Scientific American Magazine

The lines of force in the earth's magnetic field bend down over the poles; hence the Antarctic is a key location for observing the interaction of the field and charged particles from the sun

By dissipating heat into the earth's heat budget space, the Arctic and Antarctic balance unlike the Arctic, the Antarctic seldom gives rise to sharp changes in temperature in the middle latitudes

The Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans meet in a distinct body of water that wheels around Antarctica. It absorbs heat from the other oceans and its cold bottom waters creep beyond the Equator

Some 2,500 miles across and an average of more than a mile thick, the Antarctic glacier is one of the major features of the earth's surface. Whether it is growing or shrinking is still undetermined

Because most of it lies below the ice, which in some places pushes it below sea level, it is explored by such methods as setting off explosions and analyzing the reflected and refracted seismic waves

The puzzle of Antarctic history is that ice now covers a land where forests once grew in a temperate climate. This suggests that the continents or the poles, or both, may have wandered

The waters around Antarctica, which support few species but large populations, are one of the richest biological provinces on earth. The key organism in the simple food chain is the shrimplike krill

It is as poor as the oceanic life is rich. There are no terrestrial vertebrates and only three flowering plants. The fauna is made up of tiny invertebrates; the flora, of such primitive plants as lichens