Quiz on Antarctica

Which animal is most famously associated with Antarctica?

• Polar bear
• Penguin ✓ (Correct answer)
• Arctic fox
• Reindeer

Source: Polar bears live only in the Arctic — penguins and polar bears never meet in the wild.

Most of Antarctica is permanently covered by what?

• Volcanic rock
• Ice sheet ✓ (Correct answer)
• Frozen lakes
• Tundra grass

Source: Antarctica's ice sheet holds about 70% of the world's fresh water, locked away from the sea.

Which geographic point is located in Antarctica?

• Magnetic north
• North Pole
• South Pole ✓ (Correct answer)
• Equator

Source: Stand at the South Pole and every direction you face is north.

Antarctica is the coldest continent and also holds which other extreme title?

• Driest continent ✓ (Correct answer)
• Smallest continent
• Most populated
• Lowest elevation

Source: Despite all that ice, Antarctica is technically a desert — its interior gets less precipitation than the Sahara.

Which ocean surrounds the continent of Antarctica?

• Indian Ocean
• Pacific Ocean
• Southern Ocean ✓ (Correct answer)
• Atlantic Ocean

Source: The Southern Ocean was officially recognized as the world's fifth ocean by mapmakers only in recent decades.

During which months does Antarctica experience its summer?

• June to August
• December to February ✓ (Correct answer)
• March to May
• September to November

Source: Being in the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica's warmest days fall around Christmas.

What governs human activity across the entire Antarctic continent?

• United Nations charter
• Antarctic Treaty ✓ (Correct answer)
• Law of the country nearest
• No rules at all

Source: Signed in 1959, the Antarctic Treaty set aside the continent for peace and science, banning all military activity.

Roughly how many people permanently call Antarctica home?

• About 5,000
• None at all ✓ (Correct answer)
• About 50,000
• About 200

Source: Only temporary researchers live there — Antarctica is the sole continent with no permanent human residents.

Which activity is banned across Antarctica by international agreement?

• Scientific drilling
• Mining for minerals ✓ (Correct answer)
• Weather monitoring
• Wildlife observation

Source: A 1991 protocol froze all mineral mining, protecting the continent as a natural reserve devoted to science.

What is the largest land animal that lives year-round on Antarctica?

• Emperor penguin
• Wingless midge ✓ (Correct answer)
• Weddell seal
• Snow petrel

Source: Seals and penguins feed at sea — the biggest fully land-dwelling creature is a tiny wingless insect a few millimeters long.

Which feature of the sky is commonly seen over Antarctica?

• Northern Lights
• Southern Lights ✓ (Correct answer)
• Permanent rainbows
• Green flash storms

Source: The aurora australis paints the polar sky in glowing curtains — the southern twin of the famous northern lights.

Which explorer's team was first to reach the geographic South Pole?

• Robert Scott
• Ernest Shackleton
• Roald Amundsen ✓ (Correct answer)
• Richard Byrd

Source: Amundsen beat Scott to the Pole in 1911 by weeks — Scott's team reached it later but died on the return.

What lies hidden beneath kilometers of ice at Antarctica's Vostok site?

• A volcano
• Liquid water ✓ (Correct answer)
• A mountain peak
• A meteorite crater

Source: Lake Vostok is a vast freshwater lake sealed under the ice for millions of years, possibly hiding unknown life.

Why do compasses behave strangely near the South Pole?

• Heavy iron deposits
• Magnetic pole nearby ✓ (Correct answer)
• Extreme cold
• Thick ice interference

Source: The south magnetic pole sits near the continent, so compass needles dip steeply and point unreliably.

What did scientists famously discover forming over Antarctica in 1985?

• A hole in the ozone ✓ (Correct answer)
• A new ocean current
• A sinking ice shelf
• A magnetic anomaly

Source: The ozone hole discovery shocked the world and led to the Montreal Protocol banning ozone-destroying chemicals.

What is the name of Antarctica's largest floating ice platform?

• Ross Ice Shelf ✓ (Correct answer)
• Larsen Ice Shelf
• Ronne Ice Shelf
• Amery Ice Shelf

Source: The Ross Ice Shelf is roughly the size of France, a wall of floating ice towering over the sea.

Antarctica contains the largest example of which landscape, by ice volume?

• Ice cap ✓ (Correct answer)
• Glacier
• Frozen river
• Snowfield

Source: The Antarctic ice cap is the single biggest mass of ice on Earth, dwarfing Greenland's.

Whose Antarctic expedition ship Endurance was crushed by pack ice in 1915?

• Roald Amundsen
• Ernest Shackleton ✓ (Correct answer)
• Robert Scott
• Douglas Mawson

Source: After his ship sank, Shackleton led his entire crew to safety over ice and sea — not a single man was lost.

Curiously, parts of Antarctica's McMurdo region have had no rain for how long?

• About 100 years
• About 50 years
• About 2 million years ✓ (Correct answer)
• About 10,000 years

Source: The Dry Valleys are so arid that some areas may not have seen rain in roughly two million years.

What surprising volcanic feature exists beneath Antarctica's ice?

• Active geysers
• Active volcanoes ✓ (Correct answer)
• Lava lakes on surface
• Boiling mud pools

Source: Dozens of volcanoes lurk under the ice, including Mount Erebus, which holds a rare permanent lava lake.