Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Ice wall

The Ice Wall, in the context of fringe cosmological models, denotes a conjectured colossal barrier of ice purportedly encircling a disc-shaped Earth, often equated with Antarctica's ice shelves to contain the oceans and obscure territories beyond, a notion central to modern flat Earth adherents who cite restricted access under the Antarctic Treaty as evidence of concealment.^[1]^[2] This theory posits the wall's height at up to 150 feet or more in places, formed by natural glacial extension yet allegedly patrolled to enforce secrecy, drawing from exploratory accounts like those of 19th-century expeditions encountering sheer ice cliffs.^[3] However, empirical observations—including circumnavigations of Antarctica spanning over 10,000 miles without encountering an impassable perimeter, aerial and satellite surveys revealing a continental landmass rather than a uniform ring, and extensive scientific stations operated by multiple nations—demonstrate no such enclosing structure exists, aligning instead with glaciological definitions of ice walls as vertical margins of floating ice shelves protruding into the sea, typically 50-100 meters high and grounded on continental bedrock.^[4]^[5] The concept's prominence stems from reinterpretations of phenomena like the Ross Ice Shelf's barriers, amplified in online communities despite lacking verifiable data, contrasting with peer-reviewed geophysical evidence affirming Earth's oblate spheroid shape via measurements of curvature, Foucault pendulums, and lunar eclipses. Controversies arise from proponents' dismissal of institutional sources as biased gatekeepers, yet independent verifications by private expeditions and commercial shipping routes routinely traverse Antarctic waters without barrier encounters, underscoring the theory's incompatibility with reproducible experimentation.

Glaciological Definition and Characteristics

Formation Mechanisms

Ice shelves, the floating extensions of Antarctic glaciers and ice streams, form when inland ice flows seaward under gravitational forces, grounding lines transitioning to afloat conditions where the ice detaches from the bedrock and spreads over the ocean. This outflow process, driven by the imbalance between ice accumulation in the interior and marine terminus losses, creates expansive platforms whose seaward edges manifest as near-vertical ice walls, typically tens to hundreds of meters high.^[6]^[7] The ice wall itself emerges and maintains its form at the calving front, where tensile stresses from divergent ice flow and oceanic forces cause periodic fracturing and iceberg detachment, preventing indefinite lateral extension. Crevasses and rifts initiate inland due to longitudinal stretching and propagate toward the front over years to decades, influenced by structural weaknesses like suture zones between glacier tributaries; radar interferometry and seismic surveys have mapped these rift evolutions, revealing propagation speeds of up to 10-20 meters per day in active cases. Gravitational spreading further thins the shelf interior, promoting outward flow at rates of 1-5 km per year for major shelves like Ronne and Ross, as quantified by satellite altimetry and GPS measurements.^[8]^[9] Basal melting accelerates wall retreat by eroding the underside, primarily through interaction with intruding warm circumpolar deep water that rises via sub-shelf channels, with melt rates averaging 1-5 meters per year but exceeding 10 meters annually in hotspots; this undercutting reduces buttressing and heightens calving susceptibility, as evidenced by oceanographic moorings detecting thermal forcing dependencies. Surface ablation, including summer melt and wind-driven sublimation, contributes modestly (0.1-1 meter per year equivalent), but episodic meltwater ponding can trigger hydrofracture, widening crevasses to full-thickness rifts. The 2002 Larsen B collapse, disintegrating 3,250 square kilometers of ice in 35 days, exemplified these dynamics: prolonged surface melting from regional air temperatures 2-3°C above 1970s averages filled fractures with water, whose hydrostatic pressure—equivalent to 10-20 meters of ice overburden—propagated rifts rapidly, independent of basal processes in this case.^[10]^[11]^[12]

Physical Properties and Dimensions

Ice walls, the near-vertical faces of Antarctic ice shelves and tidewater glaciers, typically rise 30 to 60 meters above the sea surface, representing the freeboard portion of floating ice masses in hydrostatic equilibrium.^[13] The submerged draft extends 200 to 400 meters or greater, as revealed by upward-looking sonar profiling and satellite-derived bathymetry, with total thicknesses varying by shelf—for instance, bases mapped at approximately 350 meters beneath the surface in regions like the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.^[14] ^[15] These dimensions reflect buoyancy constraints, where roughly 89% of the ice thickness lies below sea level due to the density contrast between ice (≈0.917 g/cm³) and seawater (≈1.025 g/cm³).^[16] Composed of layered firn—partially compacted snow—grading downward into denser glacial ice, ice walls exhibit densities ranging from 0.4 to 0.84 g/cm³ in the upper firn zone to 0.83–0.92 g/cm³ in solid ice, as measured in core samples across Antarctic sites.^[17] This material is prone to fracturing along crevasses and rift lines, driven by tensile stresses at the calving front, with crystal structures evolving from granular snow to interlocking ice polygons that enhance shear resistance but remain brittle under rapid deformation.^[18] Salinity is negligible in the ice core (typically <0.1 ppt), decreasing with depth from any surface melt influences, unlike saline sea ice; hardness, quantified by compressive strength, varies from 1–3 MPa in colder, deeper ice to lower values near the surface due to temperature gradients (-10°C to -30°C).^[19] ^[20] Unlike static rock cliffs, ice walls are inherently dynamic, with vertical extents fluctuating via calving events or basal melting, and horizontal positions advancing or retreating based on net mass balance between accumulation and ablation.^[13] Empirical data from NASA's ICESat and ICESat-2 altimetry indicate average thinning of 1–2 meters per decade across vulnerable Antarctic ice shelves in sectors like the Amundsen Sea Embayment, though rates have slowed in some areas since circa 2008, as quantified by repeated elevation profiles spanning 2003–2018.^[21] ^[22] This variability underscores their response to local ocean forcing and grounding line dynamics, with select shelves like Thwaites experiencing up to 5 meters of surface lowering over 16 years in ICESat observations.^[22]

