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Which is the driest continent on Earth?
🌍 Geography

Which is the driest continent on Earth?

Test yourself first — take the quiz below, then read the full answer.
QUIZ
Which is the driest continent on Earth?

The Driest Continent Is Frozen

It sounds like a contradiction, but the driest continent on Earth is Antarctica, the same continent that is almost entirely buried under ice. The key is understanding what "dry" really means. Dryness is about how much water falls from the sky as rain or snow, not about how much ice is already lying on the ground.

Why a Land of Ice Is So Dry

Antarctica receives extraordinarily little precipitation. Across the continent the average is tiny, and in the interior it is barely any at all. The reason is the cold. Cold air can hold very little moisture, so there is almost nothing available to fall as snow. The ice sheet covering Antarctica is so thick because it built up incredibly slowly over millions of years, not because a lot of snow falls each year.

A Desert at the Bottom of the World

Because it gets so little precipitation, Antarctica technically qualifies as a desert. In fact, it is the largest desert in the world by area. There are even regions called the Dry Valleys, areas so dry that they have had virtually no snow or rain for an extremely long time. It is a powerful reminder that a desert is defined by lack of water, not by heat or sand.

Source

This article was written using information from Wikipedia.