Tom Jefferson (@TomJefferson1976)

Antarctica Day Some photos capture nature"s grand acts. Great photos reveal even more in a single frame: the delicate balance between immense power and fragile beauty that surrounds us on Earth. Today"s image of a natural arch carved into an Antarctic iceberg does exactly that—a conversation starter about grandeur, vulnerability, our environment, and its present and future. Interesting facts about Antarctica The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was minus 128.56 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 89.2 degrees Celsius), registered on July 21, 1983, at Antarctica's Vostok station. The Dry Valleys of Antarctica are the driest place on Earth, with low humidity and almost no snow or ice cover. On average, Antarctica is the windiest continent. Winds in some places of the continent can reach 200 mph (320 km/h). Antarctica is the fifth largest continent. Including its islands and attached floating plains of ice, Antarctica has an area of about 5.4 million square miles (14 million square kilometers), about one-and-a-half times the size of the United States. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest single mass of ice on Earth. The largest of Antarctica's ice shelves (floating tongues of ice) is the Ross Ice Shelf, which measures some 182,000 square miles (472,000 square kilometers) square kilometers). Antarctica is home to about 60% of the planet's fresh water, and 90% of its freshwater ice. If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted entirely, it would raise global average sea levels by 16 feet (5 meters). The average thickness of Antarctic ice is about 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers). Antarctica's Gamburtsev Mountains are a range of steep peaks that rise to nearly 9,000 feet (3,000 meters) and stretch 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) across the interior of the continent — and are completely buried under up to 15,750 feet (4,800 m) ice. Also hiding under the Antarctic ice is an entire lake: Lake Vostok is a pristine freshwater lake buried beneath 2.5 miles (3.7 kilometers) of solid ice. It is about the size of Lake Ontario, and is the largest of the more than 200 liquid lakes strewn around the continent under the ice. A rift that could rival the Grand Canyon was discovered beneath the Antarctic ice during an expedition conducted during 2009-2010. It is roughly 6 miles (10 km) across and at least 62 miles (100 km) long, possibly far longer if it extends into the sea. It extends nearly a mile down (1.5 km) at its deepest. © Gabrielle/Adobe Stock