Antarctic Rant, Er, Facts

1. The Antarctic is a continent. It’s quite large. At 90 South is just one of several U.S. Antarctic research stations, the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station managed by Raytheon Polar Services and funded by the National Science Foundation. Others are McMurdo and Palmer Station on the Palmer peninsula.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen-Scott_South_Pole_Station

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station

It takes FOUR hours to fly from the Antarctic coast, McMurdo, where there’s water, to the South Pole in a C-130. When you get off the plane, you’re standing on roughly 7,500 feet of ice. Combined with the typical low pressure, the effective altitude runs about 10,000 ft. ASL.

2. There are NO polar bears in the Antarctic. Zero.

3. There is NO liquid water at the South Pole. Except in the research station!

4. There are NO penguins in the Arctic. Zero.

5. There are NO penguins at the South Pole. They tend to stay relatively near the Antarctic coasts.

6. Parts of the Antarctic are technically a desert climate. High elevation, thin dry air.

7. See Number 4.

8. See Number 2.

9. The South Pole has the same *local time* as McMurdo, which is the same as Christchurch, New Zealand. This makes the flight schedule simpler from Christchurch to McMurdo to South Pole.

10. You can indeed travel East (or West) from the South Pole, 90S, but you’ll have to e-mail me to find out how to do it.