International Antarctic Day
Some images capture the great acts of nature. Still, others – like a natural arch carved into an Antarctic iceberg – reveal even more: the delicate balance between immense power and the fragile beauty that surrounds us.
Antarctica Day, celebrated on 1 December, marks the anniversary of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, a pact that turned an entire continent – almost 10% of the earth's surface – into a sanctuary for peace and science. Antarctica, the coldest and most remote desert on Earth, contains about 60% of the planet's fresh water, and its ice sheet is the most enormous continuous mass of ice in the world.
Spain also has a prominent role in this scenario. Since 1988, the Spanish Antarctic Base Juan Carlos I (on Livingston Island) and the Spanish Antarctic Base Gabriel de Castilla (on Deception Island) have hosted research campaigns every austral summer under the command of the Spanish Polar Committee and the CSIC. To visit that white territory—or simply to learn about its history—is to recognize that the eternal is still within reach and that our destiny is intertwined with it.
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