Earth & Sky

What's the coldest place on Earth?

Why is it so cold in Antarctica?

Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. To see why it’s so cold there, think of the great system of winds blowing over the Earth. Belts of wind flow west to east at mid-latitudes – then east to west, near the poles. These winds set up corresponding belts of ocean currents. If our planet were entirely ocean, currents would completely encircle the globe – as though Earth had a fluid version of the planet Jupiter’s cloud belts.

But where ocean currents strike land, they split into separate streams. There’s only one place on Earth where an ocean current is free to flow completely around the globe. And that’s in the ocean surrounding the southern continent of Antarctica.

It’s thought that, millions of years ago, there was little or no ice on Antarctica. The southern continent was once joined to the southern tip of South America by a narrow bridge of land. This land bridge was enough to block the Antarctic current. Warm water flowed near the south pole – and the climate there was much milder.

But South America and Antarctica were destined to drift apart. About 100 million years ago, the land bridge disappeared. The cold southern ocean current wrapped completely around Antarctica. That’s when Antarctica became the coldest place on Earth.

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