Antarctic

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For the ship, see Antarctic (ship).
Not to be confused with Antarctica.

The Antarctic region with the Antarctic Convergence and the 60th parallel south

The Antarctic (without its periphery, a composite satellite image)

The Antarctic Plate

Anthony de la Roché's and other early voyages in the Southern Ocean

The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, the geographic South Pole is signposted in the background

Moubray Bay and Mount Herschel, Eastern Antarctica

 Grytviken Museum in South Georgia

The Antarctic (US English /æntˈɑːrktɪk/, UK English /ænˈtɑːrktɪk/ or /æntˈɑːrtɪk/ and /æn
ˈtɑːrtɪk/ or /ænˈɑːrtɪk/)[Note 1] is a polar region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region
around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the island territories
located on the Antarctic Plate. The Antarctic region include the ice shelves, waters,
and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence, a zone
approximately 32 to 48 km (20 to 30 mi) wide varying in latitude seasonally.[4] The region covers
some 20 percent of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5 percent (14 million km2) is the surface
area of the Antarctic continent itself. All of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude are
administered under the Antarctic Treaty System. Biogeographically, the Antarctic ecozone is one of
eight ecozones of the Earth's land surface.

Contents

 1Geography

 2Wildlife

 3People

 4Conservation

 5Time zones

 6Offshore Islands

 7See also

 8Notes

 9References

 10Further reading

 11External links

Geography[edit]
The maritime part of the region constitutes the area of application of the international Convention for
the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), where for technical reasons the
Convention uses an approximation of the Convergence line by means of a line joining specified
points along parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude.[5] The implementation of the Convention
is managed through an international Commission headquartered in Hobart, Australia, by an efficient
system of annual fishing quotas, licenses and international inspectors on the fishing vessels, as well
as satellite surveillance.
Most of the Antarctic region is situated south of 60°S latitude parallel, and is governed in accordance
with the international legal regime of the Antarctic Treaty System.[6] The Treaty area covers the
continent itself and its immediately adjacent islands, as well as the archipelagos of the South Orkney
Islands, South Shetland Islands, Peter I Island, Scott Island and Balleny Islands.
The islands situated between 60°S latitude parallel to the south and the Antarctic Convergence to
the north, and their respective 200-nautical-mile (370 km) exclusive economic zones fall under the
national jurisdiction of the countries that possess them: South Georgia and the South Sandwich
Islands (United Kingdom; also an EU Overseas territory), Bouvet Island (Norway), and Heard and
McDonald Islands (Australia).
Kerguelen Islands (France; also an EU Overseas territory) are situated in the Antarctic Convergence
area, while the Falkland Islands, Isla de los Estados, Hornos Island with Cape Horn, Diego Ramírez
Islands, Campbell Island, Macquarie Island, Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands, Crozet
Islands, Prince Edward Islands, and Gough Island and Tristan da Cunha group remain north of the
Convergence and thus outside the Antarctic region.

Wildlife[edit]
See also: Antarctic ecozone, Antarctic microorganism, and Wildlife of Antarctica
A variety of animals live in Antarctica for at least some of the year, including: [7][8]

 Seals

 Penguins

 South Georgia pipits

 Albatrosses

 Antarctic petrels

 Whales

 Fish, such as Antarctic icefish, Antarctic toothfish

 Squid, including the colossal squid

 Antarctic krill
Most of the Antarctic continent is permanently covered by ice and snow, leaving less than 1 percent
of the land exposed. There are only two species of flowering plant, Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic
pearlwort, but a range of mosses, liverworts, lichens and macrofungi.[9]

People[edit]
The first Antarctic land discovered was the island of South Georgia, visited by
the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675. Although myths and speculation about a Terra
Australis ("Southern Land") date back to antiquity, the first confirmed sighting of the continent
of Antarctica is commonly accepted to have occurred in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian
Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny. The first human born in the
Antarctic was Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen born on 8 October 1913 in Grytviken, South Georgia.
The Antarctic region had no indigenous population when first discovered, and its present inhabitants
comprise a few thousand transient scientific and other personnel working on tours of duty at the
several dozen research stations maintained by various countries. However, the region is visited by
more than 40,000[10] tourists annually, the most popular destinations being the Antarctic
Peninsula area (especially the South Shetland Islands) and South Georgia Island.
In December 2009, the growth of tourism, with consequences for both the ecology and the safety of
the travellers in its great and remote wilderness, was noted at a conference in New Zealand by
experts from signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. The definitive results of the conference was
presented at the Antarctic Treaty states' meeting in Uruguay in May 2010. [11]

Conservation[edit]
The Antarctic hosts the world's largest protected area comprising 1.07 million km2, the South Georgia
and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protection Area created in 2012. [12] The latter exceeds the
surface area of another vast protected territory, the Greenland National Park’s 972,000 km2.[13] (While
the Ross Sea Marine Protection Area established in 2016 is still larger at 1.55 million km2,[14] its
protection is set to expire in 35 years.[15])

Time zones[edit]
Main article: Time in Antarctica
Because Antarctica surrounds the South Pole, it is theoretically located in all time zones. For
practical purposes, time zones are usually based on territorial claims or the time zone of a station's
owner country or supply base.

Offshore Islands[edit]
 South Georgia Islands

 Shag Rocks

 South Sandwich Islands

 Bouvet Island

 Kerguelen Islands

 Heard Island

 McDonald Islands

 Balleny Islands

 Scott Island

 Peter I Island

 South Shetland Islands

 South Orkney Islands

See also[edit]
 Antarctic Circle

 History of Antarctica

 Women in Antarctica