Area and borders of Antarctic and permafrost—A review and synthesis

Abstract

The Antarctic continent is a crucial area for ultimate determination of permafrost extent on Earth, and its solution depends on the theoretical assumptions adopted. In fact, it ranges from 0.022 × 106 to 14 × 106 km2. This level of inaccuracy is unprecedented in the Earth sciences. The novelty of the present study consists in determining the extent of Antarctic permafrost not based exclusively on empirical studies but on universal criteria resulting from the definition of permafrost as the thermal state of the lithosphere, which was applied for the first time to this continent. The area covered by permafrost in Antarctica is ca. 13.9 million km2, that is its entire surface. This result was also made possible due to the first clear determination of the boundaries and area of the continent. The Antarctic area includes (a) rocky subsurface with (b) continental ice‐sheets and (c) shelf glaciers, which, due to their terrigenous origin and belonging to the lithosphere, belongs to the continent in the same way. Antarctica is covered by continuous permafrost, either in a frozen or in a cryotic state. This also significantly influences delimitation of the global extent of permafrost, which can therefore be defined much more accurately. The proposed ice reclassification and its transfer from the hydrosphere to the lithosphere will allow the uniform treatment of ice in the Earth sciences, both on Earth and on other celestial bodies.