What is unusual about Antarctica?
The three basic colors of this ice-covered continent are black, blue and white. The continent changes size! During the summer months (December – February) Antarctica is approximately the size of the United States and Mexico. In its winter months (June – August) freezing seawater (sea ice) doubles the area of the continent. It is the driest of all the continents, however it is covered by seventy percent of the world’s fresh water. Snow has accumulated over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years and compressed under its own weight to form two massive ice sheets. At its deepest point, the ice sheet is over four and a half kilometers deep. The weight of Antarctica’s ice is so enormous that it has literally pressed the continent two thirds of a mile (one kilometer) into the earth. Under the massive forces of their own weight, the ice sheets deform and drag themselves outward. Very large glaciers called ice streams flow through them continually, transporting ice from the center of t
