Antarctica is a high ,ice-covered landmass and opposite to the arctic, grouped around the ice covered arctic ocean. Antarctica, 30 degrees colder than arctic. At the south pole, nearly 10,000 feet high, monthly mean temperatures run well below zero. Temperature at the American south pole station, sometimes fall below -100 degrees Fahrenheit. Elsewhere, at the south polar plateau, even lower temperatures until -127 degrees Fahrenheit was measured in august 1960. Because climate difference, the land animals and plants different too. In Antarctica very few plants, but in Arctic many plants. Ice is the great feature of Antarctica. More than 4.5 million square miles of ice sheet cover the area. Antarctica is the storehouse of about 85% of the total world supply of ice. The ice cap is very thick, averaging nerly 8,000 feet. If ice were melt, the volume of the world oceans would increase, and sea level would rise.