ATLAS

OMEGA-11-4 · Conspiracy theories

Ice wall surrounds the world

Published · updated

Conspiracy allegation: inclusion in the atlas ≠ established fact.

The "ice wall" thesis holds that the Earth is a disc centred on the North Pole and ringed by a wall of ice, which official maps call Antarctica, sometimes capped by a dome or "firmament". It goes back to the English writer Samuel Rowbotham, whose Zetetic Astronomy (pamphlet 1849, book 1865) described a disc bounded by ice; Alexander Gleason's 1892 polar map and the Zion preacher Wilbur Glenn Voliva carried the image into the 20th century. It came back online after 2014 with Eric Dubay's books and videos and Mark Sargent's YouTube series Flat Earth Clues (2015), which drew about two million views. Its supporters cite Operation Highjump (1946–1947), a quote attributed to Admiral Byrd about "that land beyond the Pole" and the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which they read as a ban on going to look; offshoots place other continents, giants or reptilian beings beyond the wall. What is established: Antarctica is a continent of about 14.2 million km² that has been crossed overland since 1958, overflown by sightseeing flights since 1977 and visited by 122,072 tourists in 2023–24, and the Treaty bans military bases, manoeuvres and weapons tests there but opens every area to inspection. The real "Great Ice Barrier", discovered by James Clark Ross in 1841, is a floating ice shelf whose front rises 15 to 50 m above the sea along some 600 km of coast, not a wall around the world. In December 2024, flat-Earth YouTubers who travelled to Antarctica for "The Final Experiment" saw the midnight sun and admitted it was real.

Other names: Ice wall

Flat Earth and dome (firmament)

Variant

The North Pole-centred disc, rimmed by a wall of ice and closed by a dome: from Rowbotham to YouTube.

  • Verified fact English writer Samuel Rowbotham (1816–1884), writing as "Parallax", published Zetetic Astronomy as a 16-page pamphlet in 1849 and expanded it into a book in 1865; modern flat-Earth belief traces back to him.
    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      Modern flat Earth belief originated with the English writer Samuel Rowbotham (1816–1884).
    • Samuel Rowbotham, Wikipedia
      His work was originally published as a 16-page pamphlet (1849), and later expanded into a book (1865).
  • Thesis In Rowbotham's model the Earth is a disc centred on the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice, with the Sun and Moon circling about 3,000 miles (4,800 km) above it.
    • Zetetic Astronomy, Wikipedia
      proposed that Earth is a flat disc centred at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice
    • The Rim at the End of the World, National Center for Science Education (Glenn Branch), 12 August 2014
      That the south is an immense ring, or glacial boundary, is evident from the fact
  • Thesis The Flat Earth Society's current model puts humanity on a disc with the North Pole at the centre and a 150-foot (46 m) wall of ice, Antarctica, at the outer edge; believers say there is no South Pole, only this wall.
    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      The Flat Earth Society's most recent planet model is that humanity lives on a disc, with the North Pole at its centre and a 150-foot-high (46 m) wall of ice, Antarctica, at the outer edge.
    • The New Flat Earthers (Skeptoid episode 521), Skeptoid (Brian Dunning), 31 May 2016
      New Flat Earthers argue that this is because there is no south pole, just a wall of ice surrounding the circular flat Earth.
  • Thesis Some flat-Earthers add an indestructible dome, the "firmament", resting on the icy rim and closing the world, with the Sun, Moon and stars inside it.
  • Verified fact In 1892 Alexander Gleason published a world map in azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, subtitled "As it is"; flat-Earthers often cite it as a map of the flat Earth.
  • Verified fact From 1914 Wilbur Glenn Voliva, who ran the town of Zion, Illinois, promoted the flat Earth nationwide, offered $5,000 to anyone who could disprove it and owned the radio station WCBD (1923); he too believed in a southern barrier of ice.
    • Wilbur Glenn Voliva, Wikipedia
      From 1914, Voliva gained nationwide notoriety by his vigorous advocacy of the flat Earth doctrine.
    • The Rim at the End of the World, National Center for Science Education (Glenn Branch), 12 August 2014
      similarly believed in a southern barrier of ice, as revealed by a map used in the schools of Voliva’s home of Zion, Illinois
  • Verified fact The ice wall returned online after 2014: Eric Dubay self-published The Flat Earth Conspiracy in November 2014 and then the "200 Proofs" video, and in 2015 Mark Sargent launched the YouTube series Flat Earth Clues (two million views), describing a disc with a giant wall of ice around it.
  • Thesis A TikTok video presented an encyclopedia entry mentioning "a dome 13,000 feet high" near 80° South as proof of the firmament; it actually describes a natural ice dome on the Antarctic ice sheet.

