Atlas

The main purpose of this map is to show the 8 territorial claims in Antarctica. At first, I found this rather comical, since Antarctica has no permanent residents (although it has 1,000-5,000 non-permanent residents). Such claims thus seem rather old-fashioned in my opinion. But of course, Antarctica is an important region for scientific investigation; countries set up research stations (represented by black squares) in the sectors they have claimed. This research is allowed by the Antarctic Treaty (1961); the treaty also prohibits military activities, nuclear explosions, nuclear waste disposal, and mineral mining. According to the map, Australia has two claims in Antarctica, while France, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Norway each have one claim. It is interesting that the claims of Britain (gold), Argentina (green), and Chile (red) overlap. It surprises me that these countries cannot agree on who controls which sector! I am also fascinated that the United States does not have a territorial claim in Antarctica; I wonder why this is the case. Finally, it is important to note that each claim contains research stations from other countries, including South Africa, Russia, India, Germany, Ukraine, Japan, Italy, and the United States. This suggests that the territorial claims are simply a vestige of the past; after all, the last claim (that of Argentina) was made 70 years ago!