Antarctic Peninsula

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica, extending north toward South America and forming the closest point of the continent to another landmass, separated from Tierra del Fuego by the Drake Passage. It is the warmest and most rapidly warming region of Antarctica, home to most of the continent's exposed rock and the bulk of its research stations, and its coastline is fringed by ice shelves, glaciers and a chain of islands. The peninsula supports relatively dense concentrations of wildlife for the continent, including penguin colonies, seals and seabirds that gather along its ice-free coastal margins during the austral summer.