Secret military bases beyond the wall

Variant

Highjump, Admiral Byrd and the 1959 Treaty read as proof of a guarded wall and forbidden access.

  • Thesis In the most widespread version of current flat-Earth theory, NASA guards the Antarctic ice wall that surrounds the Earth, and government agencies fabricate the evidence that it is round.
    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      According to the most widely spread version of current flat-Earth theory, NASA is guarding the Antarctic ice wall that surrounds Earth.
  • Thesis A February 2024 Facebook video claims that Operation Highjump (1946–1947) was a military mission to find out what lay beyond the "ice wall" of Antarctica.
  • Thesis Many flat-Earthers claim the 1959 Antarctic Treaty bars civilians from going there, so that no one can discover what lies on the other side.
  • Thesis Related stories turn Highjump into a battle: Admiral Byrd was supposedly driven out of Antarctica by saucers from the Hollow Earth, or sent to attack a secret Nazi base.
  • Verified fact Operation Highjump, organised by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd as his fourth Antarctic expedition, ran from 26 August 1946 to late February 1947 with 4,700 men, 13 ships and 33 aircraft; its job was to set up Little America IV on the Ross Ice Shelf and train the Navy in cold conditions.
    • Operation Highjump, Wikipedia
      Operation HIGHJUMP commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947.
    • Richard E. Byrd, Wikipedia
      Byrd's fourth Antarctic expedition was code-named Operation Highjump.
    • Opération Highjump, Wikipedia
      Elle fut lancée le 26 août 1946 et dura jusqu'en 1947.
  • Verified fact In an interview with Lee van Atta published on 5 March 1947 in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, Byrd drew lessons from the operation: the United States could be attacked by planes flying over one or both poles.
    • Operation Highjump, Wikipedia
      The interview appeared in the Wednesday, March 5, 1947, edition of the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio
  • Verified fact There is no evidence Highjump was sent to investigate an "ice wall"; the expedition ended in late February 1947 because of the early approach of winter and worsening weather.

Multiple lands beyond the wall

Variant

Other continents behind the ice, with their giants, guardians, and reptilian and draconian beings.

Antarctica: treaty, expeditions, overflights, tourism

Verified facts

A continent measured, crossed, overflown and visited, under a treaty of peace and science.

  • Verified fact Antarctica is a continent of about 14.2 million km², mostly covered by an ice sheet averaging 1.9 km thick, with roughly 17,968 km of coastline.
  • Verified fact The Antarctic Treaty was signed in Washington on 1 December 1959 by twelve countries, entered into force on 23 June 1961 and now has 58 Parties.
    • Antarctic Treaty System, Wikipedia
      The main treaty was opened for signature on 1 December 1959, and officially entered into force on 23 June 1961.
    • Traité sur l'Antarctique, Wikipedia
      signé le 1er décembre 1959 à Washington, D.C. aux États-Unis et en vigueur depuis le 23 juin 1961
    • The Antarctic Treaty, Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty
      signed in Washington on 1 December 1959 by the twelve countries
  • Verified fact The Treaty reserves Antarctica for peaceful purposes: it bans military bases, manoeuvres and weapons tests as well as nuclear explosions and radioactive waste, guarantees freedom of scientific investigation and applies south of 60° South, ice shelves included.
    • The Antarctic Treaty (full text, 1959), Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, 1 December 1959
      Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only. There shall be prohibited, inter alia, any measures of a military nature, such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the carrying out of military maneuvers, as well as the testing of any type of weapons.
    • Traité sur l'Antarctique, Wikipedia
      Toute mesure de nature militaire et non pacifique y est interdite.
  • Verified fact Roald Amundsen and four companions reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911, starting from their Framheim base on the Great Ice Barrier; Robert Falcon Scott and four men got there on 17 January 1912 and all died on the way back, by 29 March.
  • Verified fact The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Vivian Fuchs with Edmund Hillary's support team, made the first overland crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole: 3,473 km in 99 days, arriving at Scott Base on 2 March 1958.
  • Verified fact The US Amundsen–Scott station, built at the South Pole in November 1956, has been occupied without interruption ever since; in summer about 5,000 people live at the continent's research stations, around 1,000 in winter.
    • Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, Wikipedia
      built by Navy Seabees for the federal government of the United States during November 1956
    • Antarctica, Wikipedia
      During the summer months, about 5,000 people reside at research stations, a figure that drops to around 1,000 in the winter.
  • Verified fact Sightseeing flights have overflown Antarctica since February 1977 (Qantas on the 13th, Air New Zealand on the 15th); in 1979 Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed on Mount Erebus, killing 257; today Boeing 787s from Australia spend up to 4 hours over the continent.
  • Verified fact According to IAATO, the association of Antarctic tour operators, Antarctica received 122,072 visitors in the 2023–24 season.

