The Arctic vs Antarctica (cold, pole, Alaska)

[robertpasa]

Why is Antarctica a huge, solid landmass, whereas the Arctic area is more cracked and broken up?

[harry chickpea]

Not sure what your question is. Greenland has glaciers and stuff, Antarctica is a continent, and the north pole area is sea. Why are there not land masses at both poles? For the same reason the continents are odd shapes.

[plwhit]

Originally Posted by robertpasa

Why is Antarctica a huge, solid landmass, whereas the Arctic area is more cracked and broken up?

What occurs when ice moves around?

It cracks....

[jayrandom]

The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land. Antarctica is a continent surrounded by ocean.

[CowanStern]

"Landmass" is defined as "surface irregularities that are above sea level", and thus visible and accessible to people whose primary concern is human activity on the earth. There is a very subtle difference between land that is above sea level and land that is below. There is nothing distinctive about the land itself, only its distance from the center of the earth.

If the sea level were to rise or fall a couple of hundred meters, you would see very different "landmass" configurations, and islands would either form or disappear, but that would not have changed the actual characteristics or irregularities on the planet's surface.

[robertpasa]

Perhaps random chance caused there to be a continent around the South Pole and none around the North Pole. I often read of explorers who went to the North Pole and I imagine sleds more than boats.

Is it generally colder at one pole than the other?

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by CowanStern

"Landmass" is defined as "surface irregularities that are above sea level", and thus visible and accessible to people whose primary concern is human activity on the earth. There is a very subtle difference between land that is above sea level and land that is below. There is nothing distinctive about the land itself, only its distance from the center of the earth.

If the sea level were to rise or fall a couple of hundred meters, you would see very different "landmass" configurations, and islands would either form or disappear, but that would not have changed the actual characteristics or irregularities on the planet's surface.

Continents are accretions of low density rock floating, like icebergs, above the higher density oceanic crust. Even in the absence of water there would be pretty dramatic differences between continental and oceanic crust. (Plate tectonics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Originally Posted by robertpasa

Is it generally colder at one pole than the other?

Yes, it's much, much colder at the South Pole. The total lack of land at high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere creates a strong circumpolar oceanic current that segregates the cold Antarctic water from mixing with warmer water and keeps the entire continent much colder (Antarctic Circumpolar Current - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

[Glitch]

The reason the Antarctic is colder than the Arctic has to do with:

• Latitude; and
• Landmass vs Ocean.

Above 67 degrees north, and below 67 degrees south (because of Earth's 23 degree tilt) you will experience approximately 90 days of darkness during the winter, where the sun does not rise. Followed by 90 days of sunlight during the summer, where the sun never sets.

Oceans are also better heat sinks than land. Salt water will retain heat better than land surfaces. Because there is land at 90 degrees south, it is going to be colder than 90 degrees north, where there is no land. It is also why Barrow, Alaska, has warmer winters than Fairbanks, Alaska, even though Barrow is much further north. Barrow is on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, whereas Fairbanks is located in the interior. Barrow benefits from the small amount of heat retained by the Chukchi Sea, and Fairbanks does not.

It also explains why you are more likely to see the effects of global warming over the Arctic before those effects are noticed over the Antarctic.

[Rambler123]

Also, the high altitude of the Antarctic (thanks to the mile+ of ice piled up on it) helps lower the temperature, too. This is on top of the lack of ocean currents to warm the continent.

As a random, interesting note, before Antarctic broke away from South America, ocean currents had to run up around South America to warm latitudes before returning to the deep southern regions around Antarctica. In that era, the southern continent was not a completely frozen wasteland, but once the gap opened between South America and Antarctica, the heat transfer engine broke down and the southern continent froze over completely.