ANTARCTICA

Antarctica is the southernmost continent and the fifth largest by area, centered on the South Pole and almost entirely covered by an ice sheet that contains roughly 60 percent of the world’s fresh water. It is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on earth, has no indigenous population, and is governed under the Antarctic Treaty System, a framework signed in 1959 that designates the continent as a scientific preserve and prohibits military activity and resource extraction.

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