Official version

Official version

What the Treaty Secretariat, the agencies and glaciologists say.

  • Official version The Treaty has no closed zone: all areas, stations and installations are open at all times to inspection by observers designated by the Consultative Parties, and aerial observation may be carried out at any time over all of Antarctica.
    • The Antarctic Treaty (full text, 1959), Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, 1 December 1959
      All areas of Antarctica, including all stations, installations and equipment within those areas, and all ships and aircraft at points of discharging or embarking cargoes or personnel in Antarctica, shall be open at all times to inspection
  • Official version Going to Antarctica is not illegal: visitors must follow rules on wildlife, historic sites and non-native species, and about 74,000 people visited in 2019–2020. No wall forbids overflight; commercial routes simply do not need to cross the South Pole.
  • Official version Glaciologists say an ice wall around the Earth is impossible: Antarctica is fringed by floating ice shelves that flat-Earthers have mistaken for the wall, but they must be attached to land, and a circular wall with no inflowing glacier ice would quickly thin and disintegrate.
  • Official version According to NSIDC, an ice shelf is an extension of thick land ice flowing out over the ocean, 50 to 600 m thick, and the largest, as big as France, are in Antarctica; ice shelves fringe three-quarters of the Antarctic coastline.
    • Ice shelves, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
      Ice shelves are extensions of thick land ice that flow out over a cold coastal ocean.
    • Change in Antarctic ice shelf area from 2009 to 2019, The Cryosphere (J. R. Andreasen, A. E. Hogg, H. L. Selley), 16 May 2023
      Ice shelves fringe three-quarters of the Antarctic coastline, providing buttressing support to the grounded ice
  • Official version With the LIMA mosaic, NASA released the first true-colour, high-resolution satellite view of the Antarctic continent, built from nearly 1,100 Landsat-7 images; satellite imagery shows a continent, not a ring around the world.
  • Official version Because of Earth's axial tilt, the Sun does not set at the South Pole from about 20 September to 23 March; this midnight sun can only occur on a tilted, rotating sphere and is hard to reconcile with a Sun circling above a disc.
  • Official version A 2007 study in Polar Record tested the legend of a Nazi Antarctic base against the record and treats it as a myth; Admiral Byrd's papers at Ohio State University hold no evidence of any flight into a Hollow Earth.
    • Frozen Fridays: 'Q' is for Questionable Theories!, Ohio State University Archives, From Woody's Couch (John Hooton), 10 March 2017
      though the Papers of Admiral Byrd hold no evidence supporting that claim.
    • Hitler's Antarctic base: the myth and the reality, Polar Record, Cambridge University Press (C. Summerhayes, P. Beeching), January 2007
      Operation Highjump was designed to train the US Navy for a possible war with the Soviet Union in the Arctic, and not to attack an alleged German base in Antarctica
  • Verified fact In December 2024, during "The Final Experiment", pastor Will Duffy took flat-Earth YouTubers to Union Glacier: they saw the Sun for 24 hours a day and Jeran Campanella admitted "sometimes, you are wrong in life", though not all of them gave up the flat Earth.

Unconfirmed testimonies and stories

Unofficial

Quotes attributed to Byrd, a flight into the Hollow Earth, passages through the wall: what circulates without proof.