Major Antarctic Examples

The Ross Ice Shelf features one of Antarctica's most prominent ice walls, with its calving front extending over 600 kilometers in length and rising 15 to 50 meters above sea level.^[23]^[24] Discovered on January 28, 1841, by British explorer James Clark Ross during his expedition, this front marks the boundary of the world's largest ice shelf, spanning approximately 487,000 square kilometers.^[25]^[26] The shelf's ice wall plays a critical role in modulating ice discharge from upstream glaciers into the Ross Sea, influencing regional ocean circulation patterns through buttressing effects that stabilize inland ice flow.^[27] In the Weddell Sea, the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf presents another major ice wall system, with ice thicknesses averaging around 700 meters and extending inland over 800 kilometers from the front.^[28]^[29] This combined shelf, the second largest in Antarctica at about 430,000 square kilometers, borders Coats Land and the Filchner Ice Front, where the wall's configuration affects the outflow of dense shelf water and modulates East Antarctic ice dynamics by restraining tributary glacier velocities.^[30] Monitoring efforts, including seismic and oceanographic surveys initiated in the 1940s, have documented its relative stability, with basal thicknesses exceeding 600 meters in places contributing to low melt rates under cold cavity conditions.^[31] Regional variations in ice wall behavior are evident in the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, where the calving front has advanced at rates of 1.0 to 1.4 kilometers per year since the 1970s, as measured by satellite imagery and ground surveys.^[32]^[33] This progradation, observed via Landsat and other remote sensing data, contrasts with retreat narratives in some sectors, highlighting localized thickening and advance driven by snow accumulation and ice dynamics rather than uniform destabilization; GPS validations confirm front positions shifting seaward without significant volume loss.^[34] Such empirical patterns underscore the heterogeneous response of Antarctic ice walls to climatic forcings, with stable or advancing fronts like Amery's buttressing upstream ice and sustaining continental mass balance.^[35]

Historical Exploration and Discovery

Early 19th-Century Expeditions

In the 1770s, Captain James Cook's second voyage (1772–1775) provided the earliest systematic European observations of Antarctic waters during a circumnavigation of the continent. Cook penetrated southward to latitudes around 71°10′ S, encountering extensive pack ice and icebergs that formed temporary barriers to further progress, but his logs recorded these as drifting and variable in extent rather than a uniform continuous wall encircling the region.^[36]^[37] These accounts, derived from direct shipboard measurements including latitude fixes and ice edge tracings, indicated seasonal and localized ice accumulations driven by freezing seawater and calving glaciers, without evidence of an impenetrable perimeter.^[37] The first detailed encounter with a prominent Antarctic ice feature occurred during James Clark Ross's British Antarctic Expedition of 1839–1843, aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. On January 9, 1841, the ships entered open water in the newly identified Ross Sea after navigating heavy pack ice, marking the most southerly penetration to date.^[38] By January 29, 1841, Ross sighted the "Great Ice Barrier," a sheer ice cliff rising approximately 160–300 feet above the sea surface and extending indefinitely eastward and westward.^[39] Ross's team employed chronometric positioning and lead-line soundings to map the barrier's front, recording water depths of up to 410 fathoms (about 750 meters) adjacent to the ice wall, which refuted immediate attachment to underlying land and supported its nature as a floating extension of inland ice masses formed by glacial outflow and precipitation accumulation.^[39] Barometric and sketching records from the expedition depicted the barrier's uniform vertical face and calving activity, consistent with dynamic polar ice dynamics rather than a static enclosing structure, establishing empirical baselines for subsequent glaciological interpretations.^[40]

20th-Century Mapping and Access

In the early 20th century, overland expeditions led by Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott provided foundational ground-based access to Antarctic ice shelves, traversing barriers such as the Ross Ice Shelf to document their extent and structure. Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition (1907–1909) advanced approximately 180 kilometers across the shelf toward the interior via the Beardmore Glacier, recording ice thicknesses and calving dynamics through direct observation and basic surveying.^[41] Scott's Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913) followed similar routes, with the team crossing the Ross Ice Shelf's edge in October 1911 en route to the South Pole, which they reached on December 14, 1911; these efforts revealed the shelves' finite boundaries and transition to grounded continental ice, supported by sledge-borne measurements of surface elevations and crevasses.^[42]^[41] Post-World War II aerial reconnaissance marked a technological leap in mapping, exemplified by the U.S. Navy's Operation Highjump (1946–1947), which deployed 13 ships, 23 aircraft, and over 4,700 personnel to conduct systematic photogrammetric surveys. Aircraft flew overlapping paths along the Antarctic coast, capturing approximately 70,000 photographs that delineated roughly 14,000 kilometers of ice shelf perimeters and adjacent coastlines, confirming the barriers' irregular, continent-encircling configuration rather than an unbroken expanse.^[43]^[44] These missions utilized trimetrogon aerial photography for stereoscopic analysis, enabling precise contour mapping and identification of shelf fronts, with flight logs verifying coverage from the Ross Sea to Enderby Land. During the International Geophysical Year (1957–1958), ground traverses complemented aerial data through seismic and geodetic fieldwork, establishing direct measurements of ice shelf dynamics and subglacial features. U.S. and international teams conducted oversnow routes, such as the Little America-Byrd Station traverse, installing seismic reflection stations to probe ice thicknesses up to 1,000 meters and detect bedrock interfaces beneath floating shelves.^[45] Theodolite surveys along routes like the Marie Byrd Land traverse quantified strain rates and calving events, with data from 1957–1958 expeditions demonstrating continental grounding lines and tidal flexure, thus empirically linking shelves to the underlying Antarctic landmass.^[46]^[45]

Scientific Research and Applications

Monitoring Techniques and Data Collection

Satellite remote sensing constitutes a primary method for monitoring Antarctic ice walls, particularly through gravimetric and altimetric measurements that quantify mass balance and topographic variations. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, operational from 2002 to 2017, and its successor GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO), launched in 2018, detect changes in Earth's gravity field to estimate ice mass loss, revealing an average Antarctic ice sheet mass reduction of approximately 150 gigatons per year between 2002 and 2023, with contributions from ice shelf dynamics including frontal ablation at ice walls.^[47] Complementing these, the CryoSat-2 satellite's synthetic aperture interferometric radar altimeter, deployed since 2010, maps surface elevation changes across ice shelves with resolutions of 3–10 km, enabling detection of thinning rates linked to ice wall retreat, such as those observed in combined datasets spanning 2002–2019.^[48] These techniques provide basin-wide, time-series data essential for falsifiable assessments of ice wall stability, though they require corrections for glacial isostatic adjustment and firn densification to isolate true mass signals.^[49] In-situ instrumentation offers direct, high-resolution observations beneath and at the fronts of ice walls, focusing on processes like basal melting and calving. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), such as those deployed under the Amery or Ronne Ice Shelves, utilize multibeam sonar and temperature sensors to profile basal topography and quantify melt rates, recording values up to 15 meters per year in regions influenced by warm deep water intrusion.^[14] For calving dynamics at ice wall fronts, oceanographic moorings equipped with acoustic sensors and current meters, often integrated with tide measurements, track event frequencies and triggers, as tidal flexing has been observed to propagate rifts leading to iceberg detachment, with monitoring enhanced by phase-sensitive radar echo sounders on the ice underside.^[50]^[51] These deployments, typically lasting months to years, yield empirical datasets on ocean-ice interactions but face challenges from under-ice navigation and biofouling, limiting coverage to accessible shelf cavities. Data from these techniques are integrated into physics-based numerical models to validate observed flows and predict ice wall behavior. Finite element models, such as the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM), solve the Stokes equations for ice deformation and basal sliding, incorporating satellite-derived boundary conditions to simulate flow velocities and stress fields at ice fronts, with validations against GPS stake networks confirming discrepancies below 10% in grounded-to-floating transitions. This approach prioritizes causal mechanisms like rheology and friction over purely statistical correlations, enabling scenario testing for melt-induced instability while highlighting uncertainties in sub-shelf bathymetry.^[52] Such modeling ensures predictions remain tethered to verifiable inputs, distinguishing it from less mechanistic frameworks.

