Antarctica: Ice, Secrets, and Sea Levels (with music)

Antarctica looks like a frozen wasteland, but it’s one of the most extreme and misunderstood

places on Earth. It’s the southernmost continent, centered on the South Pole,

and completely surrounded by the Southern Ocean. Beneath the ice, Antarctica is actually

a continent of mountains, valleys, and deep basins. Its ice sheet averages over a mile thick

and holds about 60 percent of the world’s fresh water. The Transantarctic Mountains split

the continent in two — East Antarctica and West Antarctica. Humans didn’t reach Antarctica until

the 1800s, and the South Pole wasn’t reached until 1911. Despite no permanent

residents, dozens of countries now operate research stations here. If the ice vanished,