Top 10 Antarc­tic facts

A fizz. When a piece of iceberg ice melts, it makes a fizzing sound called "Bergie Seltzer". This sound is made when the water-ice interface reaches compressed air bubbles trapped in the ice. As this happens, each bubble bursts, making a 'popping' sound. The bubbles contain air trapped in snow layers very early in the history of the ice, that eventually got buried to a given depth (up to several kilometers) and pressurized as it transformed into firn then to glacial ice.

In Iceland. All penguins are native to the Southern Hemisphere, but they are not found only in cold climates. Several species are found in the temperate zone of South Africa and South America. The Galápagos Penguin (pictured) lives near the equator. Fossils show that many prehistoric species lived in warm climates.

In Antarctica. With a salinity level of over 40%, Don Juan Pond is the saltiest of the Antarctic lakes. This salinity allows the pond to remain liquid even at temperatures as low as −50 °C (−58 °F) due to the interference of salts with the bonding of water molecules. Don Juan Pond was discovered in 1961 by George H. Meyer.

To avoid being buried in snow. All structures at the South Pole cause wind-blown snow to build up in the surrounding area (about four feet of snow per year). The station building has sloping lower portion of wall, which causes the snow to be scoured away.

Norwegian queen. Queen Maud Land was the first part of Antarctica to be sighted. The name was initially applied in January 1930 to the land discovered by Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen and Finn Lützow-Holm during Norvegia expedition of 1929–30. It was named after the Norwegian Queen Maud of Wales, wife of the then-reigning King Haakon VII.

Neither east, west, nor south. At the South Pole every direction is north.

Ross Ice Shelf. The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica and covers an area of about 520,000 km2, nearly the size of France. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 kilometres long, and between 15 and 50 metres high above the water surface. Ninety percent of the floating ice, however, is below the water surface.

In Antarctica. Mount Vinson is the highest peak in Antarctica, at 4,892 metres. It lies in the north part of Vinson Massif’s summit plateau in the south portion of the main ridge of the Sentinel Range about 2 kilometres north of Hollister Peak.

In Antarctica. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (or simply IceCube) is a neutrino observatory constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Its thousands of sensors are located under the Antarctic ice, distributed over a cubic kilometre. In November 2013 it was announced that IceCube had detected 28 neutrinos that likely originated outside the Solar System.

About 90% of terrestrial ice is found in Antarctica.