Mt. Erebus, an active volcano on Ross Island. Credit

Antarctica is the southernmost continent and includes the South Pole. It is surrounded by the Southern Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. The continent is divided by the Transantarctic Mountains.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent and has the highest average elevation of all the continents.

At 14.425 million km², Antarctica is the third-smallest continent before Europe and Australia; most of the continent is covered by ice, and because there is little precipitation, except at the coasts, the interioris technically the largest desert in the world. There are no permanent human residents and the continent has never had an indigenous population.