatory work before the Antarctic winter.

" Daily Telegraph columnist Jasper Rees, likening the changes in explorers ' reputations to climatic variations, suggests that " in the current Antarctic weather report, Scott is enjoying his first spell in the sun for twenty-five years ". The New York Times Book Review was more critical, pointing out Crane's support for Scott's discredited claims regarding the circumstances of the freeing of the Discovery from the pack ice, and concluded " For all the many attractions of his book, David Crane offers no answers that convincingly exonerate Scott from a significant share of responsibility for his own demise.

The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70 ° 30 ′ S off Alexander Island, west of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The Antarctic ice sheet, which contains 61 % of all fresh water on Earth, is visible at the bottom.

In the Antarctic two species occur as shallow as 33 meters under the ice.

On 17 January 1773 the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in history and the two ships reached by, where their course was stopped by ice.