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Article: Antarctica's treasures.(TRAVEL)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- March 27, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Washington Times LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Richard Slusser, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Antarctica is full of surprises and beauty; it is much more than 5.3 million square miles of land covered in snow and ice.
Most of the continent is covered by an ice sheet with an average thickness of 6,600 feet. Of the actual landmass of the continent, about 2 percent is visible, and that is as mountains and coastline.
Lesser Antarctica is the 744-mile-long, narrow, taillike peninsula, a chain of alpine mountains with ice cliffs and sometimes exposed rock along the shore. The rest, Greater Antarctica, is mostly covered by ice.
Antarctica has many mountains taller than 9,900 feet; the highest ...