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Poles Apart
Factfile |
 Poles apart - Antarctica and the Arctic |
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Size
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest ocean in the world, covering an area of 14,090,000 million square kilometres. Of this, an area the size of Canada - 10,000,000 million square kilometres is permanently frozen. Because the North Pole is located on drifting sea ice, each expedition has to place their own marker in the ground if they want to prove they have been there. This doesn't stay in the ice forever - it will move away and disappear into the ice! If you look south on our map, you will see land known as the tundra. This treeless region is transformed in the summer from a landscape of ice, to an area with grasses, mosses and litchens attracting wildlife from shorebirds to reindeer.
Antarctica is the 5th largest continent in the world, covering over 14 million square kilometres in summer - which is an area about twice the size of Australia. However, in winter Antarctica appears to double in size as over half of the surrounding Southern Ocean freezes solid, forming pack ice which covers an area of over 20 million square kilometres - an area twice the size of Europe.
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