Without offshore islands, the northernmost point of mainland Antarctica is
Prime Head, British Antarctic Territory, Argentine Antarctica, and
Chilean Antarctic Territory (63° 12' S)
The tallest
mountain in Antarctica is
Mount Vinson rising 4,892 meters (16,050 feet) above sea level.
The lowest point in Antarctica is within the
Denman Glacier, which reaches 3.5 kilometers (11,500 feet) below sea level.[1] This is also the lowest place on Earth not covered by ocean (although it is covered by ice).
The lowest accessible point in Antarctica is the shore of Deep Lake,
Vestfold Hills, which is 50.4 m[2] beneath sea level.
Vostok Station is the most isolated research base on the continent (located at 77°S105°E / 77°S 105°E / -77; 105), and it is situated over the southernmost lake in the world,
Lake Vostok, a subglacial lake 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) under the surface of the ice where the station sits. Formerly administered by the
Soviets, it is now operated by
Russia.
The southernmost
volcano on the planet—
Mount Erebus—is in Antarctica on the world's southernmost island reachable from the sea:
Ross Island.
The southernmost island is said to be
Berkner Island. It is embedded in the
ice shelf, fully covered by ice and fully below sea level, and therefore not an island, but an
ice rise. The southernmost true island is probably
Black Island (Ross Archipelago).
The
Ross Sea is the southernmost sea in the world, with its southernmost extremity (
Amundsen Coast) at the foot of the
Horlick Mountains approximately 300 km (200 mi)[citation needed] from the Geographic South Pole. However, this area is covered by the
Ross Ice Shelf. The southernmost open sea is also part of Ross Sea, namely
Bay of Whales at 78°30'S, at the edge of Ross Ice Shelf.
While animal life such as
penguins and
seals are found all around the Antarctic coastline, the continent's only flowering plants are found on the northern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula (see
Antarctic flora).
Highest temperature so far recorded in Antarctica: 19.8 °C (67.6 °F) at
Vanda Station (
New Zealand administered station) on 5 January 1974.
Lowest temperature so far recorded in Antarctica: −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F) in the interior of the Antarctica in August 2010. The record temperature was found by scientists sifting through decades of climate data taken by Earth-orbiting satellites.[4] However, the previous record was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at
Vostok (
Russian administered station) on 21 July 1983 and it is to this day more widely known.