Why is Antarctica is called as the Icy continent?
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Antarctica is a desert. It does not rain or snow a lot there. When it snows, the snow does not melt and builds up over many years to make large, thick sheets of ice, called ice sheets.
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Due to its location at the South Pole, Antarctica receives relatively little solar radiation - even during the summer when there is sunlight 24 hours a day. This means it is never free of snow and ice. It is the world’s coldest place and an almost lifeless permanently frozen desert. The temperature in the winter is cold enough to freeze water all the time - summer and winter alike.
98% of Antarctica’s surface is covered in thick, compacted ice, reaching an average depth of over a mile. The continental ice sheet contains approximately 7 million cubic miles of ice, representing about 90 percent of the world’s total. When it snows, the snow does not melt and builds up over many years to make large, thick sheets of ice, called ice sheets. Antarctica is made up of lots of ice in the form of glaciers, ice shelves and icebergs.
During summer, Antarctica is on the side of Earth tilted toward the sun. It is always sunny, but still bitterly cold. Temperatures reach a minimum of between −80 °C and −89.2 °C in the interior in winter (and reach a maximum of between 5 °C and 15 °C near the coast in summer, though the summer temperature is below 0 °C (32 °F) most of the time.
Despite all this ice, Antarctica is classified as a desert, receiving only 2 inches of precipitation -in the form of snow - each year. (-89.2 ° C is the lowest temperature ever recorded anywhere on earth.)
The coast receives more precipitation about 8 inches, but that is still less than the 10 inches required to not be a desert.) Despite the low precipitation levels, it frequently appears that more snow is falling than really is. The ever-present winds - up to 200 mph - pick up snow that has already fallen and move it around from place to place, making the cold really intense.
98% of Antarctica’s surface is covered in thick, compacted ice, reaching an average depth of over a mile. The continental ice sheet contains approximately 7 million cubic miles of ice, representing about 90 percent of the world’s total. When it snows, the snow does not melt and builds up over many years to make large, thick sheets of ice, called ice sheets. Antarctica is made up of lots of ice in the form of glaciers, ice shelves and icebergs.
During summer, Antarctica is on the side of Earth tilted toward the sun. It is always sunny, but still bitterly cold. Temperatures reach a minimum of between −80 °C and −89.2 °C in the interior in winter (and reach a maximum of between 5 °C and 15 °C near the coast in summer, though the summer temperature is below 0 °C (32 °F) most of the time.
Despite all this ice, Antarctica is classified as a desert, receiving only 2 inches of precipitation -in the form of snow - each year. (-89.2 ° C is the lowest temperature ever recorded anywhere on earth.)
The coast receives more precipitation about 8 inches, but that is still less than the 10 inches required to not be a desert.) Despite the low precipitation levels, it frequently appears that more snow is falling than really is. The ever-present winds - up to 200 mph - pick up snow that has already fallen and move it around from place to place, making the cold really intense.
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