The question of what is the northernmost city in the world has been answered time and time
again, but I thought I’d go a different direction (literally) and talk about some
of the southernmost cities in the world.
Of course, if we want to find the southernmost cities in the world, we have to know where
to look.
Now, unlike in the northern hemisphere, answering this question should be a bit easier, as Antarctica
is a landmass surrounded by oceans, making it a bit easier to establish towns, cities
and toy factories.
In fact there is actually an Antarctic settlement on the south pole itself, the American-run
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
But that’s a scientific research station, with a summer population of 150 and a winter
population of 45.
When looking for the northernmost cities, people might use the Arctic Circle as a starting
point, but the Antarctic Circle is a terrible starting point, as it fits just snugly around
almost all of Antarctica, and to tell you why that’s a bad place to look, we must
briefly turn the channel’s dial over to science!
[engine sputtering] Come on…
Please work, I know it’s been a while, but please just… [engine starting] Perfect!
(Also, remind me to switch over to electric science, you’d think I would have done that
by now).
Anyways…
Antarctica was only discovered and landed on in the 19th century, and I don’t just
mean by Europeans, I mean basically at all, since Antarctica has no native population.
Why not?
Well, Antarctica is cold and all, but I mean, it can still support life, and plenty of people
live in Greenland and Canada’s territories.
At the same time, though, Greenland and Antarctica are not the same.
Not only is Antarctica cold and windy, it’s also dry, actually being the largest desert
in the world, as most of it receives less than 250mm of rain every year.
Most of it is also covered in a 1.5-kilometer thick layer of ice, making the average elevation
in Antarctica actually over 2,500 meters, about the same height as Bogotá.
The Arctic also benefits from really being a frozen ocean, as the oceanic currents going
underneath it bring up warmer waters from further south.
Contrast this with being in the middle of a continent twice as big as Australia, yeah,
you’ve got nothing!
Basically, nature is conspiring against any of your plans to build an Antarctic empire.
Okay, so it’s probably not a good idea to settle in Antarctica in the first place.
With that in mind, where do we look?
South Africa?
No, we would barely get past Cape Town.
Sydney?
Well… no, that would be exactly like saying the northernmost city in the world is Baghdad
or Los Angeles.
New Zealand?
Good guess, but no.
Actually, the best place to look is on the duck bill of South America.
On the southern reaches of Patagonia, Chile and Argentina have been duking it out, with
the cities of Ushuaia and Puerto Williams.
Now, Ushuaia is by far the bigger of the two (likely because Argentina’s side of Tierra
del Fuego is 19 times more populous than Chile’s), but eventually Chile swooped in and established
Puerto Williams/Cabo de Hornos just barely a few kilometers to the south, now taking
the title of southernmost city in the world at 54°56’S.
That answer seemed a bit… simple.
So it’s a good thing we can go even further!
As you may already know from that other Half as Interesting video that I’m totally not
stealing off of, Chile and Argentina also tried a hand at colonizing the Antarctic.
Like, actually full on colonizing in a way that would make Britain and Co. jealous.
These attempts even included the government moving newlyweds to the continent and birthing
babies there.
Chile even did so while making the bases more fit for families, which was probably a good
call, because people don’t generally raise their kids in labs.
That would put you barely a step away from mad scientist status.
Now, these latitude numbers seem a bit low, especially in comparison to their counterparts
in the northern hemisphere.
I mean, Longyearbyen is at 78°13’N, and Copenhagen is only down at 55°40’N. Really,
the southernmost piece of land not part of the Antarctic continent is the Águila Islet,
belonging to Chile at a respectable 68°43’S, about the same distance from the equator as
Tromsø (69°40’N).
This is important, as Antarctic settlements don’t really count as true towns and cities,
since not only is the continent virtually unlivable, it’s also a nature reserve, meaning
that we’ve basically put up a huge sign saying “don’t screw this place up too!”,
making normal human habitation a bit more difficult.
Nevertheless, Chile’s Villa las Estrellas on King George Island is another claim to
fame for the country, as it is a civilian settlement populated by 150 people in the
summer and 80 in the winter.
Hey, say what you want about that being small, but that’s barely less than the amount of
people at EduCon this past summer, and that place was packed!
Located at 62°12’S, Villa las Estrellas is the largest of the only two civilian settlements
in Antarctica, other than Argentina’s Esperanza Base, located at 63°21’S.
Now, whether or not you want to call these bases “towns” is debatable (and Wikipedia
clearly says ‘no’ on the issue), so if you’re picky about the answer, it’s Puerto
Williams, Chile.
If you’re less picky, Esperanza Base, Argentina.
And if you’re so flexible with your definition that it just needs to have people, then that’s
Amundsen-Scott Station, though this would also mean that the highest town in the world
is the International Space Station, which is coincidentally also the most expensive
structure we’ve ever built.
Did you know that?
Oh, look!
I made a video on that a couple months ago!
If that video piques your interest as well, go check it out, and subscribe to learn something
new every Sunday.
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