Chilling in Antarctica Trivia Quiz

Answer: Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean is the second-smallest of the five world oceans and fully surrounds Antarctica. It is the youngest of the oceans and was formed around thirty million years ago when South America and Antarctica drifted from one another forming the Drake Passage.

Whilst these waters can be extremely cold, some large marine animals such as blue whales, Antarctic fur seals and colossal squids have been able to thrive here. The word 'Antarctica' itself actually comes from antarktikos, the Greek for 'opposite to the north'.

Answer: -60°C - much colder than freezing!

In 1983, the lowest ground temperature to that point of -89.2°C was logged at the Vostok Station. This is comparable to extreme temperatures of around -27°C in the British Isles, which are very rare cases - it's hard for us to imagine how cold it gets in Antarctica! Those who explore Antarctica must wear many light and warm layers, keep active, eat and drink well, and be prepared for wind chill from savage storms.

Answer: Polar Desert

We often associate deserts with dry sandy regions like the Sahara (a hot desert), but we can also find deserts in the polar regions as well. A core feature of a desert is that it has an annual rainfall of fewer than ten inches. Antarctica is a very dry region averaging around 6.5 inches of rain and snow a year, most of this in coastal regions. One of the largest reasons it is so dry is that such cold air holds very little water vapour to rain down.

Answer: Largest tourism industry

Antarctica is far too harsh for many people to have ever lived there, with just a few thousand locals in 2016 largely made up of researchers. Furious katabatic (downslope) winds flow all over the continent at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, and Antarctica on average is at below freezing temperatures all year round.

While many millions of people went on holiday to places like London or New York in 2009-10, only around 37,000 were able to experience Antarctica - it's just not an easy place to visit.

Answer: true

To get a sense of scale, Antarctica is around 14,200,000 square kilometres large compared with Australia's 8,600,000. Its size varies a lot with the seasons -- during its winter it is surrounded by much more ice than in the summer. In the winter, parts of Antarctica can be in total darkness for several months at a time, not getting any heat from the sunl at all.

When it is sunny, the reflectiveness of the ice (known as albedo), the high up position of Antarctica and its large surface area keep it from warming up as much as the Arctic Ocean which gets a similar amount of sunlight.

Answer: Emperor Penguin

Emperor penguins are one of the iconic animals of Antarctica. Adults are around four feet tall and their diet is mostly made up of fish, squid and krill (very small shrimp-like creatures). They breed during the bitter colds of an Antarctic winter on sea ice, and the males huddle together over these eggs for several months without food.

After around 115 days, the chick will be hatched, and the females will return to relieve the males and give them time to feed and restore their huge amount of lost body weight.

Answer: Vinson Massif

Carl Vinson, who lends his name to this 4897 meters tall mountain, was an American politician who had served his country for over fifty years in the House of Representatives. Whilst he did not personally visit the peak, an American expedition first climbed it in 1966.

It was later named after him in 2006 due to his support of Antarctic exploration. Its height is comparable to France's Mont Blanc at 4,810 meters tall, which is appropriate since 'massif' comes from the French for 'massive'.

Answer: World's longest river

James Clark Ross was a British explorer who originally found the North Magnetic Pole and wanted to find the South Magnetic Pole too. In his expedition in 1839-43, he discovered what would later be named the Ross Island, Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf as a tribute to his efforts. It was the ice shelf - the largest in Antarctica - which stopped him from reaching the South Pole at that time.

The longest river in the world is the Nile, which runs through several countries in Africa and is 6,650 kilometers long.

Answer: True

This race was an exciting and yet tragic proof of the strength of humanity. Roald Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer who first wanted to visit the North Pole but changed his mind once he heard Robert Peary had gotten there first. He did eventually visit the North Pole in the Norge airship in 1926, two years before he went missing in 1928 in a rescue mission. Meanwhile, Robert Falcon Scott was an English Navy officer who had visited the Antarctic region before in his Discovery Expedition of 1901-4.

He reached the South Pole just 35 days after Amundsen. Sadly, his crew of five did not survive the vicious Antarctic storms on their return journey.

Answer: Fresh water

Around 90% of the world's ice is to be found in Antarctica, and 70% of the world's fresh water within that ice. Fresh water is an extremely precious resource - it is no secret that many of the world's most known cities like Paris, London and Rome were built around rivers which carried drinkable water. Salt water from the oceans makes us thirsty and the salt must be removed before we can drink it. However, we would not want to take our fresh water from Antarctica - if all of Antarctica were to melt, the global sea levels would rise around sixty meters, and Antarctica has already been slowly melting for many years.

Note: Regarding the last sentence, daver852 noted a study that showed an increase in the Antarctic sea ice levels hitting record levels between 2012-4. The issue overall seems complex, with the scientific consensus being that the Antarctic is still generally in a high risk place; even Jay Zwally who observed these increases in the Antarctic ice sheet and growth in East Antarctica conceded that the significant decline in Western Antarctica's mass would eventually outweigh these gains.