Mental Floss

5 Misconceptions About the Arctic

If you go to the Arctic hoping to see a certain bird, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
ByBethel Afful|
So pretty, so misunderstood.
So pretty, so misunderstood. | Denis Belitsky via Shutterstock

People often confuse the Arctic with Antarctica. Both are cold and icy, but that’s basically where the similarities end. 

The Arctic is a region at the top of Earth consisting of an ocean—the Arctic Ocean—more or less surrounded by land. The Antarctic is at the bottom of Earth and is a continent surrounded by ocean. People have lived in the Arctic for a long time, while Antarctica has no native human population. Both regions have 24-hour daylight in summer and 24-hour darkness in winter, but these seasons are at opposite times of the year.

On this episode of Misconceptions, host Justin Dodd corrects some myths about the Arctic, from its wildly varying temperatures to its complete lack of a certain bird.

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