QUESTION:
Why are the Arctic and the Antarctic so different?  It seems that they
would be the same since they are at the North and South poles.

        Michael B.
        6th grade
        Taylor Road Middle School
        Alpharetta, GA

ANSWER from Steven Downey, Doctoral Student, University of Illinois
            Mon, 3 Mar 1997 11:50:27 -0500

Dear Michael,

While there are differences between the Arctic and the Antarctic, there are
a lot of similarities as well:  polar ice caps, climatic extremes, certain
species of animals, etc.

The differences that do exists can be attributed to a couple of reasons.
One of the biggest reasons is that the Arctic is basically water surrounded
by land, while the Antarctic is basically land surrounded by water.

The Arctic has no major land mass; it essentially rests on the ocean
surface.  The Antarctic ice cap, however, sits on a small continent.  The
Antarctic land mass is approximately half of the size of the continent as
we know it but it is enough to anchor the large ice cap and to influence
the surrounding oceans, which brings us to the second half of our reason.
The Arctic is surrounded on three sides by Alaska, Canada, and Russia which
cuts is off a lot of its access to other oceans.  Antarctica is just the
opposite; it is surrounded on all sides by the Atlantic, Pacific, and
Indian oceans.  These warmer waters collide with the cold waters of the
Antarctic ocean to form the Antarctic Convergence, where the nutrients of
the ocean bottoms are pulled up towards the surface.  This nutrient rich
area of the ocean accounts for many of the various animal species found in
the Antarctic.

Thanks for your question!
Steven D.