May 16

On Friday, the students will work on vocabulary and notes over Australia and Antarctica. They also will get the study guide below and will be tested over the material on Monday so be sure to study!!

Australia and Antarctica Study Guide-Test on Monday 5/19

Australia is located along the Tropic of Capricorn in the Eastern Hemisphere.

The main language in Australia is Australian English.

The main religion in Australia is Christianity.

The Great Barrier Reef is over 2,000 kilometers long and can be seen from space.

Australia has an equatorial climate but also has lots of grassland.

The interior of Australia is mostly desert and very few people live there. Known as the Outback.

Major imports are computers, office machines and transport equipment.

Major exports are coal, gold, meat, wool, aluminum, iron ore and equipment.

The population of Australia is about 23 million.

Canberra was selected as the capital because Sydney and Melbourne could not stop arguing which city should be the capital of Australia.

The first inhabitants in Australia were aborigines. They immigrated there over 40,000 years ago.

Australia is the 6th largest country in the world but is also a continent.

Over 200 different languages and dialects are spoken in Australia.

The heads of Australia are the Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II & the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove.

Antarctica is the highest, driest, windiest, emptiest, coldest place on earth.

At its thickest point the ice sheet is 4,776 meters deep and averages 2,160 meters thick. This is 90 percent of all the world's ice and it is 70 percent of all the world's fresh water.

The Antarctic continent wasn't even actually seen until 1820. No man set foot in Antarctica until 1895.

The South Pole is found in Antarctica.

Antarctica is bigger than Europe and almost double the size of Australia.

Sea levels would rise around 200 feet if all the ice in Antarctica were to melt.

Because it experiences little rain, Antarctica is considered a desert.

Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. The average temperature is -58 degrees.

Antarctica nearly doubles in size in the Winter because of sea ice expanding.

There are no permanent residents in Antarctica. Only visiting scientists.

No country owns Australia. Though some have tried to lay claim, no country has been successful and now 48 countries have signed a treaty designating Antarctica a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science.