Concerns over China’s expanding activities in the Polar regions seem to have grown with the recent reports of the construction of its new Antarctic station near the Ross Sea. The resumption of construction activities of China’s fifth research station—after a few years of delay—has generated quick responses from Western critics and think tanks.

The “world’s most challenging shipwreck search” for one of the greatest legends of exploration history, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance, lost more than a century ago in the icy waters of Antarctica, has succeeded. The site of Endurance was declared a historic monument under the terms of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty.

In his book, Madhouse at the End of the Earth, author Julian Sancton explains that there is something about the southernmost continent that really drives people mad. An excerpt from the book.

What happens when all the ice melts and Antarctica is colonized? Browse through the archive of the future: scenarios, interviews, diary entries—all sort of stories that take place in Antarctica after the year 2119. (In Dutch).

Dutch artist Esther Kokmeijer has been exploring the territory of Antarctica through different media, in this project she is collecting current and historical maps, showing the various, sometimes overlapping, claims to Antarctica. The maps are made with different purposes by different countries and laying out different kind of information. Other projects on her website also show mankind’s relations to nature and to the environment.

The image of Captain Scott’s expedition foretold a tragedy, a look at the reasons for the sad failure of Scott’s men to return.

What do you to with an entire continent whose sovereignty is unresolved and whose territories are in dispute? Simple: dispatch a pregnant lady, have her give birth there, and then use the baby to stake your territorial claims.

Seven countries have laid claim to parts of Antarctica and many more have a presence there - why do they all want a piece of this frozen wasteland?

Artist Michael Bartalos Recycles Antarctic Rubbish into an Artwork about Conservation.