Antarctica's treasures.(TRAVEL) From: The Washington Times | Date: March 27, 2004 | COPYRIGHT 2004 The Washington Times LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Byline: Richard Slusser, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Antarctica is full of surprises and beauty; it is much more than 5.3 million square miles of land covered in snow and ice.

Most of the continent is covered by an ice sheet with an average thickness of 6,600 feet. Of the actual landmass of the continent, about 2 percent is visible, and that is as mountains and coastline.

Lesser Antarctica is the 744-mile-long, narrow, taillike peninsula, a chain of alpine...