Antarctica (南极洲) is the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent (大陆) on the planet. The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -94.7℃ in eastern Antarctica in 2010. The continent experiences regular Katabatic winds, reaching 300 km per hour. There is little rainfall and the air is very dry. Indeed, the Polar Plateau (极地高原) is regarded as a desert which experiences similar rainfall levels to the Sahara Desert.
It is the fifth-largest continent and is almost 1.5 times the size of the United States. Its coastline covers about 18,000 km. About 98% of the continent is covered in a thick continental ice sheet and the remaining 2% is rock.
Antarctica has six months of daylight followed by six months of darkness. It contains 70% of the planet's freshwater and 90% of the world's ice.
Strong winds and wild storms have been closely connected with Antarctica since its discovery and continue to be a main challenge for modern explorers. Most of the early diaries and tales of exploration of Antarctica are filled with stories of how the weather was man's biggest enemy on the continent. Nature's power is seldom seen as ferocious as it is in Antarctica, making it one of the most difficult places to live on Earth.
The first people to reach the South Pole were from the Norwegian-led expedition (探险队) of Roald Amundsen on December 14, 1911. One month later, Robert Scott's British expedition also reached 90 South but all members unluckily died on their return journey.
Before this, the thought over the existence of a "southern land" was not confirmed until the early 1820s. At this time, British and American business operators and British and Russian national expeditions began exploring the Antarctic Peninsula area and other areas south of the Antarctic Circle. In 1840, it was believed that Antarctica is indeed a continent and not just a group of islands.