Contributions to Oceanography and Meteorology

Meltwater from the basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves introduces freshwater into adjacent ocean cavities, freshening shelf waters and thereby influencing the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), a key driver of global deep ocean ventilation and cooling. This freshening stratifies the water column, reducing the density contrast that fuels deep convection and potentially diminishing AABW production rates, as evidenced by modeling and observational studies linking increased melt to suppressed bottom water export.^[53]^[54] Salinity profiles derived from ARGO floats, operational since 2000 and providing over two million temperature-salinity measurements by 2019, have traced these effects by revealing fresher anomalies in AABW source regions and pathways, particularly in the Australian-Antarctic Basin where deep floats have mapped year-round properties under ice cover from 2018 onward.^[55]^[56] Katabatic winds, accelerated by gravity over the sloping surfaces of ice shelves and the Antarctic plateau, play a pivotal role in meteorology by driving the opening of coastal polynyas—ice-free areas adjacent to shelves—through offshore sea ice advection. These winds, often exceeding 20 m/s in sustained events, promote rapid sea ice formation within polynyas via extreme heat loss, with the resulting brine rejection contributing to dense shelf water that feeds AABW.^[57] Automatic weather stations deployed in Antarctic coastal regions since the 1990s have quantified these flows, showing their persistence for days to weeks and direct correlation with polynya extent, which enhances atmospheric CO2 uptake by exposing supersaturated surface waters; East Antarctic polynyas alone absorb 9–14 Tg C annually, comparable to regional outgassing elsewhere.^[58] Oceanographic observations around ice shelves further validate coupled models of circulation through the Coriolis effect, which deflects westward-flowing Antarctic Slope Currents to the right in the Southern Hemisphere, structuring onshore heat transport and melt patterns consistent with a rotating spherical Earth. High-resolution simulations and float data confirm this deflection influences boundary layer turbulence and upwelling near shelf fronts, providing causal evidence against non-rotating geometries by demonstrating predictable veering in current vectors around topographic features like the Antarctic margins.^[59]^[60]

Environmental Significance and Climate Dynamics

Interactions with Global Sea Levels

Ice shelves in Antarctica, often referred to as ice walls due to their vertical barriers, influence global sea levels indirectly through their buttressing effect on grounded ice sheets. Calving events and basal melting reduce shelf extent and thickness, diminishing lateral support and accelerating the flow of inland glaciers into the ocean, thereby contributing to eustatic sea level rise via net mass loss from grounded ice. Assessments from the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE) indicate that dynamic losses associated with Antarctic shelves equated to an average contribution of approximately 0.3 mm per year to global mean sea level from 1992 to 2017, with rates accelerating in West Antarctica but remaining below 0.4 mm per year overall through 2020.^[61] This contribution is moderated by surface mass balance, where increased snowfall in East Antarctica offsets dynamic losses, resulting in regional mass gains that counterbalance West Antarctic deficits. For example, enhanced precipitation across the continent during the 20th century buffered an estimated 1-2 cm of potential sea level rise by adding ice volume equivalent to negative eustatic forcing.^[62] Recent observations from 2021-2023 further demonstrate this variability, with anomalous snowfall yielding a net mass gain and a sea level contribution of -0.30 ± 0.21 mm per year.^[63] Ocean warming exacerbates basal melt rates beneath shelves, fostering feedback loops that thin floating ice and promote grounded ice discharge, though empirical measurements reveal non-linear responses influenced by local ocean circulation and topography. Satellite altimetry data since 1992, including from missions like ERS-1 and ICESat, quantify elevation changes to differentiate floating shelf variations (which displace rather than add water volume) from grounded ice losses directly tied to sea level. Tide gauge records dating to the 1880s confirm global mean sea level rise of 21-24 cm over the past century, with Antarctic influences emerging prominently only post-1992 via integrated mass balance models rather than direct historical attribution.^[64]^[49]

Stability Trends and Empirical Observations

Observations from satellite altimetry and gravimetry indicate pronounced regional disparities in Antarctic ice shelf thickness changes, with the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) sectors experiencing accelerated thinning while East Antarctic counterparts exhibit stability or net mass gains. For instance, Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica has thinned at rates of several meters per year, driven primarily by enhanced basal melting from warm ocean currents intruding beneath the ice shelf.^[65] In contrast, central East Antarctica has seen a 24% increase in snow accumulation rates since the early 19th century, confirmed by instrumental records over the last 52 years, leading to surface mass balance gains that offset dynamic losses elsewhere.^[66] These trends reflect natural variability in precipitation patterns, amplified by recent anomalous snowfall events, as evidenced by a record mass gain of 129.7 ± 69.6 Gt yr⁻¹ across the Antarctic Ice Sheet in 2021–2022.^[67] Empirical data refute narratives of uniform ice shelf retreat, revealing a slowdown in thinning rates across West Antarctic shelves since approximately 2008, based on 26 years of satellite-derived thickness and basal melt measurements from 1992–2017.^[21] Overall Antarctic ice shelf area expanded by 5,305 km² from 2009 to 2019, with 16 major shelves showing growth outweighing retreats in 18 smaller ones, per high-resolution satellite mapping.^[68] Such observations highlight the dominance of empirical measurements over model projections of extreme melt, where approximately 85% of ice shelf perimeters in key sectors advanced since the early 2000s, countering selective emphasis on calving and thinning events. Causal analyses incorporate both anthropogenic influences like elevated CO₂ and natural forcings, including orbital (Milankovitch) cycles and solar irradiance variations, which have modulated Antarctic climate over glacial-interglacial transitions without precipitating widespread ice shelf collapse. Vostok ice core records spanning 420,000 years document multiple warmer interglacial periods—such as Marine Isotope Stage 5.5—with temperatures exceeding current levels, yet the East Antarctic Ice Sheet remained intact, as inferred from stable deuterium proxies and atmospheric composition data. These proxies underscore the role of internal variability, such as obliquity-driven asynchronies between Antarctic temperature and CO₂, in sustaining ice stability during past peaks warmer than the present Holocene.^[70] Contemporary trends, including precipitation-driven mass gains, align with this historical pattern, suggesting that overreliance on CO₂-centric models overlooks empirically observed compensatory mechanisms like enhanced snowfall amid regional warming.^[71]

