al: 20.327 million sq km
note: includes Amundsen Sea, Bellingshausen Sea, part of the Drake
Passage, Ross Sea, a small part of the Scotia Sea, Weddell Sea, and
other tributary water bodies

Area - comparative:
slightly more than twice the size of the US

Coastline:
17,968 km

Climate:
sea temperatures vary from about 10 degrees Celsius to -2 degrees
Celsius; cyclonic storms travel eastward around the continent and
frequently are intense because of the temperature contrast between
ice and open ocean; the ocean area from about latitude 40 south to
the Antarctic Circle has the strongest average winds found anywhere
on Earth; in winter the ocean freezes outward to 65 degrees south
latitude in the Pacific sector and 55 degrees south latitude in the
Atlantic sector, lowering surface temperatures well below 0 degrees
Celsius; at some coastal points intense persistent drainage winds
from the interior keep the shoreline ice-free throughout the winter

Terrain:
the Southern Ocean is deep, 4,000 to 5,000 meters over most of its
extent with only limited areas of shallow water; the Antarctic
continental shelf is generally narrow and unusually deep, its edge
lying at depths of 400 to 800 meters (the global mean is 133
meters); the Antarctic icepack grows from an average minimum of 2.6
million square kilometers in March to about 18.8 million square
kilometers in September, better than a sixfold increase in area; the
Antarctic Circumpolar Current (21,000 km in length) moves
perpetually eastward; it is the world's largest ocean current,
transporting 130 million cubic meters of water per second - 100
times the flow of all the world's rivers

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: -7,235 m at the southern end of the South Sandwich
Trench
highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources:
probable large and possible giant oil and gas fields on the
continental margin, manganese nodules, possible placer deposits,
sand and gravel, fresh water as icebergs; squid, whales, and seals -
none exploited; krill, fishes

Natural hazards:
huge icebergs with drafts up to several hundred meters; smaller
bergs and iceberg fragments; sea ice (generally 0.5 to 1 meter
thick) with sometimes dynamic short-term variations and with large
annual and interannual variations; deep continental shelf floored by
glacial deposits varying widely over short distances; high winds and
la