Political Map of Antarctica

Political map of Antarctica adapted from the World Factbook, 2020. Azimuthal Equal-Area Projection.

Antarctica is the southernmost continent on Earth, known for being the coldest, driest, and windiest. It is covered by a vast ice sheet, representing about 90% of the world's ice. Despite being a continent, it has no indigenous population and is administered by the Antarctic Treaty System, an international agreement that designates it as a "natural reserve, dedicated to peace and science."

Twenty-one of 28 Antarctic consultative countries have made no claims to Antarctic territory, although Russia and the United States have reserved the right to do so and they do not recognize the claims of the other countries.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Uruguay each have a station on King George Island (inset on the left).

Vinson Massif is the tallest mountain in Antarctica. Its peak reaches 4,897 m, though the mountain itself is a large raised feature around 21 km long and 13 km wide, dominating the Sentinel Range of the Ellesworth Mountains in which it is located. Image courtesy of NASA.

The Bouvet island is an uninhabited, volcanic island in the Southern Ocean, southwest of the Cape of Good Hope, almost entirely covered by glaciers. It is a territory of Norway. In 1971, it was designated a nature reserve. Since 1977, Norway has run an automated meteorological station and studied foraging strategies and distribution of fur seals and penguins on the island.