Antarctica and the Arctic: Geography of the Poles

The two polar regions are geographic opposites. The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents, covered by floating sea ice that expands in winter and shrinks in summer, and it is home to Indigenous peoples such as the Inuit, Sámi and many groups in Siberia. Antarctica is a continent surrounded by ocean, buried under an ice sheet up to about 4.

8 kilometres thick, with no permanent human population. It holds the majority of Earth's fresh water, roughly 60 to 70 percent by common estimates, and the coldest temperature ever recorded at a weather station, −89. 2 °C at Vostok in 1983. The regions are governed differently.

Seven countries claim parts of Antarctica, but the 1959 Antarctic Treaty set those claims aside, reserved the continent for peace and science, and a 1991 protocol banned mining. The Arctic is divided among sovereign states, which cooperate through the Arctic Council, created in 1996, while competing over seabed claims, shipping routes and resources as summer ice declines.