South Pole

Most of Antarctica is south of the Antarctic Circle, with the exception of parts of the East Antarctic coastline and the Antarctic Peninsula which extends northwards from West Antarctica to about 63°S.

Both the Arctic (North Pole) and the Antarctic (South Pole) are cold because they don’t get any direct sunlight.

Map is showing the Antarctic circle and the continent of Antarctica with a land area of 14 million km² (280,000 km² ice-free, 13.72 million km² ice-covered), so Antarctica is almost twice the size of Australia (7,617,930 km²), it is the world’s fifth-largest continent in area, after Asia, Africa, North America, and …

No, it is not illegal to go to Antarctica. As you already know by now, no country owns the continent. There is no border control, no immigration officer, no nothing. Anyone can visit the continent.

China is pushing the boundaries of ATS practice by exploiting fisheries and tourism, and probably seeking access to Western technologies in Antarctica. And in the future, Beijing could lead a coalition of states seeking mineral riches that only China is likely to be capable of retrieving.

As Antarctica thaws, opening the continent to resource exploitation and potential colonization, China has adopted a swaggering Antarctic presence, demanding far more of Antarctic Treaty System partners than China’s modest Antarctic presence appears to merit.

More than 50 Antarctic stations were established for the IGY by just 12 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Almost every continent on Earth is connected to the internet by a series of undersea fiber optic cables, but Antarctica is the one continent unreachable by fiber. Because of this, American research stations in Antarctica receive internet from a few different satellite systems.

Netflix on Twitter: “You can now watch Netflix in… South Korea, Afghanistan, Angola, Antarctica, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin…”

The short answer is no, your mobile phone will not work during your tour of Antarctica. While we’ve come a long way from the earliest expeditions when explorers could only send snail mail via other ships, Antarctica is still a remote and wild destination with a telecommunications system to match.

Seven countries (Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom) maintain territorial claims in Antarctica, but the United States and most other countries do not recognize those claims. While the United States maintains a basis to claim territory in Antarctica, it has not made a claim.

People from all over the world undertake research in Antarctica, but Antarctica is not owned by any one nation. Antarctica is governed internationally through the Antarctic Treaty system. The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries who had scientists in and around Antarctica at the time.

There are known reserves of oil and coal as well as mineral deposits in Antarctica, although detailed knowledge of these mineral deposits is sketchy. In the last 50 years of scientific research, no large deposits of mineralized rocks have been found.

Instead of water, liquid hydrocarbons in the form of methane and ethane are present on the moon’s surface, and tholins probably make up its dunes. Several hundred lakes and seas have been observed, with each of several dozen estimated to contain more hydrocarbon liquid than Earth’s oil and gas reserves.