Frozen Secrets

Cold is probably the first word that comes to mind when you think of Antarctica—after all, summertime temperatures on the continent are often cold enough to make your teeth chatter.  Bleak and forbidding may be some of the next words.  That’s how most people think of Earth’s remotest continent.  Indeed, Antarctica’s environment is so harsh that surviving more than a few days on the ice can be the stuff of movies.   Humanity’s fascination with the land at the bottom of the globe dates back at least to the ancient Romans, who imagined Terra Australis Incognita—the “unknown southern land”—and drew it on their maps even though no one had ever seen it.  Somehow, we seem always to have known that Antarctic is a dynamic place despite its remote location at the bottom of the world.

9781580136075 Carolrhoda Books $20.95 (buy this book)