MALE NARRATOR: This is Earth.
Maybe you've heard of it?
I sure hope so,
because you live
on one of its seven
continents!
This one is the coldest,
the windiest,
and the driest.
You better buddle up,
because we're headed
to Antarctica.
It's the fifth
largest continent,
and it's full of snow and ice.
Antarctica is also the world's
biggest desert.
Deserts aren't just
hot sand and sun.
Any climate that has
little to no precipitation,
better known as rain,
is considered a desert.
For example, the famous
Sahara Desert in Africa
gets about 3 inches
of rain a year,
while Antarctica averages
just 2 inches.
Instead of the rain
soaking into the ground,
artic rain turns into snow
and piles up.
Winter temperatures can drop
to between 14
and negative 22 degrees.
But don't worry, summer
temperatures can warm up
to highs around
32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Thousands of tourists
travel to Antarctica
every year to see amazing
animals and more.
Let's start with
the Antarctic ice sheet.
It's massive,
the largest single piece
of ice in the world,
covering more than
5 million square miles.
(upbeat music)
Rising above the ice
is the southernmost
active volcano in the world,
Mount Erebus.
Swirling inside the volcano
is one of the world's only
molten lakes made of lava.
Antarctica
is a cold and icy place,
making it the perfect home
for wildlife.
Vegetation like
lichen, moss, and algae
have adapted
to life above the ice,
along with a few different
types of seabirds,
including one of the most
popular in Antarctica,
the penguin.
And below the ice
are some of the most amazing
and diverse marine wildlife
on the planet,
including seals, octopus,
and whales,
making Antarctica
one of the best places
for scientific research.
Dozens of countries
from around the world
have set up their own
research stations here,
studying everything
from climate change
to meteors from outer space.
It's the harshest environment
on the planet,
cold, dry, and barren,
but scientists and explorers
have been braving
this continent
since the early 1900s,
and there's still
more to discover
under the ice and snow
of Antarctica.
Captioned by Captionmax
