Grade Six Social Studies
Hello Boys and Girls,
Have you been working diligently reading and completing your homework? Good! Now get yourself ready for us to explore fascinating facts about the climate of the Polar Zone.
Climate of the Polar Zone or Frigid Zone
After we would have passed through the Temperate Climate Zone, we have come to a zone that has the coldest temperature on planet earth and sometimes has months of complete darkness during the winter and twenty hours (a full day) of sunlight during the summer. Can you imagine waking up at midnight to see the sun still shining brightly, or going to the cafeteria at lunch time to find the place completely dark like midnight? Let us find out what a polar climate is like.
What is a Polar Climate?
Do you know that there are places on earth where the ground is often frozen, people live in igloos (houses built of blocks of hard snow), walk through strong forces of wind, travel by sled pulled by a pack of huskies, wear thick wool or fur coats, boots, hats and gloves every day of the year? Yes! These places are located in the Polar Climates of the North Pole and the South Pole, and within the Arctic and Antarctic circles.
A polar climate usually consists of temperature below freezing, is icy and is covered with snow most of the time. Remember, areas with polar climates do not receive direct sunlight like other parts of the earth. Polar climates are usually dry and don’t receive much rain. Summers are cool and winters are very cold, which results in treeless tundra, glaciers, or permafrost (permanently frozen ground).
The average temperature of the North Pole is about 32 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. While the average temperature of the South Pole is about 18 degrees Fahrenheit at summer time and 76 degrees Fahrenheit at winter. As a result of climate change there is an increase in the temperature of polar climates, which has resulted in more melting of ice.
Differences in sunlight in polar climates
During the winter months, regions with polar climates experience months of darkness, since sunlight cannot reach these regions because they are tilted away from the sun. But in the summer when these polar climate regions are tilted towards the sun, they receive twenty four hours of sunlight a day.
The shaded areas at the top and bottom of the earth have polar climates.
Polar climates exist at the North Pole and the South Pole and within the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic Circle. The North Pole is in the Arctic. It sits in the middle of the frozen Arctic Ocean. Also in the Arctic are northern Canada, northern Siberia and Greenland, the largest island in the world. The South Pole is on the continent of Antarctica. Antarctica is known as the frozen continent. It has many mountains which make it to be much colder than the North Pole.
Differences in animal life between the two Polar Regions
In the Arctic most of the animals live on the land, whereas in the Antarctic the animals live almost entirely in the cold icy waters near the coastlands. Many of these animals have extra layers of fat to keep warm in the cold icy climate. There are fewer animal species living in the Antarctic than in the Arctic.
Are these animals of the Arctic or the Antarctic?
Some other animals of the Polar Regions are:
Seal walrus
What plants grow in Polar Climates?
Several types of plants grow in the polar climate regions of the earth during the short summer season when the ground thaws out a little. These plants are generally small and grow low to the ground. Examples of such plants are lichens, mosses, grasses, arctic willows, Antarctic pearlwort, bearberry and pasqueflower. Trees do not grow in regions that have polar climates because their roots cannot go as far down into the frozen ground as they need to and also because the growing time is short.
Let’s pause here for now. Next week we shall learn about some people who live in the Arctic Regions of the earth.
Goodbye boys and girls! Have a great week! albatross