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ANTARCTIC

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 961 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANTARCTIC  REGION See also:

History of Antarctic Exploration.—Although the Antarctic region was not reached by the first explorer until the See also:Arctic region had been for centuries a resort of adventurers in See also:search of the route to the See also:East, the See also:discovery of Lae "See also:South See also:Land . " the south polar region was really the more See also:direct outcome of the See also:main stream of See also:geographical exploration . It was See also:early understood by the See also:Greek geographers that the known See also:world covered only a small portion of the See also:northern hemisphere and that the whole See also:southern hemisphere awaited exploration, with its torrid, temperate and frigid zones repeating the See also:climatic regions See also:familiar in the northern hemisphere, the habitable land of the south temperate See also:zone being separated from the known world by the practically impassable See also:belt of the torrid zone . During the See also:middle ages the sphericity of the See also:earth came to be viewed as contrary to Scripture and was generally discredited, and it was not until See also:Prince See also:Henry the Navigator began in 1418 to encourage the penetration of the torrid zone in the effort to reach See also:India by circumnavigating See also:Africa that the exploration of the southern hemisphere began . The doubling of the Cape of See also:Good See also:Hope in 1487 by See also:Bartholomew See also:Diaz first brought explorers within See also:touch ever died a harder See also:death . It is not to the purpose here to describe of the Antarctic See also:cold, and proved that the ocean separated Africa in detail how Schouten and Le Maire rediscovered the southern from any Antarctic land that might exist . The passage of extremity of Tierra del Fuego and named Cape See also:Horn in 1615, See also:Magellan's Strait in 1520 showed that See also:America and See also:Asia also how Quiros in 1606 took See also:possession for the See also:king of See also:Spain of all the were separated from the Antarctic See also:continent, which was then lands he had discovered in See also:Australia del Espiritu Santo (the New believed to extend from Tierra del Fuego southward . The See also:Hebrides) and those he would discover " even to the See also:Pole," or -doubling of Cape Horn by See also:Drake in 1578 proved that the Tierra how See also:Tasman in 1642 showed that New See also:Holland (Australia) was del Fuego See also:archipelago was of small extent and that any continent separated by See also:sea from any continuous southern continent . which See also:lay to the south must be within the region of perpetual See also:winter . Before this, however, vague reports of land to the south of the See also:Malay archipelago had led See also:European geographers to connect on their globes the See also:coast of Tierra del Fuego with the coast of New See also:Guinea, and allowing their imaginations to run See also:riot in the vast unknown spaces of the south See also:Atlantic, south See also:Indian and Pacific oceans, they sketched the outlines of a vast continent stretching in parts into the tropics .

End of Article: ANTARCTIC
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Additional information and Comments

Antarctica is not just all ice...there is a layer of earth underneath of the ice. Antarctica has been frozen for so many years and been covered in ice so long that the ground underneath the snow and ice is frozen solid, even in the summer time. The affect that this has is that it makes it hard for the plants and flowers to grow even in the summer. The Antarctic region has only two seasons, a summer season, and a winter season. During the winter season, It is night time the whole time it is winter, and in the summer time, it is day time all the time for the whole season of summer. The season of winter in Antarctica last for six months, and the season of summer in Antarctica is also a period of six months long. The penguins live in the Antarctic, also the Arctic tern migrates to both the Antarctic region and the Arctic region when it starts to turn summer.
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