The similarities and differences between Antarctica and the North Pole

The North Pole generally refers to the area north of the Arctic Circle (66°33'N). It covers most of the Arctic Ocean, sea ice areas, islands, and the land within the Arctic Circle in Europe, Asia, North America, and Greenland, with a total area of ??approximately more than 22 million square kilometers. The land area is about 8 million square kilometers, and the Arctic Ocean area is about 14.7 million square kilometers.

Antarctica covers the oceans, islands and continents south of 60 degrees latitude, with a total area of ??about 52 million square kilometers. The total area of ??the ocean is about 38 million square kilometers, called the Southern Ocean or Antarctic Ocean. Antarctica covers an area of ??approximately 14 million square kilometers.

Not only are the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica similar in size, but what is even more strange is that the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica are also very similar in geographical form. Many geographical units can also correspond to the north and the south. For example, the deepest part of the Arctic Ocean has a water depth of 5,400 meters. The depressed part is located in the northeastern part of the Greenland Sea, and corresponds exactly to the most convex part of the Antarctic continent with an altitude of 5140 meters, Mount Vinson in Ellsworth Land, West Antarctica. The most significant difference in geography and landforms between the two poles is that the North Pole is the depressed part of the earth at its northernmost end, surrounded by continents on all sides and a nearly closed permanently frozen ocean, known as the white ocean or the Arctic Ocean. With an average water depth of about 1,225 meters, it is the smallest ocean with the shallowest average water depth among the four oceans in the world. Antarctica is the protruding part of the earth at its southernmost tip. It is a lonely continent surrounded by oceans. It is called the white continent or Antarctica. With an average altitude of 2,350 meters, it is the continent with the highest average altitude and the smallest area among the five continents in the world.

The North Pole and the South Pole of the Earth

2. Similarities and Differences in Climate

Since both the North and South Poles are located in high latitudes, there are many differences in climate and environment. They are similar in that they are the two major cold poles, cold poles, wind poles and ice poles in the world. They are also the two major cold sources, drivers and sensors that restrict and influence global changes, especially global climate change. However, there are obvious differences in environmental climate between the South and North Pole. The average annual temperature in the North Pole is about -10°C, and the extreme low temperature measured in the North Pole is -70°C. The annual average temperature in Antarctica is -25℃-30℃, and the lowest temperature recorded so far is -89.6℃ (on July 21, 1983 at Vostok Station (78°28'S, 106°) at Russia's Antarctic Inland Plateau Station. 48'E) measured). For this reason, the annual average temperature in the Arctic is 15°C-20°C higher than that in the Antarctic, and the lowest recorded temperature is also 20°C different. Generally speaking, Arctic winter is equivalent to Antarctic summer, while Antarctic winter is the coldest season and place in the world. Due to the high temperatures and high humidity in the Arctic Ocean during summer, the humid and foggy haze weather in summer is a major feature of the Arctic climate in the Arctic region, which often brings many problems to scientific expeditions, especially field operations of ships and aircraft. Trouble and danger. From July to September 1999, during China's first Arctic scientific expedition that the author participated in, nearly two-thirds of the haze weather occurred during the one and a half months of operations in the Arctic Ocean, which caused many problems to the expedition, especially to the helicopters and research ships. Difficult and dangerous.

Both the North and South Poles are world-famous snowstorm areas, with frequent and strong storms. In contrast, the intensity of Arctic storms is weak. Even in winter when snowstorms are intense, the average wind speed is only 10 meters/second. Storms in the Antarctic region are more fierce and frequent, with the annual average wind speed reaching 17-18 meters/second, the average winter wind speed reaching 25-30 meters/second, and the wind speed on the Antarctic inland plateau reaching 45-60 meters/second. Dumont, France, on the coast of East Antarctica. The strongest storm of 100 meters/second has been recorded at Deerville Station. Therefore, Antarctica is known as "the wind pole of the world" and "the home of storms."

Both poles are covered with ice and snow, storing more than 98% of the world's total ice and snow, and more than 80% of the world's total fresh water.

The ice and snow in the Arctic are mainly Greenland. The total ice and snow volume is about 3 million cubic kilometers, accounting for about 5.4% of the world's total ice volume. The frozen water volume is equal to about 9% of the world's total fresh water. If all this ice mass melts, global sea levels will rise by 7.5 meters.