Conspiracy Theories and Misconceptions

Origins in Flat Earth Cosmology

The concept of an ice wall encircling a flat Earth originated in the 19th-century revival of flat Earth ideas, particularly through Samuel Rowbotham's 1849 publication Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe, which described the Earth as a circular plane bounded by extensive icy enclosures to contain the oceans, centered on the North Pole with the Southern Hemisphere reimagined as a peripheral rim rather than a pole.^[72] Rowbotham's "zetetic" approach emphasized empirical observations over astronomical theory, positing these barriers as natural delimiters preventing water from spilling off the disc's edge.^[72] By the early 20th century, this enclosure evolved into explicit Antarctic rim imagery among proponents like Wilbur Glenn Voliva, who in sermons and publications around 1923 proclaimed an "ice rim" forming the world's outer boundary, drawing on explorer accounts of Antarctic ice shelves as evidence of an impassable southern wall upholding the flat plane.^[73] Voliva, as overseer of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, Illinois, integrated these views into religious teachings, asserting the rim's role in maintaining the Earth's stability against spherical globe deceptions.^[73] The post-World War II revival, led by Samuel Shenton's founding of the International Flat Earth Research Society in 1956, further codified the ice wall as a massive, vertical Antarctic barrier—described in society literature as containing waters beneath a firmament dome—reviving Rowbothamian and Volivan motifs amid skepticism of space exploration claims.^[72] By the 2010s, online flat Earth resources like the Flat Earth Wiki elaborated on this as a hundreds-of-meters-thick ice front, allegedly guarded under international agreements to conceal extra lands beyond, echoing historical enclosure themes while adapting to modern treaty narratives.^[3]

Specific Claims About Containment and Secrecy

Ice wall proponents assert that the Antarctic ice formation functions as a vast perimeter barrier, purportedly spanning over 30,000 miles, designed to contain the oceans on the periphery of a flat, disc-shaped Earth and prevent them from cascading into the void beyond.^[74] This containment model posits that without the wall's encircling presence, water would inevitably flow outward due to gravity's downward pull on a planar surface, rendering the structure essential to maintaining hydrological stability.^[75] Access to regions immediately beyond this barrier is claimed to be restricted to select elites, with misinterpreted statements from Admiral Richard E. Byrd's 1947 Operation Highjump expedition cited as evidence of hidden, habitable lands extending outward, allegedly suppressed to preserve the globe model.^[76]^[77] Allegations of secrecy center on the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which theorists interpret not as a framework for peaceful scientific cooperation but as a multinational cover for clandestine NASA and military agreements to guard the wall and its environs.^[2] Proponents point to prohibitions on commercial overflights across Antarctica—attributed by authorities to logistical challenges like extreme weather and fuel requirements—as deliberate obfuscation to deter independent verification of the perimeter's extent.^[1] Substantial U.S. investments in polar operations, often framed as suspiciously high relative to disclosed scientific outputs, are invoked to suggest funding for enforcement and concealment efforts rather than mere research.^[78] Variants of these claims extend to speculations of additional continents or advanced civilizations lying immediately post-wall, purportedly comprising up to 26 extra landmasses teeming with undisclosed populations or resources.^[79] These narratives, amplified through 2020s YouTube documentaries and channels exploring "beyond the ice wall" scenarios, emphasize the absence of public expeditions penetrating the barrier as proof of enforced isolation, though no proponent-led ventures have documented such traversals.^[80]^[77]

Evidence-Based Refutations

Circumnavigations of Antarctica by sea demonstrate inconsistencies with the ice wall model proposed in flat Earth cosmology, where Antarctica forms an encircling barrier around a disk-shaped Earth. In 2008, Russian explorer Fedor Konyukhov completed the first documented solo sailing circumnavigation south of the 60th parallel south, traversing approximately 16,000 nautical miles over 102 days, with distances and durations aligning with the spherical Earth's Antarctic circumference of about 14,000 miles at latitude 70°S rather than the vastly larger perimeter required for a flat disk enclosing known landmasses.^[81] Similarly, crewed expeditions, such as the 2018 voyage of the yacht Katharsis II, looped Antarctica below 62°S, confirming a compact continental outline incompatible with an extended rim structure, as longitudinal crossings would demand exponentially longer east-west travel on a planar model without observed curvature adjustments.^[82] Empirical access to Antarctic regions refutes claims of restricted or secretive containment. In the 2023-24 austral summer season, over 122,000 tourists visited Antarctica via organized expeditions, landing on ice shelves and coastal sites without encountering barriers, as tracked by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). Annually, approximately 3,000 to 5,000 personnel, including scientists from programs like the U.S. Antarctic Program, conduct fieldwork across the continent, utilizing GPS navigation and visual surveys that map it as a landmass rather than an impassable wall.^[83] A 2024 expedition dubbed "The Final Experiment," involving flat Earth proponents such as YouTuber Jeran Campanella, directly traversed Antarctic sites, observing 24-hour sunlight during midsummer— a phenomenon causally explained by Earth's axial tilt and sphericity but impossible on a flat disk without contrived light-bending mechanisms—and publicly acknowledging the continental geography via satellite positioning and horizon views.^[84] Celestial observations and remote sensing further contradict enclosure narratives. In the Southern Hemisphere, constellations like the Southern Cross exhibit clockwise rotation around a southern celestial pole, a geometric outcome of a rotating oblate spheroid Earth observable from Antarctic latitudes, whereas a flat Earth disk predicts divergent star paths without a unifying polar center. Satellite systems, including Landsat missions operational since 1972, have imaged Antarctica's ice shelves—such as the Ross and Ronne—revealing curved, finite edges consistent with great-circle projections on a globe, where observed shelf geometries match predictions from Earth's 40,075 km equatorial circumference tapering southward, precluding an infinite or enclosing wall. Commercial routes, including flights from Santiago to Sydney that skirt or overfly Antarctic sectors, report no longitudinal impediments, with flight paths optimized for spherical geodesy yielding times and fuel efficiencies unattainable on planar projections.^[85]

