The Antarctic,a Desert of Ice All Year Round
The antarctic is actually a desert．It is the only continent on the earth without a river or a lake．
The antarctic is all ice all year round．The warmest temperature ever recorded there is zero,at the South Pole．Explorers used to think that a place so cold would have a heavy snow－fall．But less than ten inches of snow falls each year．That is less than half an inch of water．Ten times that much moisture falls in parts of the Sahara．
The little snow that falls in Antarctica never melts．It continues to pile up deeper and deeper year after year and century after century．When the snow gets to be about eighty feet deep it is turned to ice by the weight of the snow above it．
南極——終年冰封的不毛之地
南極地區(qū)實(shí)際上是一片不毛之地,它是地球上唯一沒有河流也沒有湖泊的大陸.
南極地區(qū)終年冰封.那兒歷史上的最高氣溫紀(jì)錄是零度,那還是在南極點(diǎn).探險(xiǎn)家們過去總認(rèn)為,如此寒冷的地方可能會有紛飛的大雪,但是,那兒每年的降雪卻不足10英寸厚,還沒有半英寸水多.撒哈拉沙漠一些地區(qū)的降雨量還是那兒的10倍呢!
降于南極洲的微量的雪從不融化,年復(fù)一年,一個(gè)世紀(jì)又一個(gè)世紀(jì)地越積越厚.當(dāng)積雪達(dá)80英尺的時(shí)候,受上層重壓的雪就會凝結(jié)成冰.