The Antarctica is actually a desert. It is the only continent on the earth without a river or a lake.
The Antarctica is all ice all year round. The warmest temperature ever recorded there is zero at the South Pole. Explorers used to think that a place so cold would have a heavy snowfall. But 1ess than ten inches of snow falls each year. That is less than half an inch of water. Ten times that much moisture falls in parts of the Sahara.
The little snow that falls in the Antarctica never melts. It continues to pile up deeper and deeper year after year and century after century. When the snow gets to be about eighty feet deep it is turned to ice by the weight of the snow above it.

南极洲实际上一片沙漠。她是这个星球上唯一没有河流和湖泊的大陆。
南极洲常年结冰。有记录的最高的气温也不过是曾经出现在南极点上零摄氏度而已。探险家会习惯性的认为如此寒冷的地方一定会有很大的降雪。不过每年只有不到十英尺厚的降雪。这比起降雨来要少半英尺。而这一数量是撒哈拉沙漠的十倍。
落在南极大陆上的积雪从不融化。年复一年，日复一日，积雪越积越厚。当相对于顶部积雪达到八十英尺厚的时候，以下的那一部分积雪就转变成冰了。