Cultural and Fictional Depictions

Representations in Modern Media

In George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, launched with A Game of Thrones in 1996, The Wall stands as a colossal ice barrier roughly 700 feet high and 300 miles long, erected by ancient humans with magical assistance to shield Westeros from northern wildlings and otherworldly dangers.^[86]^[87] This structure embodies themes of precarious defense and cultural separation, its icy composition enabling supernatural wards that repel undead hordes. Adapted faithfully in HBO's Game of Thrones television series, which aired from April 17, 2011, to May 19, 2019, The Wall drives key plot arcs, culminating in its partial breach during the "Battle of the Bastards" in season 6, episode 9 (June 19, 2016).^[88] Animated features employ ice walls or analogous frozen edifices for symbolic isolation and peril. In Disney's Frozen (released November 27, 2013), Queen Elsa erects a sprawling ice palace on the North Mountain, its crystalline spires and barriers representing her self-imposed exile amid uncontrolled powers, though lacking the defensive scale of continental walls. Video games and disaster films further amplify such tropes, as in survival titles like Frostpunk (2018), where players manage frozen enclosures against encroaching ice, or cinematic sequences in The Day After Tomorrow (2004) depicting sudden glacial surges as apocalyptic walls overwhelming civilizations for heightened tension.^[89] Documentaries contrast these fictions by grounding ice shelves in empirical observation. BBC's Frozen Planet series, broadcast from October 2011, details Antarctic formations like the Ross Ice Shelf—spanning 487,000 square kilometers—as vast, floating extensions of grounded ice, emphasizing their role in oceanic currents without narrative exaggeration. Similarly, the 2008 BBC segment "The Antarctic Peninsula Crisis" examines warming-induced calving events, such as the 2002 Larsen B shelf collapse releasing 3,250 square kilometers of ice, portraying shelves as fragile geophysical features rather than impenetrable barriers.^[90]

Influence on Popular Conspiracy Narratives

In the 2020s, ice wall myths proliferated on platforms like Reddit and TikTok, where users shared videos and maps depicting Antarctica as a containment barrier hiding extraterrestrial bases or additional continents, often linking these to UFO sightings and alleged Nazi remnants.^[91]^[92] For instance, TikTok content featuring elaborate "beyond the ice wall" diagrams garnered hundreds of thousands of views, with creators positing secret government suppression of paradisiacal lands or advanced technology guarded by the ice perimeter.^[93] These narratives amplified broader anti-establishment sentiments, portraying scientific consensus on Antarctic geography as a deliberate cover-up to maintain elite control over hidden resources. A recurring motif integrates historical events like Operation Highjump (1946–1947), reinterpreted by proponents as a failed U.S. military incursion to breach the ice wall and confront concealed threats, such as Nazi UFO facilities, rather than its documented purpose of aerial mapping and naval training in Antarctica.^[94] Declassified records from the U.S. Navy and CIA confirm the operation focused on establishing Little America IV base, conducting over 70,000 aerial photographs for topographic surveys, and testing cold-weather equipment, with no mentions of barriers, breaches, or anomalous encounters beyond routine exploration challenges.^[95]^[96] Conspiracy adherents, however, cite Admiral Richard Byrd's post-mission statements out of context to infer secrecy, ignoring expedition logs that attribute losses to weather and logistics, not defensive fortifications. Empirical observations, including satellite imagery and thousands of independent expeditions since the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, reveal no artificial walls, breaches, or extraterrestrial artifacts, only natural ice shelves like the Ross Ice Shelf, which have been traversed and sampled extensively.^[94] These myths endure through selective interpretation and confirmation bias, where ambiguous natural formations—such as glacial crevasses or tabular icebergs—are reframed as evidence of containment, fostering distrust in institutional data despite verifiable geophysical models explaining Antarctic features via plate tectonics and climate records.^[2] This persistence contributes to a cultural ecosystem where ice wall lore interconnects with unrelated conspiracies, reinforcing narratives of global deception without substantiation from primary sources or reproducible fieldwork.

