The Whitest Deserts: The Northern and Southern Poles
The Whitest Deserts
[Compare and contrast between the north and southern poles]
It's cold. It's dry. Only the strongest can survive on these barren, wind-swept plains. The bottom of the world is a vicious and dark land, certainly suited to creatures comparatively tough as nails. Snow and hail and complete darkness torment this huge, freezing desert for 6 months of the year. When the sun finally melts over the horizon, the night recedes to leave yet more snow and hail and 120 mph winds. These conditions make it difficult for any explorer to even walk, let alone set up a tent.
What is it like though, 14,500 miles away, in a world that seems like paradise compared to Antarctica? Though both lands have seen months of total, insanity-provoking darkness; and snowfall hundreds of feet deep, what makes these two polar opposites so similar, and yet so different?
A land of whimsical beauty and mystery, the arctic is one of the last frontiers yet to be explored. Deep in the valleys and high in the cloudy mountains lie incredible sights, rarely glimpsed by the human eye. Its territory is remote and fresh, where huge herds of elk are stalked by timber wolves, and the grizzly and even polar bear tread on the hundreds of miles of forest and tundra. The many weeks of yearly darkness followed by a never-ending 'midnight sun' is enough to literally drive residents crazy, yet it still certainly remains to be an incredible sight to behold. Where though, lies an even bigger and far more dangerous desert? The bottom of the earth answers that question, and is a rival to anyone who dares step foot on Antarctica. The differences between these two deserts are abundant, starting with the most obvious: location. Nearly everyone knows where the north and south pole are, and accordingly so with the arctic in the north, and Antarctica far in the south. A common but ridiculous mistake is the fact that polar bears and penguins live even remotely near each other. The majority of
[Compare and contrast between the north and southern poles]
It's cold. It's dry. Only the strongest can survive on these barren, wind-swept plains. The bottom of the world is a vicious and dark land, certainly suited to creatures comparatively tough as nails. Snow and hail and complete darkness torment this huge, freezing desert for 6 months of the year. When the sun finally melts over the horizon, the night recedes to leave yet more snow and hail and 120 mph winds. These conditions make it difficult for any explorer to even walk, let alone set up a tent.
What is it like though, 14,500 miles away, in a world that seems like paradise compared to Antarctica? Though both lands have seen months of total, insanity-provoking darkness; and snowfall hundreds of feet deep, what makes these two polar opposites so similar, and yet so different?
A land of whimsical beauty and mystery, the arctic is one of the last frontiers yet to be explored. Deep in the valleys and high in the cloudy mountains lie incredible sights, rarely glimpsed by the human eye. Its territory is remote and fresh, where huge herds of elk are stalked by timber wolves, and the grizzly and even polar bear tread on the hundreds of miles of forest and tundra. The many weeks of yearly darkness followed by a never-ending 'midnight sun' is enough to literally drive residents crazy, yet it still certainly remains to be an incredible sight to behold. Where though, lies an even bigger and far more dangerous desert? The bottom of the earth answers that question, and is a rival to anyone who dares step foot on Antarctica. The differences between these two deserts are abundant, starting with the most obvious: location. Nearly everyone knows where the north and south pole are, and accordingly so with the arctic in the north, and Antarctica far in the south. A common but ridiculous mistake is the fact that polar bears and penguins live even remotely near each other. The majority of