Antarctica - this is the mainland, whichis located to the south of Australia, as well as south of South America and Africa. Covered with a multi-kilometer layer of ice, the continent is uninhabited and, according to international treaties, does not belong to any of the states, despite the fact that during the colonial wars some states claimed their claims to certain large territories in the Antarctic.
The discoverers of Antarctica recognized the Russianseafarers Bellingshausen and Lazarev, who were the first to bypass the entire continent, thereby confirming its existence. However, the modern name of the continent was not immediately obtained. Initially, the pioneers called it the "ice continent".
Actually, the term "Antarctica" goes back toGreek roots that are still found in Aristotle and are translated as "against the north", which indicates its geographical position - after all, it is the most southern continent on the planet, whose geographical center is in the immediate vicinity of the South Pole.
The continent has a complex geographic structure andis the highest among the continents, which means that the average height above sea level is higher than on other continents. However, all these heights are hidden under a thick layer of ice, sometimes reaching a thickness of several kilometers.
Over the continental rock in Antarctica are locatedboundless icy deserts, reaching far into the ocean from the coastline of the continent proper. From time to time, under the pressure of ice from the depths of the continent, large chunks of icebergs break off from the ice fields, which are called icebergs, some of which reach such gigantic proportions that they do not have time to melt along the way to the north and reach the shores of Australia.
Antarctica is located in Australia in three thousand kilometers, while from the extreme point of South America to the shore of the ice continent is only one thousand kilometers.
We hope that now it will be easy to answer even to the pupils of the 2nd class, which continent is to the south of Australia.
It should be said that any continent in the neighborhood with Antarctica is inevitably exposed to the climatic phenomena arising over its ice deserts.
The matter is that it is in the Antarctic thatpoints in which the strongest gusts were recorded, the lowest temperatures and the strongest solar radiation. Such significant processes can not but affect the global climate. Thus, what continent to the south of Australia affects the life of all people on the planet.</ span </ p>
