The North Pole sits in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, on water that is almost always covered with ice. The ice is about 2-3 meters (6-10 feet) thick. The depth of the ocean at the North Pole is more than 4,000 meters (13,123 feet).Jan 21, 2011
How thick is the ice at the North Pole?
How thick is the ice at the South Pole?
The dome of the polar ice cap is 4800 metres thick at its deepest point and the South Pole stands on top of 2.8 kilometres of ice. The average height of Antarctica is much higher than any other continent. Its average elevation is 2160 metres – considerably more than Asia, the next highest at about 1000 metres.
How thick is the ice on the Arctic?
2 to 3 meters While thickness varies significantly within both regions, Antarctic ice is typically 1 to 2 meters (3 to 6 feet) thick, while most of the Arctic is covered by sea ice 2 to 3 meters (6 to 9 feet) thick.
Is the ice thicker under the North Pole than the South Pole?
Antarctica and the Arctic are the two coldest places on earth. … Antarctica also has a much higher average elevation than the Arctic, and the Antarctic Ice Sheet is bigger and thicker than the ice in the Arctic.
How big is the North Pole ice cap?
North Polar ice cap melting The area covered by sea ice ranges between 9 and 12 million km2. In addition, the Greenland ice sheet covers about 1.71 million km2 and contains about 2.6 million km³ of ice.
How much of Antarctica is ice free?
0.4% Antarctica is a cold desert, with snowfall equivalent to only 150mm of water each year. This snow builds up gradually and ice flows towards the coast as huge glaciers. In many places, these extend out over the sea as massive ice shelves. Only about 0.4% of the surface of Antarctica is free of snow and ice.
What would Antarctica be like without ice?
The weather will be fairly harsh even without the ice (six month “seasons” of summer sun and winter darkness), and Antarctica gets little precipitation, so will be quite dry and arid.
Is Antarctica colder than the Arctic?
The Short Answer: Both the Arctic (North Pole) and the Antarctic (South Pole) are cold because they don't get any direct sunlight. However, the South Pole is a lot colder than the North Pole.
Is Antarctica just ice?
Unlike the Arctic, where floating sea ice annual melts and refreezes, Antarctica is a solid ice sheet lying on a solid continent1. The Antarctic summer is during the northern Hemisphere winter. Antarctica may be remote and isolated, but the dynamics of Antarctic glaciers affect us all.