Antarctica is a large land mass buried under a vast ice cap up to 6.5 miles (4 km) thick in places. Antarctica’s total area is approximately 7 million square miles in summer, but doubles in size in the winter due to the large amount of sea ice, which forms its periphery. In winter, the sea ice around Antarctica grows at the rate of 40,000 square miles a day! The weight of this ice cap is so heavy that much of the ground below is pressed down below sea-level! The polar ice cap around the South Pole advances about 33 feet annually!
Antarctica is the fifth largest of the earth’s seven continents. It surrounds the South Pole and is circular in shape with a long arm, the Antarctic Peninsula, reaching out toward South America.