Lofty mountain peaks break through the ice and snow along its coast, but an almost unbroken plateau of ice covers most land features in the interior. Robert F. Scott of Great Britain, the second explorer to reach the South Pole, described the bleak inland region in his journal. He wrote, one knows there is neither tree nor shrub, nor any living thing, nor even inanimate rock-nothing but this terrible limitless expanse of snow. Scientists now know that there are mountains and mineral deposits buried under the ice, but no animais or large plants live on the interior glaciers. Temperatures in Antarctica average about 35'F. colder than in the Arctic regions around the North Pole.
Winter comes to Antarctica when it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
The sun does not shine at the geographic South Pole for six months during the winter.