Antarctica: The Blue Continent FROM THE PUBLISHER
Illustrated guide to Antarctica's environment, geography, wildlife, and history.
Antarctica: The Blue Continent is a superbly illustrated and easy-to-understand book that reveals this polar region's ruthless majesty and natural beauty.
The environment is Earth's harshest, coldest, most inhospitable climate. A staggering 98% of the continent is covered with ice averaging 1.4 miles in depth; 90% of the world's ice is found in there.In spite of the cold and ice, Antarctica's shores and waters are home to an amazing variety of vegetation and indigenous wildlife-seals, sea lions, whales, penguins and sea birds-that have evolved in extraordinary ways to adapt to their unforgiving habitat. The book features natural phenomena such as a glacier made of jagged, Jurassic-era rock instead of ice, and entire mountain ranges filled to their peaks with snow.
In the chapters on polar exploration, Antarctica profiles Captain Cook, Roald Amundsen, Shackleton, Scott, and others. Readers will experience why this continent has inspired so much effort and heroism in the quest to discover its secrets.
This book is a concise version of the authors' 608-page Antarctica and the Arctic.
SYNOPSIS
Travel writer McGonigal and biologist Woodworth have assembled stupendous color photographs and maps, around which they describe the environment, regions, wildlife, and history of explorations. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature - Sally Niezgoda
This book is packed full of fascinating information about this cold polar region. It is thought that Antarctica broke away from the ancient landmass of Gondwana millions of years ago and drifted south to form this unique land of mountains, glaciers, ice shelves and frozen sea. The Antarctic waters are feeding areas for many different types of whales. The continent is a breeding ground for several species of penguins, including the gentoo. The book describes the types of animals and plants living in Antarctica in much detail accompanied by stunning photographs. This forbidding land has fascinated explorers for a long time. The first explorer to circumnavigate the continent was James Cook during 1772-75. The detailed stories of the adventures of hardy explorers, whalers, sealers and researchers are related in this book. A multitude of photographs include many that were originally taken during early trips to this southern continent. The book would be a beneficial addition to any library. In 2001, parts of this book published under the name Antarctica the Complete Story. 2003, Firefly books, Ages 10 up.
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