Introduction – Antarctica Day is observed every year on December 1 to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in the year 1959. This treaty was signed by 12 countries to protect Antarctica.

Antarctica is the coldest continent and contains 90 percent of all the ice on Earth. It is the fifth-largest continent and most of the space is covered with ice. The size of this continent is around 5.5 million square miles and ice covers around 98 percent of the land.

 Antarctica is divided into two regions namely West Antarctica and East Antarctica. West Antarctica is largely an ice sheet that covers an archipelago of mountains islands whereas East Antarctica is largely composed of a high ice-covered plateau. These two parts of Antarctica are separated by the Transantarctic Mountains. The Transantarctic Mountains is a range, which stretches across Antarctica and is sometimes is fully covered with ice. Antarctica contains about 7 million cubic miles of ice sheets that represent approx. 90 percent of ice and 80 percent of fresh water across the world.

History – The Foundation for the Good Governance of International Spaces established Antarctica Day in the year 2010 to highlight the global cooperation, which makes governance of the continent possible. In the year 2009, Antarctica Day was introduced by the Antarctica Treaty Summit on the 50^th anniversary of the Antarctica Treaty. This international day also promotes instructors to include Antarctica in the syllabus.