Antarctic Plateau: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Antarctic Plateau is an area of the Antarctic continent, extending for a few hundred kilometres around the South Pole. It is at an average elevation of close to 3000 metres (10,000 feet).

The plateau was discovered by Ernest Shackleton during his Nimrod Antarctic expedition of 1908, who reached it by climbing the Beardmore Glacier.

Its altitude, combined with its latitude, mean that temperatures here are the lowest in the world. The almost constant southerly winds make the conditions here even more inhospitable to life. Hence there is practically none, even at the bacterial level.