The world’s coldest continent. The stormiest. The driest. The least populated. That’s Antarctica. The name Antarctica comes from the Greek word Αntarktiké, meaning "opposite of the Arctic". Larger than Europe and located closest to South America, Antarctica is the snow-swept continent “at the bottom of the world”.

The first confirmed sighting of this vast continent took place only in 1820. Even then, due to its hostile environment and lack of infrastructure and resources, Antarctica remained largely isolated and neglected until the 20th century.

Antarctica, the Earth's southernmost continent, overlays the South Pole. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, it is surrounded by the Southern Ocean and up to 98% is covered by an average 1.6 km thick coating of ice. Measuring 14.4 million km² in area, it is the world’s fifth largest continent.

Although the geology of Antarctica is difficult to study because the continent is permanently covered with a thick layer of ice, new techniques, such as remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and satellite imagery, have begun to reveal the structures beneath the ice. These technologies have revealed that West Antarctica geologically resembles the Andes mountain range of South America while East Antarctica is geologically varied, dating from the Precambrian era, with parts formed more than three billion years ago.

There are virtually no permanent human residents nor any evidence of existing or pre-historic indigenous populations. Only the few animals and plants (e.g. penguins, fur seals, mosses, lichen and algae) that are adapted to the extreme cold survive there. In terms of natural resources, besides coal and iron ore, Antarctica’s most valuable resources lie offshore in the form of oil and natural gas fields found in the Ross Sea in 1973. However, their exploitation is banned until 2048 by the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (see next page).