The Antarctic Treaty

The Antarctic Treaty and the Continent Nobody May Claim

The Antarctic Treaty was signed in Washington on 1 December 1959 by twelve governments. It reserves the continent for peaceful purposes, freezes every territorial claim and lets observers inspect anything, anywhere, at any time. Readers of Admiral Byrd's 1947 warning, of the flat-earth ice wall and of hidden-base stories see in it a fence. This investigation reads the treaty's own articles, the record of who goes there, and what is still unanswered.