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Antarcticais Earth ’s frosty continent . spread over 5.5 million square miles ( 14.2 million straightforward kilometers ) , it ’s bigger than Europe and Australia . It holds about 60 % of Earth ’s total impertinent water , with iceup to 3 miles ( 5 kilometers ) thickin places .

But this was n’t always the casing . During theCretaceous period(145 million to 66 million years ago ) , when dinosaur range Earth , Antarctica was ice - free and was covered in a semitropic rain forest , serving as a land bridge for theseextinct titan to cross Continent .

penguins walking onto land from the sea with mountains of ice in the background and blue sky

How much do you know about Antarctica?

Around 34 million years ago , things changed andan ice sheet started growing across the landscape painting . Global temperatures plummeted and the continents change , separating Antarctica from South America and produce a circumpolar stream that isolated it from the rest of the world .

Now , just a tiny fraction of Antarctica is covered with botany — but that ’s commence to commute , as warmer global temperature mellow out the ice , turn the landscape painting green .

But how much do you know about Antarctica ? Take our quiz to find out !

four penguins waddle along the ice

Morescience quizzes

— Equator quiz : Can you name the 13 land that sit down on Earth ’s primal line ?

— Ancient Egypt quiz : Test your smarts about pyramids , hieroglyphs and King Tut

— moonshine landing place quiz : How cursorily can you name all 12 Apollo astronauts that walked on the lunar month ?

A group of penguins dives from the ice into the water

— Crocodile quiz : Test your knowledge on the prehistoric predators

Map of ice-free Antarctica.

An aerial photo of mountains rising out of Antarctica snowy and icy landscape, as seen from NASA�s Operation IceBridge research aircraft.

Young African elephant bull flares it�s trunk and tusks in the air.

A large sponge and a cluster of anenomes are seen among other lifeforms beneath the George IV Ice Shelf.

A tree is silhouetted against the full completed Annular Solar Eclipse on October 14, 2023 in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.

Screen-capture of a home security camera facing a front porch during an earthquake.

A satellite photo of an island with a giant river of orange lava

Tunnel view of Yosemite National Park.

A scuba diver descends down a deep ocean reef wall into the abyss.

Two young lions (Panthera leo) in the Masai Mara National Park in Kenya.

Mount Vesuvius behind the ruins of pompeii.

Stonehenge, Salisbury, UK, July 30, 2024; Stunning aerial view of the spectacular historical monument of Stonehenge stone circles, Wiltshire, England, UK.

a painting of vikings at sea

a rendering of a bed floating in the clouds

Sunda island pit viper ( Trimeresurus insularis ) on a branch. Photo taken in Jakarta.