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Ice: Water frozen solid occurs in its greatest variety in the coldest place on Earth. At least 78 different forms have been identified, including bullet ice, grease ice, green ice, pancake ice, and fraxil ice.

Fast Ice: Ice attached to the coast

Glacier: A mass of slow-moving, thick ice that has built up over many years on land

Iceberg: A large block of ice that has broken off from a glacier

Pack ice: Drifting sea ice

Polynya: An area of open water surrounded by ice

South Pole: The term is not interchangeable with Antarctica. In fact, there are three "South Poles":

1. Geographic South Pole: the Earth's spin axis, at exactly 90 degrees South latitude (the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is located here);

2. Geomagnetic South Pole: (near Russia's Vostok station), which is the locus of the aurora australis and Earth's magnetic lines of force that loop outward from the polar regions and meet over the equator at an altitude of several Earth radii.

3. Magnetic South Pole: (just off the coast, near the French station, Dumont d'Urville ), which is where compass needles point.

Wind Chill Factor: The effect of wind blowing away the warmed air near the body, making one feel as if the temperature is really colder

Austral summer: The period from August through February, when the sun shines 24 hours per day

from "Antarctica: Continent of Ice", by Guy G. Guthridge, Odyssey, January 1994

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