Antarctica
The Last Wild Place on Earth
Explore our small ship expeditions to Antarctica, designed to engage your heart, mind, and spirit as you travel into one of the coldest – and most life-affirming – places on Earth! Antarctica is located at the southernmost point of the Earth and holds the titles of the highest, driest, and coldest continent. Our expedition cruises in the Antarctic region include journeys to the Falkland Islands, South Shetland Islands, South Georgia, and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Endlessly Surprising
- Antarctica holds around 85% of the world’s fresh water. And around 98% of the continent is covered in ice that’s up to 5km n(3.1mile) thick.
- Antarctica also boasts the world’s largest desert. The Antarctic Polar Desert covers 5.5 million square miles.
- Antarctica is fringed by ice shelves, extending hundreds of miles offshore. The largest is the Ross Sea ice shelf, covering more than 510,000 square km; roughly the size of France!
- Antarctica was the last of Earth’s continents to be discovered in 1820, although there have been many less-reliable claims of prior discovery.
- Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano in the world, and the second-highest mountain in Antarctica. Despite the cold it has a lava lake in its inner summit crater.
Destinations Within Antarctica
A Continent Free From Politics
While Antarctica has never been part of any nation state, seven nations claim territory on the continent: Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. All of these countries are founding signatories (along with Belgium, Japan, South Africa, the United States, and the Soviet Union) of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, under which all territorial claims are suspended, and all land below 60°F (16°C) South is reserved only for peaceful scientific and other international cooperation. Despite turbulent world events since the signing in 1959, the treaty remains strong, and 56 states are now signatories.
East Versus West, Cold Versus Colder
The Antarctic continent is generally divided into East and West, separated by the Transantarctic Mountains. West Antarctica holds the largest two ice shelves and contains around 10% of the ice on the continent. East Antarctica is larger and higher, and the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet holds around 90% of the continent’s ice – the vast majority of all freshwater on Earth!
The Antarctic Peninsula, which extends towards South America, is by far the most accessible region of the continent, and the majority of scientific bases and tourism are concentrated here.
While the Antarctic Peninsula regularly records summer temperatures above 0°C (32°F) during summer, the majority of the year stays well below freezing. The coldest area of the continent is not in fact the South Pole, but the core of the East Antarctic Ice Dome, where the coldest natural temperature on planet Earth was recorded in August 2010, a bone-chilling -136°F (-93.2°C).
Popular Life-Changing Expeditions to Antarctica
Join us on any of our expeditions to Antarctica, and you’ll experience the incredibly diverse wildlife, stunning mountain scenery, and magnificent icebergs that make this part of the world unlike any other.
