Watch here an exciting Antarctica time-lapse video. The southernmost continent contains the geographic South Pole and is located in the Antarctic region of Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, surrounded by the Southern Ocean.
At 14,000,000 km2 (5,400,000 ml2), it is the 5th-largest continent. Antarctica is nearly twice Australia's size. About 98% of it is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km (1.2 ml) in thickness, extending to all but the northernmost reaches of Antarctic Peninsula.