ATLAS

VariantOMEGA-11-3-2Sheet 2 of 6 of the dossier Antarctic Treaty

A seal on what lies under the ice

Variants in which the closed continent protects a hidden world, a Nazi base or a secret that two superpowers share.

Satellite image of dark rocky ridges edged with snow, glacier ice in pale blue between them and wind-streaked dark water below.
Satellite view of Inexpressible Island and the Northern Foothills in Antarctica, 16 September 2009 (NASA Earth Observatory). Real terrain, shown for context: it illustrates no part of the thesis. NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team and the United States Geological Survey. Caption by Michon Scott and Rebecca Lindsey, based on image interpretation by Ted Scambos, National Snow and Ice Data Center. · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Summary

In this strand of the thesis the ban is not an end in itself: it is a seal, and what matters is what it protects. The stories that circulate online disagree on the contents. Some speak of an ancient race, pyramids and a tropical rainforest under the ice; Hollow Earth believers see the poles as doors to an inner world; older tales place a Nazi base with flying saucers beneath the ice, and a 2022 viral story claims that Moscow and Washington both conceal the truth, with a giant creature as the proof. The common thread is that the Treaty's language of peace and science would be a cover. Checking each piece leads back to ordinary sources. The creature story was a satirical text labelled as fiction. A Cambridge geologist's peer-reviewed paper found no sign that the 1939 German expedition ever selected a site for a base, and the expedition stayed about a month on the coast. The famous "pyramids" are pyramidal peaks, shaped by erosion and by glaciers flowing away from a common summit. None of these stories documents the order it supposes; they only claim that someone, somewhere, forbids it.

What the thesis says

The sources show where these claims circulate, not that they are true.

  1. Thesis

    One viral video says the continent is closed because it hides an "ancient race of super-beings", pyramids and a hidden tropical rainforest; the video presents these as the reasons why going would be illegal.

  2. Thesis

    Hollow Earth believers hold that the poles are the entrances to a world inside the planet, inhabited by dinosaurs, aliens or Nazis according to the version; versions of the Antarctic ban cite it as what a closed continent would hide.

  3. Thesis

    Tabloid articles in 2016 suggested a Nazi flying-saucer base under the Antarctic ice, a story that has circulated since the end of the Second World War.

  4. Thesis

    A 2022 viral story claims that Russia and the United States both conceal the truth about Antarctica, where a giant creature supposedly lives under the ice.

Verified facts

  1. Verified fact

    Lead Stories found that the "Russia revealed a hidden creature" story came from a satirical fictional story labelled as such, and that the Russian government never revealed anything backing it up.

  2. Verified fact

    A peer-reviewed study by a Cambridge geologist found no sign the 1939 German expedition ever chose a site for a base, much less built one; the expedition spent only about a month on the coast.

  3. Verified fact

    Geologists have shown that the "pyramids" seen on satellite images in 2016 are pyramidal peaks, mountain tops sculpted by erosion and by glaciers diverging from a central point.