Life at the Extremes with Slider

Human beings didn’t lay eyes on Antarctica until 1820. Then it took another ninety years for someone to reach the South Pole.
^{‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’ in the Antarctic depiction of Ross expedition (John Wilson Carmichael, 1847).}

Only 2% of Antarctica is not covered in ice. These are the only inland places where anything lives—and there are some crazy things happening there!
^{Don Juan Pond in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (Colin Harris / Era Images).}

54 nations have agreed to share the continent peacefully. No military activity, only science and tourism.
^{Flags of the Antarctic Treaty nations around the ceremonial South Pole (Galen Rowell / Mountain Light).}

There’s an entire mountain range buried under ice. It’s about 750 miles long and the highest peaks rise nearly 15,000 above sea level, but the ice sheet completely covers it.
^{GPR image of the Gamburtsev Mountains buried deep under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (Lamont-Doherty / USAP).}

Months go by without a sunrise or sunset. The South Pole has six straight months of daylight or darkness.
^{Southern lights (Aurora australis) over Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (Patrick Cullis / USAP).}

There is no permanent human population on the continent. Our species only visits there. About 4,000 people stay there during summer; that number falls to 1,000 during winter.
^{McMurdo Station, the main U.S. research station in Antarctica, located in the Dry Valleys (Elaine Hood / USAP)}

70% of our planet’s freshwater sits frozen on top of this continent.
^{Antarctic Peninsula seen from the Gerlache Strait (Zee Evans / USAP).}