This report will describe the biophysical conditions and the human use of Antarctica. It is located at 90° South, 0° East, and is the most southerly continent on Earth, with the South Pole near the centre of Antarctica. The nearest land, Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, is 950 kilometers away. As a comparison, the distance between Hobart and Australia's closest station, Casey Base, is 3443 km.

With an area of a huge 13.2 million square kilometres, Antarctica covers 10% of the world's land surface. However, with the pack ice (large pieces of broken sea ice approximately two meters thick), the size varies with the seasons and can rise in area up to about 14 million square kilometers, where it is 3 times the size of Australia. Ice and snow cover 98% of the continent, leaving 2% of the land under ice. The ice can be up to4 kilometers thick, and if it were...