page_title: Geography of Antarctica
section_title: Regions
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Antarctica / Regions
caption_attribution_description: English: Banzare, Sabrina, and Budd Law Dome Coasts, Antarctica
context_page_description: The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and, thus, by ice. The Antarctic continent, located in the Earth's southern hemisphere, is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle. It is washed by the Southern Ocean or, depending on definition, the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. It has an area of more than 14 million km².
  Some 98% of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, the world's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water. Averaging at least 1.6 km thick, the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur. Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery.
  In September 2018, researchers at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency released a high resolution terrain map of Antarctica, named the "Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica".
context_section_description: Physically, Antarctica is divided in two by Transantarctic Mountains close to the neck between the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea. Western Antarctica and Eastern Antarctica correspond roughly to the eastern and western hemispheres relative to the Greenwich meridian. This usage has been regarded as Eurocentric by some, and the alternative terms Lesser Antarctica and Greater Antarctica (respectively) are sometimes preferred.
  Lesser Antarctica is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. There has been some concern about this ice sheet, because there is a small chance that it will collapse. If it does, ocean levels would rise by a few metres in a very short period of time.
caption: The Banzare, Sabrina, and Budd Law Dome Coasts
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