Final answer:
The Arctic and Antarctic differ in geophysical structure and climate; the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land and the Antarctic is a continent surrounded by ocean. Antarctic ice cores are valuable in understanding past global temperature fluctuations. The cores show cyclic patterns of change over the past 400,000 years.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Arctic and the Antarctic are both polar regions on Earth but have different characteristics and systems. The Arctic, located at the northern pole, is an ocean surrounded by land, while the Antarctic at the southern pole is a continent surrounded by ocean. The Arctic experiences some level of melting during the summer which leads to changes in the habitat and ecosystem dynamics, while the Antarctic remains largely ice-covered year-round, contributing to its colder and drier climate.
Antarctic ice cores provide evidence for past climate change and are obtained by drilling thousands of meters into ice sheets. These cores show trapped air bubbles and biological evidence that reveal historical temperature and carbon dioxide data. Such records indicate cyclic patterns of global temperature changes over the past 400,000 years, impacting both the Antarctic and global climate.