The total ice volume of the Antarctic continent is approximately 24 million cubic kilometers, accounting for more than 90% of the world's total ice volume, and the frozen water volume is approximately equal to 72% of the world's total fresh water. If all this ice mass melts, global sea levels will rise by 66 meters. Therefore, Antarctica is known as "the icehouse of the earth" and "the continent of ice and snow".

3. Similarities and Differences in Resources

According to long-term scientific surveys, it has been preliminarily proven that the most significant differences in resource reserves between the South and North Pole are mineral resources, energy and marine life. The resources are very rich. Mineral resources are mainly coal and metal mineral resources. Energy is mainly oil and natural gas. Marine biological resources mainly include fish, whales and seals. The difference is that in terms of types of mineral resources, Antarctica is richer than the Arctic, with more than 220 types. The Hengduan Mountains in Antarctica have the world's largest coal fields, and the Prince Charles Mountains in East Antarctica have the "World Iron Mountain" with the largest reserves in the world. ". The difference in energy is that the energy in the Arctic is marine oil and natural gas resources, and its reserves are more abundant than those in the Antarctic. According to surveys, the Canadian Basin and Beaufort Sea alone have about 100 billion barrels of oil and 1 million trillion barrels of reserves. cubic meters of natural gas.

The main oil and gas rich areas are the northern coast of Alaska in North America, the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the Kara Sea and the shelf areas along the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. And it has already been developed and utilized by circum-Arctic countries. Antarctica's energy resources include both marine and terrestrial oil and natural gas resources. The prospect areas are the Ross Sea, Bellingshausen Sea, Weddell Sea, Prydz Sea and the West Antarctic Continent. To this day, they have not been fully investigated. Not even exploited. The difference in marine biological resources is that the Arctic has richer fishery resources than the Antarctic. The main fish species are Arctic salmon (Salvelinus Alpinus) and Arctic cod (Boreogadus). They have been developed and utilized by people in the early stage. The Barents Sea, Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea are among the world's famous fishing grounds, accounting for about 8-10% of the world's fishing volume in recent years. There is a huge amount of protein resources in the Southern Ocean - Antarctic krill, which is distributed in the Southern Ocean area around the Antarctic continent, and the enrichment area is mainly in the Atlantic area of ??the Southern Ocean. According to the "Southern Ocean Biological Resources Reserve Survey" organized by the International Southern Ocean Biological Resources Commission, it is estimated that its reserves reach 1.0-1.5 billion tons, and 10% of its reserves can be reasonably developed and utilized by humans. At present, Russia, Japan, Poland, Norway and other countries have taken the lead in primary commercial fishing of Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean. Among them, Russia has the largest annual catch, about 500,000 tons per year.

·Arctic Giant - Polar Bear

·King of Antarctic Birds - Emperor Penguin

4. Ecological Similarities and Differences

Overall It is said that the unique characteristics of the biological and ecological systems of the Antarctic and Antarctic are: low temperature, high cold, scarce sunshine, low precipitation, and large amounts of snowmelt. It has the characteristics of diversity of biological species, vulnerability of biological and food chains, short biological growth cycle and long life cycle.

The main differences are:

1. About 10,000 years ago, there were early Eskimo ancestors living in the Arctic. They were the real masters and Permanent residents. There are still no permanent residents in Antarctica.

2. The plants in the Arctic region have a wide distribution area, many species, lush vegetation, and higher flowers and plants. In Antarctica, there are only lichens and mosses of lower plants, and their distribution area is very limited. They are only distributed on the islands, reefs and wetlands along the coast of the Antarctic continent.

3. There are many animal species in the Arctic, including terrestrial, marine and many kinds of birds; there are herbivores (Arctic hare, reindeer, musk ox, etc.), carnivores (polar bears, Arctic wolves, arctic foxes, etc.). The most representative animal is the polar bear, the giant of the Arctic. The species and number of animals in the Antarctic region are inferior to those in the Arctic. It has no herbivores, no real land animals. The most representative animal is the penguin, a symbol of ice and snow.

Although the climate and ecological environment of the South and North Poles of the earth are roughly similar, according to the evolution of the ecological environment and the natural laws of biological species evolution, polar bears cannot travel far across the ocean to visit Antarctica, and penguins cannot travel across the ocean. Visit across the sea to the North Pole.

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