Antarctica: The Blue Continent

Antarctica: The Blue Continent by McGonigal, David. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781552977064.

Illustrated guide to Antarcticas environment, geography, wildlife, and history. Antarctica: The Blue Continent is a superbly illustrated and easy-to-understand book that reveals this polar regions ruthless majesty and natural beauty. The environment is Earths harshest, coldest, most inhospitable climate. A staggering 98% of the continent is covered with ice averaging 1.4 miles in depth; 90% of the worlds ice is found in there. In spite of the cold and ice, Antarcticas 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.