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2/ Antarctica is of course the location of the South Pole.

The pole the site of the Amundsen-Scott Research Station, named after two explorers who lead teams to race to be the first to reach the pole

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%E2%80%93Scott_South_Pole_Station

3/ Many countries operate permanent Anatarctic research stations, in the summer the continent has about 5,000 residents and in the winter about 1,000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_stations_in_Antarctica

Wondering what they looks like? Follow @southpoleviews

4/ You will be happy to know that many of these research stations are well mapped in #OpenStreetMap

For example here’s McMurdo Station

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/-77.8481/166.6714

5/ Who exactly owns Antarctica? Seven countries make territorial claims: and others reserve the right to make a claim:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_claims_in_Antarctica

6/ Nevertheless, a big chunk of Antarctica - a territory known as Marie Byrd Land - is unclaimed by any country. It is the largest unclaimed territory on Earth. #geoweirdness

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Byrd_Land

7/ The claims are not a live issue though, thanks to the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). It is signed by all the claimants and many more countries, making Antarctica a scientific preserve and banning military activity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Treaty_System

8/ Still, some countries take the territorial claims seriously, for example one of Chile's 16 regions is officially named "Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena" and Chilean maps often show the Antarctic claim.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regi%C3%B3n_de_Magallanes_y_de_la_Ant%C3%A1rtica_Chilena

9/ Argentina does the same, and some families live in their research stations. At least 11 babies have been born in "Antártida Argentina"

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%A1rtida_Argentina
#geoweirdness

10/ No doubt you are now asking yourself "Wait, what time it is in Antarctica?" ?

Well, it's complicated

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Antarctica
#geoweirdness

11/ Despite not being a country, Antarctica has it's own ISO 3166-1 code "AQ" though France's Overseas Territory "Southern and Antarctic Lands" also has the ISO code "TF" and claims to include the French claim in Antarctica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Southern_and_Antarctic_Lands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2

12/ As the most remote and least populated continent, we still have a lot to learn about Antarctica. A big focus of the research is studying the geology and geography of the continent, and of course the effects of climate change. Modern technologies are helping us gather more and better data to understand the southern continent.

For example REMA: https://www.pgc.umn.edu/data/rema/

13/ We hope you enjoyed our look at the geographic strangeness of the Antarctica Thanks for reading (and sharing). What did we miss?

We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some still on twitter, but over time we are moving them to mastodon. Enjoy.

https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads