The biggest difference is that the Arctic is sea surrounded by land while the Antarctic is land surrounded by sea. This fundamental difference is the reason for many of the other differences between the two regions. If you were to stand at either pole, the view would be superficially very similar, there would be a great expanse of flat (ish) white snow and ice as far as the eye can see with few or no other features to break up the vista. The two landscapes however are made up in very different ways. Sea ice differs between the Arctic and Antarctic, primarily because of their different geography. The Arctic is a semi-enclosed ocean, almost completely surrounded by land. As a result, the sea ice that forms in the Arctic is not as mobile as sea ice in the Antarctic. Although sea ice moves around the Arctic basin, it tends to stay in the cold Arctic waters. Floes are more prone to converge, or bump into each other, and pile up into thick ridges. These converging floes makes Arctic ice thicker. The presence of ridge ice and its longer life cycle leads to ice that stays frozen longer during the summer melt. So some Arctic sea ice remains through the summer and continues to grow the following autumn. Of the 15 million square kilometers (5. 8 million square miles) of sea ice that exist during winter, on average, 7 million square kilometers (2. 7 million square miles) remain at the end of the summer melt season.
The biggest difference is that the Arctic is
sea
surrounded by land while the Antarctic is land surrounded by
sea
. This fundamental difference is the reason for
many
of the other differences between the two regions. If you were to stand at either pole, the view would be
superficially
very
similar,
there would be a great expanse of flat (
ish
) white snow and ice as far as the eye can
see
with few or no other features to break up the vista. The two landscapes
however
are made
up in
very
different
ways.
Sea
ice differs between the Arctic and Antarctic,
primarily
because
of their
different
geography. The Arctic is a semi-enclosed ocean, almost completely surrounded by land.
As a result
, the
sea
ice that forms in the Arctic is not as mobile as
sea
ice in the Antarctic. Although
sea
ice
moves
around the Arctic basin, it tends to stay in the
cold
Arctic waters. Floes are more prone to converge, or bump into each other, and pile up into thick ridges. These converging floes
makes
Arctic ice thicker. The presence of ridge ice and its longer life cycle leads to ice that stays frozen longer during the summer melt.
So
some
Arctic
sea
ice remains through the summer and continues to grow the following autumn. Of the 15
million
square kilometers (5. 8
million
square miles) of
sea
ice that exist during winter, on average, 7
million
square kilometers (2. 7
million
square miles) remain at the
end
of the summer melt season.