Unveiling Antarctica: The World's Most Mysterious Continent
Antarctica stands as one of Earth's least understood and most enigmatic continents. Even in the 21st century, many people lack a clear understanding of Antarctica's true size and shape. Often depicted as a sprawling, misshapen blob on two-dimensional maps, Antarctica is frequently overlooked or misrepresented. In reality, it ranks as the fifth-largest continent, surpassing Australia and Europe in size and nearing South America in scale. When compared to North America, Antarctica is significantly larger than the contiguous 48 U.S. states, with distances across the continent comparable to those between the Canadian Arctic islands and Mexico. Placed over Europe, Antarctica would extend from Norway and Finland in the north down to Iran and Iraq in the southeast, while reaching past Ireland into the mid-Atlantic to the west.