King George Island, Antarctica

Landing on King George Island, Antarctica! The seventh continent.

King George Island is the largest of the South Shetland Islands

Research stations include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, South Korea, Peru, Poland, Russia, Uruguay

King George Island has the greatest concentration of multinational research activities in Antarctica.

Penguins swimming near our raft

We were lucky to land on the island. Most of the flights had been cancelled for weeks due to weather

The manifold human activities lead to severe impacts on the vulnerable ecosystems of the island

This was the 7th continent visited by members of Liquid Blue

Small-scale "expedition tourism" has existed since 1957 and is currently subject to Antarctic Treaty

Trying to get a closer look

Chilean Base. Our guide was a scientist from Chile

Sign post on King George Island

A multi-purpose gym on the island for the scientific community

Not much snow this time of year and a relatively warm day

In 2004, a Russian Orthodox church, Trinity Church, was opened on the island

The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries; to date, 46 countries have signed the treaty

The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, supports scientific research

Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists

The Antarctic Treaty

A real photo from the Wiki commons (not ours) of the Aurora Australis with 25 sec exposure

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