On our Earth, there are two polar regions: the Arctic (from the Greek Arktikos) located in the North and the Antarctic (from the Greek Antarktikos) located in the South. Beyond their names, how can we distinguish between the two when both are among the harshest places on the planet?
These two regions have many opposing features. The Arctic is essentially an ocean surrounded by land, while the Antarctic is a continent surrounded by oceans. In terms of endemic wildlife, the Arctic is home to polar bears but has no penguins, while the Antarctic has penguins but no polar bears.
The Arctic
The Arctic consists of a vast, icy ocean surrounded by permafrost and land where vegetation struggles to thrive. Standing at the North Pole, regardless of the direction you look, it is always south. The North Pole is situated in the middle of the ocean, covered by thick, constantly shifting ice. If you accidentally fall into the water, you could be frozen and sink to depths of up to 4,000 meters.
On the water’s surface, the average winter temperature can drop below -40 degrees Celsius, with the coldest recorded temperature around -68 degrees Celsius. Despite these harsh conditions, humans have inhabited the Arctic for thousands of years. Besides humans, the Arctic ecosystem includes organisms that live on ice, plankton, fish, birds, marine mammals, terrestrial animals, and plants.
The Antarctic
The Antarctic is the continent located at the southernmost part of the Earth. It is the fifth largest continent in the world, covering more than 14,000,000 km2, nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of the Antarctic is covered by thick ice, at least 1,600 meters deep, making its living conditions the most extreme on the planet.
The Antarctic holds many records, including being the coldest, windiest, driest, and having the highest average elevation above sea level of all continents. Despite snowfall throughout the day, Antarctica is very dry, considered a desert with an average annual precipitation of only 200 mm along the coast, and much less further inland.
Temperatures in the Antarctic can drop to -89 degrees Celsius. Due to its extreme conditions, it has no permanent residents, with only about 1,000 to 5,000 people living at research stations scattered across the continent. Even animal and plant life is very rare; only species adapted to the cold can survive, including certain algae, protozoa, bacteria, fungi, and a few animal and plant species.
Why is the Antarctic Colder than the Arctic?
There are several reasons to explain this phenomenon:
First, do you know why there is often snow on mountain tops? It is because temperature decreases with altitude, which also explains why the Antarctic is so cold. Most of this continent is over 3,000 meters above sea level.
Second, remember that the Arctic is actually a frozen ocean, and water retains heat better than land. The warmer water in the ocean transmits heat through the ice layer, preventing the temperature in the Arctic from reaching the extreme lows found on the land surface of the Antarctic.
Third, the seasons work against the Antarctic. Around July, when the Earth is farthest from the Sun, the Northern Hemisphere faces the Sun and is warmer, while the Southern Hemisphere turns away, causing the cold to intensify. This is winter in Antarctica, making the southern pole twice as cold.
Although they are uninhabitable, the North and South Poles have positive impacts on Earth in their own ways. Both polar regions serve as critical “centers” for regulating the climate of our planet, helping to stabilize temperatures and providing us with a stable climate. As Arctic ice diminishes due to climate change, the climate on Earth becomes increasingly unstable.
In both the Arctic and Antarctic, ice coverage varies throughout the year, increasing during the long dark winters and melting during the hot summers. Most of the fluctuations in ice coverage in both regions are due to drifting sea ice, which expands and melts. Because the Arctic is almost entirely surrounded by land, the sea ice there does not move as much as the sea ice in the Antarctic. Due to its greater potential for convergence, Arctic sea ice is typically thicker, averaging 2-3 meters compared to Antarctic sea ice, which averages 1-2 meters, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
On average, Arctic sea ice reaches a minimum extent of about 6.5 million km2 and a maximum extent of 15.6 million km2, according to the NSIDC. In comparison, Antarctic sea ice has a minimum extent of less than 3.1 million km2 and a maximum extent of 18.8 million km2. However, the Antarctic contains a larger total volume of ice than the Arctic, including both land ice and sea ice. The Antarctic ice shelf is up to 4.8 kilometers thick and covers about 13.7 million km2. In total, Antarctica holds about 90% of the world’s ice.
