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Definizione

Antarctica is the earth's fifth largest continent, centered on the South Pole in the Antarctic Circle, measuring approximately 14, 200, 000 sq km (5, 500, 000 sq mi), and surrounded by the Antarctic Ocean. It is made up of two subcontinents joined by an ice sheet and has deposits of several kinds of minerals. Teams of scientists and explorers from Europe and the United States began travelling to Antarctica in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the continent has also been the site of the whaling industry. In the 1930s, several nations made claims to Antarctica and established stations. The Antarctic Treaty of 1952, signed by twelve nations, established the protocols of the use of the continent for scientific research only. (en-US)

Fonte

Microsoft Encarta Interactive World Atlas 2001. Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Corporation, 2000.

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• mondo