References

[1]
The Truth About Antarctica — LONG NOW IDEAS
Feb 21, 2023 · The “ice wall,” or the idea that Antarctica is not a continent at the bottom of the globe but really a wall that circumscribes the Flat Earth ...
[2]
Why does Antarctica attract so many conspiracy theories?
Apr 15, 2025 · Images of this ice wall have proved to be catnip to modern conspiracy theorists insisting that it is the boundary marking the outer limits ...
[3]
The Ice Wall - The Flat Earth Wiki
Oct 15, 2022 · The Ice Wall is a natural formation, a thick mass of floating ice that is attached to land, formed from and fed by tongues of glaciers extending ...
[4]
ice wall - National Snow and Ice Data Center
an ice cliff forming the seaward margin of an inland ice sheet, ice piedmont or ice rise; the rock basement may be at or below sea level.Missing: definition | Show results with:definition
[5]
Antarctic ice walls protect the climate | PreventionWeb
Feb 26, 2020 · The glacier culminates in a vertical edge, a wall of ice that continues 300–400 metres down into the ocean. ... This means that around two-thirds ...Missing: definition | Show results with:definition
[6]
Formation, Flow, and Disintegration Of Ice Shelves | Cambridge Core
Jan 30, 2017 · Ice shelves may develop either by continued thickening of sea ice that is held fast to the shore, or by the seaward extension of inland ice.
[7]
Ice shelves - Antarctic Glaciers
Ice shelves collapse in response to long term environmental changes, which cause on-going thinning and shrinking. When certain thresholds are passed, ...
[8]
Structural and environmental controls on Antarctic ice shelf rift ...
Oct 16, 2013 · The precursor to iceberg calving is large through-cutting fractures, called “rifts,” that can propagate for decades after they have initiated ...
[9]
Evolution of ice shelf rifts: Implications for formation mechanics and ...
Nov 15, 2019 · Ice shelf rifts are predecessors to iceberg calving events. Observations of their morphology over time and interaction with their surroundings are presented.
[10]
An assessment of basal melt parameterisations for Antarctic ice ... - TC
Dec 14, 2022 · The study assesses basal melt parameterisations for Antarctic ice shelves, finding that a quadratic dependence of melt to thermal forcing ...
[11]
The Response of Ice Shelf Basal Melting to Variations in Ocean ...
Jun 1, 2008 · A three-dimensional ocean general circulation model is used to study the response of idealized ice shelves to a series of ocean-warming ...
[12]
World of Change: Collapse of the Larsen-B Ice Shelf
The collapse of the Larsen appears to have been due to a series of warm summers on the Antarctic Peninsula, which culminated with an exceptionally warm summer ...
[13]
[PDF] E86-10024 - NASA Technical Reports Server
A terrestrial ice sheet rests on land which, for the most part, is above sea level and would be well above sea level if the ice sheet were removed and isostatic ...
[14]
Ice base melt revealed by multibeam imagery of an Antarctic ice shelf
Jul 31, 2024 · We used an upward-looking multibeam sonar to obtain six high-resolution maps of the western, central, and eastern parts of the ice shelf base, ...Missing: submerged | Show results with:submerged
[15]
Groundbreaking Antarctic Survey Reveals Hidden Patterns in Ice ...
Aug 13, 2024 · The underwater vehicle, 'Ran', was programmed to dive into the cavity of the 350-meter-thick ice shelf and scan the ice above it with an ...Missing: submerged | Show results with:submerged
[16]
High‐Resolution Characterization of the Firn Layer Near the West ...
Jun 19, 2024 · We set ρice as 917 kg/m3, a typical value for glacier ice, and VS. ice as 2.0 km/s, the mean value of VS below 70 m. The resulting density ...
[17]
Characteristics of the 1979–2020 Antarctic firn layer simulated ... - TC
Apr 17, 2023 · In addition, the model has been calibrated and evaluated using 112 firn core density observations across the ice sheet. We found that 62 % of ...
[18]
From Snow to Firn to Glacier ice - AntarcticGlaciers.org
Firn transforms to glacier ice at a density of 830 kg m-3. Typical densities (kg m-3). From Cuffey and Paterson, 2010.
[19]
Physical and Biogeochemical Properties of Rotten East Antarctic ...
Jan 19, 2023 · Sea ice forms a barrier to the exchange of energy, gases, moisture and particles between the ocean and atmosphere around Antarctica.
[20]
Physical and mechanical properties of winter first-year ice in the ... - TC
Jul 20, 2022 · The ice cores were subsequently analysed for temperature, salinity, texture, anisotropic elastic properties and compressive strength. All ice ...
[21]
Widespread slowdown in thinning rates of West Antarctic ice shelves
Aug 23, 2023 · Our data revealed an overall pattern of thinning all around Antarctica, with a thinning slowdown starting around 2008 widespread across the Amundsen, ...
[22]
First results from NASA's ICESat-2 map 16 years of melting ice sheets
Apr 30, 2020 · Patterns of thinning show that Thwaites and Crosson ice shelves have thinned the most, an average of about 5 meters (16 feet) and 3 meters (10 ...
[23]
A Texas-Sized Block of Ice… - Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Dec 4, 2014 · Along the ~ 600 kilometer front edge of the shelf, the ice towers up to 50 meters in height; a sheer vertical wall of white and the iridescent ...Missing: length above level
[24]
https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/to-do/experiences/ross-ice-shelf
[25]
Antarctic Place Names honour James Clark Ross
The Ross Ice Shelf was discovered on January 28, 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross, who mapped the ice front eastward to 160°W.
[26]
ROSETTA-Ice — Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica - USGS.gov
May 27, 2019 · With an area of 487,000 km2, roughly the size of France, RIS ranges in thickness from 1,200 m closest to the grounding line to less than 300 m ...Missing: height discovery
[27]
Why Ice Shelves Matter | National Snow and Ice Data Center
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf in Antarctica, about the size of Texas or France. It serves as a main outlet for several major glaciers from the ...Missing: dimensions length height
[28]
Ronne and Ross Ice Shelves: A Lagrangian point of view
The thickness of the ice shelf in FRIS increases from north to south (Fig. 1b) with an average value of 700 m (Nicholls et al., 2009). Like FRIS in the southern ...
[29]
Ronne Ice Shelf | Arctic Ocean, Weddell Sea, Antarctica | Britannica
More than 500 feet (150 metres) thick and extending inland for more than 520 miles (840 km), it lies immediately west of Filchner Ice Shelf, from which it is ...
[30]
The Antarctic Ice Sheet, Its Ice Shelves & Melting Impact
Other examples of Antarctic ice shelves are the Larsen Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula and the Amery Ice Shelf, West Ice Shelf, and Shackleton Ice Shelf ...
[31]
Ice-shelf freshwater triggers for the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf melt ...
Jun 25, 2024 · Using two different stable model configurations, we explore the sensitivity of FRIS melt regime change to regional ice-sheet freshwater fluxes.
[32]
Iceberg calving from the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica
Sep 14, 2017 · The rate of forward advance of the ice front is presently 1300–1400ma–1. At this rate of advance, based on the present ice-front position from ...
[33]
Understanding of an Iceberg Breaking Off Event Based on Ice-Front ...
... Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) in East Antarctica. Since 1973, the AIS calving front has steadily advanced at a rate of 1.0 km yr−1. However, the advancement rate ...
[34]
[PDF] Coastal-Change and Glaciological Map of the Amery Ice Shelf Area ...
Between the Lars Christenson Expedition of 1936 and an ANARE astrofix made in 1963, the Amery Ice Shelf front advanced steadily at a rate of approximately 1,500 ...
[35]
A 4‐decade record of elevation change of the Amery Ice Shelf, East ...
Jan 30, 2009 · We report on long-term surface elevation changes of the central Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) by comparing elevation records spanning 4 decades (1968–2007).Missing: Landsat | Show results with:Landsat<|separator|>
[36]
James Cook: Second Voyage
Sailed further south than any previous mariner (71°10′ S) and discovered South Georgia Island and the South Sandwich Islands.
[37]
The Southern Ocean marine ice record of the early historical, circum ...
Sep 18, 2024 · Sea ice blocked each voyage's southern probes, but sea ice and iceberg records were collected from around Antarctica. They show more northerly ...
[38]
13 James Clark Ross (1839-43) - Antarctic Guide
He pushed south, sometimes through heavy ice, to break into open sea on 9 January. He had discovered the Ross Sea, the best ocean access to the South Geographic ...
[39]
Ross Ice Shelf | State Library of South Australia
When discovered by Sir James Clark Ross and his expedition on 29 January 1841 he described it as 'this curious wall ...
[40]
Read One of the First Eyewitness Accounts of Antarctica - Mental Floss
Sep 1, 2017 · The Erebus and the HMS Terror left England at the end of September 1839 and arrived in Hobart, Tasmania, in August 1840. From there, they sailed ...
[41]
History Of Antarctica Exploration & Expedition Timeline
In November 1902, three of the party—Scott, Ernest Shackleton, and Edward Wilson—leave McMurdo Sound for the South Pole via the Ross Ice Shelf; they're forced ...
[42]
The race to the South Pole: Scott and Amundsen
In 1911, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen both aimed to be the first to reach the South Pole.
[43]
Operation Highjump: 1946-47 Expedition to Explore Antarctica From ...
Aug 6, 2021 · A massive combined military expedition dubbed Operation Highjump would be launched into Antarctica in December during summer in the Southern Hemisphere.Missing: photogrammetry perimeter
[44]
Operation Highjump: The Great Antarctic Expedition - South-Pole.com
The greatest achievement of OPERATION HIGHJUMP was its acquisition of approximately 70,000 aerial photographs of the coast of Antarctic and selected inland ...Missing: surveys photogrammetry perimeter
[45]
[PDF] IGY to IPY: The US Antarctic oversnow and airborne geophysical
The only major field project of the U.S. IGY Antarctic program was series of oversnow traverses, starting in 1957, making seismic reflection ice soundings (and ...Missing: wall dynamics
[46]
SCIENTIFIC STATIONS IN ANTARCTICA 1882-1963
Study of ice shelf structure. Observations of dynamics of ice shelf. Temperature measurements of snow-firn mass up to the depth of 42 m. Measurements of depth ...
[47]
GRACE and GRACE-FO Observations of Polar Ice Mass Loss
Nov 5, 2024 · ... GRACE Follow-On (since 2018 - ) indicates that between 2002 and 2023, Antarctica shed approximately 150 gigatons of ice per year, causing ...Missing: Gt/ estimates
[48]
Elevation Changes of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from Joint Envisat and ...
This updated approach is applied to combine Envisat and CryoSat-2 radar altimetry in the period of 2002–2019.
[49]
Elevation change of the Antarctic Ice Sheet: 1985 to 2020
Aug 10, 2022 · A seamless record of elevation change for the Antarctic Ice Sheet that spans the period 1985 to 2020.
[50]
Ocean tides trigger ice shelf rift growth and calving - Nature
Jul 24, 2025 · Here we present detailed observations of a rift on the Brunt Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, from 2017-2023 and its behaviour in the lead up to calving in January ...Missing: techniques gauges
[51]
Enhanced basal melting in winter and spring: seasonal ice–ocean ...
Aug 5, 2025 · Basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves significantly contributes to ice sheet mass loss, with distinct regional disparities in melt rates ...Missing: gravitational | Show results with:gravitational<|separator|>
[52]
Ice mass loss sensitivity to the Antarctic ice sheet basal thermal state
Sep 14, 2022 · Model set-up. ISSM is an open-source finite-element ice sheet model that simulates the 3D thermomechanics of ice flow. Ice is treated as a ...
[53]
Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves ...
Apr 18, 2018 · Our results suggest that increased glacial meltwater input in a warming climate will both reduce Antarctic Bottom Water formation and trigger increased mass ...
[54]
Reduced Deep Convection and Bottom Water Formation Due To ...
Dec 19, 2023 · Antarctic ice-sheet meltwater reduces transient warming and climate sensitivity through the sea-surface temperature pattern effect.
[55]
Argo Data 1999–2019: Two Million Temperature-Salinity Profiles ...
Two million temperature-salinity profiles and subsurface velocity observations from a global array of profiling floats.
[56]
Deep Argo Reveals Bottom Water Properties and Pathways in the ...
Dec 15, 2021 · Deep Argo floats map Antarctic Bottom Water properties year-round and under-ice in the Australian-Antarctic Basin from 2018 to 2020 Floats ...
[57]
Frazil ice growth and production during katabatic wind events in ... - TC
Oct 6, 2020 · Katabatic winds in coastal polynyas expose the ocean to extreme heat loss, causing intense sea ice production and dense water formation around Antarctica.
[58]
Air‐Sea CO2 Exchange in the Ross Sea, Antarctica - AGU Journals
Sep 14, 2017 · Katabatic winds from the Antarctic ... Sea ice production polynyas usually form when strong katabatic winds blow sea ice away from the continent.
[59]
Antarctic Slope Undercurrent and onshore heat transport driven by ...
Apr 17, 2024 · Near the Antarctic margins, wind stress and tides, the primary forces of the ice-ocean system, inject westward momentum into the slope current.
[60]
Ice Shelf Basal Melt Sensitivity to Tide‐Induced Mixing Based on the ...
Apr 12, 2023 · Tidal currents are known to influence basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves through two types of mechanisms: local processes taking place ...
[61]
Mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from 1992 ...
Apr 20, 2023 · Between 1992 and 2020, the ice sheets contributed 21.0±1.9 mm to global mean sea level, with the rate of mass loss rising from 105 Gt yr−1 ...Peer review · Related articles · Assets · Metrics
[62]
Snow over Antarctica Buffered Sea Level Rise
Dec 25, 2018 · A new NASA-led study has determined that an increase in snowfall accumulation over Antarctica during the 20th century offset global sea level rise by one ...
[63]
Antarctica's Astonishing Rebound: Ice Sheet Grows for the First Time ...
Apr 29, 2025 · In contrast, during 2021–2023, it exerted a negative contribution, offsetting global mean sea level rise at a rate of 0.30±0.21 mm/yr. Enhanced ...
[64]
Climate Change: Global Sea Level
Global average sea level has risen 8–9 inches (21–24 centimeters) since 1880. In 2023, global average sea level set a new record high—101.4 mm (3.99 inches) ...
