Antartica question...
 

I was thinking about Antartica and I don't remember learning why it has not be gobbled up as territory by another country. So my question is, why has no one "claimed" Antartica (besides it being really cold and desolate)?

This is just off the top of my head.

1) nobody would wanna live there
2) it would cost a lot more to build infastructure there compared to what u would gain
3) countries have claimed parts of it as labs
4) i think there might be a world wide treaty on the claiming of antarctica.

There's an international treaty preventing it. Well, to a degree. Of the 42 signatories, seven claim portions of Antarctica as national territory.

However the treaty prevents them exploiting its mineral wealth or creating military bases there.

See http://www.secretsoftheice.org/explore/treaty.html and especially http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/About_Antarctica/Treaty/

Mr Mephisto

Thanks for clearing that up.

huh, I learned somethin'. It's spelled Antarctica btw.

One interesting thing about antarctica is that it has BILLIONS of dollars worth of penguin guano--mountains of it that have been shit out and frozen--just ripe for the taking. So, it's good that no one has mineral rights to it cause then the penguins wouldn't have a place to live.

And we love penguins.

That's a very interesting question. I never really thought of that before. Thanks for teaching me something. :)