Top 10 Antarc­ti­ca facts

In Antarctica. With a salinity level of over 40%, Don Juan Pond is the saltiest of the Antarctic lakes. This salinity allows the pond to remain liquid even at temperatures as low as −50 °C (−58 °F) due to the interference of salts with the bonding of water molecules. Don Juan Pond was discovered in 1961 by George H. Meyer.

Norwegian queen. Queen Maud Land was the first part of Antarctica to be sighted. The name was initially applied in January 1930 to the land discovered by Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen and Finn Lützow-Holm during Norvegia expedition of 1929–30. It was named after the Norwegian Queen Maud of Wales, wife of the then-reigning King Haakon VII.

Ross Ice Shelf. The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica and covers an area of about 520,000 km2, nearly the size of France. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 kilometres long, and between 15 and 50 metres high above the water surface. Ninety percent of the floating ice, however, is below the water surface.

In Antarctica. Mount Vinson is the highest peak in Antarctica, at 4,892 metres. It lies in the north part of Vinson Massif’s summit plateau in the south portion of the main ridge of the Sentinel Range about 2 kilometres north of Hollister Peak.

In Antarctica. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (or simply IceCube) is a neutrino observatory constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Its thousands of sensors are located under the Antarctic ice, distributed over a cubic kilometre. In November 2013 it was announced that IceCube had detected 28 neutrinos that likely originated outside the Solar System.

About 90% of terrestrial ice is found in Antarctica.

Metallica is the first band to play on all seven continents . . . and they did it all in one calendar year. In 2013 they played in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and a special concert for some scientists in Antarctica.

−89.2°C (−128.6°F). Vostok Station is a Russian research station in inland Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. Founded by the Soviet Union in 1957, the station lies at the southern Pole of Cold, with the lowest reliably measured natural temperature on Earth of −89.2°C (−128.6°F; 184.0 K)

Emilio Palma. Emilio Marcos Palma (born 7 January 1978) is an Argentine man known for being the first documented person born on the continent of Antarctica. Palma was born in Fortín Sargento Cabral at the Esperanza Base, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, and weighed 3.4 kg (7 lb 8 oz). His father, Captain Jorge Emilio Palma, was head of the Argentine Army detachment at the base. He is featured in the Guinness Book of Records .

Mount Erebus. With a summit elevation of 3,794 metres, Mount Erebus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley). Located in the Ross Dependency on Ross Island, it is the southernmost active volcano on Earth.