We all know that there are five oceans and seven continents on Earth. Among them, one of the seven continents has a harsh environment, and humans cannot survive on it at all, and it is also the last continent discovered by humans on earth after the six continents, so it is called the seventh continent.
The Antarctic continent has an area of 12.39 million square kilometers, the total area of the continent and its surrounding islands is about 14 million square kilometers, accounting for 1/10 of the total land area of the Earth, and the average elevation of the Antarctic continent is 2350 meters, which is 1400 meters higher than the average altitude of the second highest continent on earth. Due to the high altitude, thin air, and reflection of solar energy on the surface of ice and snow, the Antarctic continent is the coldest region in the world, with an average temperature of 20 degrees lower than that of the Arctic. The average annual temperature on the Antarctic continent is minus 25 degrees. The Southeast Polar Plateau region is the coldest, with an average annual temperature as low as minus 56 degrees. According to satellite data from the University of Colorado's National Ice and Snow Data Center, nearly 100 observation points had minus 98 degrees Celsius as of 2016.
The 100-meter-per-second hurricane observed by the French Antarctic Research Station is the largest wind speed recorded in the world to date. Scientists have found 138 volcanoes in Antarctica hiding under huge ice sheets, mostly about two kilometers below the ice, including two active volcanoes. The Antarctic Volcanic Belt is the largest on Earth.
More than 95% of the Antarctic continent is covered by huge glaciers, which are made up of very pure fresh water and contain about 72% of the world's freshwater. Antarctica also contains rich mineral resources, up to more than 220 species, the Antarctic oil reserves of about 500 to 100 billion barrels, natural gas reserves of about 30,000 to 500 billion cubic meters.
In 1996, Russian and British scientists confirmed the existence of an underground lake beneath the huge ice, which covers an area of 15,000 square kilometers and is hidden under a huge layer of ice 3,623 meters thick, with temperatures near minus 89 degrees Celsius. The freshwater lake remains liquid all year round, the concentration of nitrogen and oxygen on the lake surface is 50 times higher than normal, in such a harsh environment, it was found that a bacterium was found, scientists named it W123-10, this organism's DNA is only 86% the same as other organisms on Earth.
In 1996, paleontologists found many dinosaur fossils and bird fossils, including Morro dragons, in the Seymour Island formation on the Antarctic Peninsula, in addition to many marine life fossils. In 1935, during a geological expedition, American pilot Lincoln Elsworth discovered a structure suspected of being a pyramid near the Shackleton Mountains in Antarctica, which looked a lot like the Pyramid of Khufu from satellite maps.
There are still many unknown secrets on the Antarctic continent, however, with the development of society and the advancement of science and technology, the Antarctic continent has gradually unveiled its mysterious veil, from an unreachable mysterious area to an ice and snow polar region for adventure and tourism, but the cost of tourism to Antarctica is quite a lot, as little as 100,000 yuan, as much as hundreds of thousands of yuan. However, only by personally landing on the Antarctic continent can you appreciate its mysterious beauty.