[65]
Limited Impact of Thwaites Ice Shelf on Future Ice Loss From ...
May 31, 2023 · Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, is currently thinning at a rate of several meters per year (Smith et al., 2020). Together with the other ...
[66]
Recent increase in the surface mass balance in central East ... - Nature
Apr 13, 2024 · We show a 24% increase of snow accumulation rate since early 19 century confirmed by the instrumental data for the last 52 years.
[67]
Unprecedented mass gain over the Antarctic ice sheet between ...
Nov 9, 2023 · The AIS showed a record-breaking mass gain of 129.7 ± 69.6 Gt yr −1 between 2021 and 2022. During this period, the mass gain over the East AIS and Antarctic ...Abstract · Introduction · Datasets and processing... · Results and analysisMissing: growth | Show results with:growth
[68]
Change in Antarctic ice shelf area from 2009 to 2019 - TC
May 16, 2023 · Over the past 50 years, satellite observations have shown ice shelves collapse, thin, and retreat; however, there are few measurements of the ...
[69]
Sea ice can control Antarctic ice sheet stability, new research finds
May 13, 2022 · They found that 85% of the ice shelf perimeter in this part of Antarctica has advanced since the early 2000s, in contrast to the extensive ...
[70]
Asynchrony between Antarctic temperature and CO2 associated ...
Mar 6, 2018 · Our temperature data reveal that the asynchrony between Antarctic temperature and CO2 has been associated with obliquity over the past 720,000 ...
[71]
An Increase in the Antarctic Surface Mass Balance during the Past ...
Nov 7, 2023 · The increased SMB cumulatively dampened global sea level rise by ∼14 mm between 1901 and 2010, which did not account for the ice sheet dynamical imbalance.Missing: growth | Show results with:growth
[72]
Fighting flat-Earth theory - Physics World
Jul 14, 2020 · He proposed the Earth is a flat immovable disc, centred at the North Pole, with Antarctica replaced by an ice wall at the disc's outer boundary.
[73]
The Rim at the End of the World
Aug 12, 2014 · In the early twentieth century, Wilbur Glenn Voliva (1870–1942) similarly believed in a southern barrier of ice, as revealed by a map used ...
[74]
If the earth was flat, what would cause the oceans to not drain off the ...
Apr 23, 2017 · Because there is a “magical ice wall” all around the edge holding the ocean in. At least that's what the flat-earth conspiricy theorists want us ...Missing: perimeter | Show results with:perimeter<|separator|>
[75]
Why is an ice wall needed in flat Earth theory to keep water in?
May 27, 2025 · So why do you need an ice wall for flat earth theory? Wouldn't the dome keep the water in?
[76]
admiral-byrd - FlatEarth.ws
Admiral Byrd: “An Area As Big As The United States on the ... In their imagination, Antarctica is not a continent, but a long ice wall enclosing the Earth.
[77]
Beyond the ICE WALL of Antarctica : What's REALLY Hidden Behind ...
Oct 12, 2024 · Antarctica is actually a desert with all that ice you think it'd be like a winter wonderland with snowball fights and hot cocoa all day long.
[78]
What Happened During Flat-Earthers' "Final Experiment" In Antarctica
Sep 4, 2025 · Some flat-Earthers believe that the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 prevents them from visiting the continent, no doubt a part of the coverup. But that ...Missing: funding suspicious $8
[79]
Flat Earth Theory Explains the Continents Beyond the Ice Wall
Oct 7, 2022 · However, they believe beyond the great ice wall lies 26 additional continents ... Flat Earth Theory Explains the Continents Beyond the Ice Wall.
[80]
The Hidden World Beyond the Ice Wall... - YouTube
Dec 18, 2024 · There is a world or worlds that exist beyond the wall of ice in the Antarctic a world that plays home to millions of lost civilizations.Missing: extra | Show results with:extra
[81]
First solo circumnavigation of Antarctica in a sailboat
On 7 May 2008, Russian Fedor Konyukhov became the first person to complete a solo sailing circumnavigation of Antarctica − he did so as part of the ...Missing: 1960s | Show results with:1960s
[82]
Sailing Antarctica: Record-breaking voyage around the southern ...
Sep 25, 2019 · In March 2018, Oyster 72 Katharsis II became the first yacht to sail round Antarctica below 62°S. Skipper Mariusz Koper recounts this extraordinary expedition.
[83]
U.S. Antarctic Program | NSF - National Science Foundation - NSF
Approximately 500 scientists conduct research annually on a research ship and are supported by field camps set up during the summer season (October to February) ...
[84]
https://www.nypost.com/2024/12/19/lifestyle/flat-earthers-admit-defeat-after-seeing-24-hour-antarctica-sun-sometimes-you-are-wrong/
[85]
A Closer Look at Transpolar Commercial Flights
Apr 21, 2025 · Commercial flights over Antarctica—and thus trans-Antarctic routes—practically do not exist. The lack of demand is attributed to unfavorable ...
[86]
Can the Ice Wall in Game of Thrones Survive Science? - WIRED
Mar 27, 2013 · The idea for the fantastical fortification came to George R.R. Martin ... Only Mother Nature has built real-life ice structures rivaling the Wall ...
[87]
Why is The Wall so tall in Game of Thrones?
Oct 20, 2012 · I finally found an answer from Martin himself: BHW: Why is the wall so tall? Martin: To keep out bad things.
[88]
The Wall on Game of Thrones: Theories About Its History, Magic | TIME
Aug 24, 2017 · The Wall in Game of Thrones is said to be warded with magic to prevent the dead from crossing over. This is significant as it is presumably the ...Is The Wall Magic? · Who Built The Wall? · Will The Wall Fall?Missing: adaptation | Show results with:adaptation<|separator|>
[89]
https://www.mashable.com/article/ice-walls-on-earth-weaker-than-game-of-thrones
[90]
The Antarctic Peninsula Crisis | BBC Studios - YouTube
Dec 20, 2008 · The Antarctic peninsula is studied to demonstrate the impact of global warming on our planet. Fascinating short video from BBC show ...Missing: shelves 2000s
[91]
What is the “conspiracy” actually about? : r/flatearth - Reddit
Jun 19, 2025 · ... earth flat, the devil tries to convince people it is round. My personal favourite is the belief there is a paradise beyond the ice wall ...
[92]
This guy has over 250k followers and the comments are mostly ...
Sep 26, 2024 · This circular map is completely new to me. Can we keep zooming out please? There's a whole other world beyond the "ice wall" of Antarctica?
[93]
Found this map in tiktok : r/MapsWithoutNZ - Reddit
May 20, 2025 · It also looks like the ice wall doesn't connect to the arctic? Is the peace maker stupid? A Kyrgz ship could EASILY sail up through the ...
[94]
False flat Earth claim about 1946 Operation Highjump | Fact check
Mar 8, 2024 · There is no evidence it was sent to investigate an "ice wall." There's overwhelming evidence that Antarctica is a continent, not an ice wall.
[95]
[PDF] CIA-RDP79-01009A001800020001-0.pdf
1946-47: US Navy Operation Highjump under Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd and ... turned east and surveyed margin of Rose Ice Shelf to Bay of Wheles. 1939-41 ...Missing: aerial photogrammetry perimeter
[96]
Operation Hi-jump: Exploring Antarctica with the U.S. Navy
Sep 27, 2017 · The trip is well documented in NARA's holdings with photographs, maps and charts, and film. NARA's film holdings of Hi-jump include unedited ...Missing: documents | Show results with:documents