  • Unofficial, unconfirmed A quote attributed to Byrd circulates widely: "I'd like to see that land beyond the Pole. That area beyond the Pole is the center of the great unknown." Some sites date it to the El Mercurio interview of 5 March 1947, without giving a primary source.
  • Unofficial, unconfirmed Flat-Earthers read Byrd's words about an area "on the other side of the south pole from Little America" as proof of land beyond Antarctica; fact-checkers note that Byrd never described an ice wall and that no explorer of the interior has seen one.
  • Unofficial, unconfirmed A widespread story says Byrd flew into the Hollow Earth; the Ohio State University polar archives, which hold his papers, have found no trace of it.
  • Unofficial, unconfirmed On TikTok, the man behind one account says he found a breach in the ice wall and reached Torenza, a futuristic city in Antarctica; no evidence supports the story, which fact-checkers have debunked.
  • Unofficial, unconfirmed A February 2024 TikTok video describes a frozen wall that is forbidden to enter or fly over, hiding a world where the people who control us supposedly live.

The "Great Ice Barrier" (Ross Ice Shelf)

Divergence

A real ice cliff a few dozen metres high along part of the coast, not a wall around the world.

  • Verified fact James Clark Ross discovered the Barrier on 28 January 1841 and called it the "Great Ice Barrier"; he wrote that they might as well try to sail through the cliffs of Dover.
    • Ross Ice Shelf, Wikipedia
      discovered it on 28 January 1841
    • Barrière de Ross, Wikipedia
      Le capitaine James Clark Ross qui menait l'expédition la nomme la « Grande barrière de glace » parce qu'elle l'empêche d'aller plus au sud
  • Verified fact The Ross Ice Shelf front is a real ice cliff, 15 to 50 m above the water and more than 600 km long: a small part of Antarctica's roughly 17,968 km of coastline, not a wall around the world.
  • Verified fact The Ross Ice Shelf is a floating ice shelf of about 500,809 km², an extension of the continent's ice over the sea, not a free-standing wall.
    • Ross Ice Shelf, Wikipedia
      an area of roughly 500,809 km2 (193,363 mi2)
    • Ice shelves, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
      Ice shelves are extensions of thick land ice that flow out over a cold coastal ocean.
  • Verified fact Explorers camped on the Barrier and crossed it: Amundsen's Framheim base, from which he reached the Pole, stood in the Bay of Whales on the Great Ice Barrier, and Highjump set up Little America IV there.
  • Verified fact Explorers have circumnavigated the Antarctic landmass and people visit it every year, which would be impossible if its coast were the rim of a disc.

Ice wall timeline

Chronology

From the discovery of the Ross Barrier to "The Final Experiment".

  1. James Clark Ross discovers the Great Ice Barrier · Ross Sea, Antarctica

    James Clark Ross's British expedition runs into an ice cliff he names the Great Ice Barrier, today's Ross Ice Shelf.

  2. Rowbotham publishes Zetetic Astronomy · England

    Writing as "Parallax", Samuel Rowbotham publishes the pamphlet describing a flat Earth bounded by ice.

    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      Rowbotham published the 1849 pamphlet titled Zetetic Astronomy, writing under the pseudonym "Parallax".
    • Samuel Rowbotham, Wikipedia
      His work was originally published as a 16-page pamphlet (1849), and later expanded into a book (1865).
  3. Gleason's map · United States

    Alexander Gleason publishes his North Pole-centred world map, subtitled "As it is".

  4. – Race to the South Pole · South Pole

    Amundsen reaches the South Pole on 14 December 1911 from the Great Ice Barrier; Scott reaches it on 17 January 1912 and dies on the way back.

  5. – Operation Highjump · Antarctica

    The US Navy sends 4,700 men, 13 ships and 33 aircraft to Antarctica under Admiral Byrd; Little America IV is set up on the Ross Ice Shelf.

    • Operation Highjump, Wikipedia
      Operation HIGHJUMP commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947.
    • Opération Highjump, Wikipedia
      Elle fut lancée le 26 août 1946 et dura jusqu'en 1947.
  6. Byrd's El Mercurio interview · Chile

    Byrd warns of air attacks over the poles; some sites date the "land beyond the Pole" quote to this interview.

  7. Antarctic Treaty signed · Washington, United States

    Twelve countries sign in Washington the treaty reserving Antarctica for peace and science; it enters into force on 23 June 1961.

    • Antarctic Treaty System, Wikipedia
      The main treaty was opened for signature on 1 December 1959, and officially entered into force on 23 June 1961.
    • The Antarctic Treaty, Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty
      signed in Washington on 1 December 1959 by the twelve countries
  8. – First sightseeing flights over Antarctica · Overflights from Australia and New Zealand

    Qantas (13 February) then Air New Zealand (15 February) fly passengers over Antarctica.

  9. Flat Earth Clues · YouTube

    Mark Sargent launches the YouTube series Flat Earth Clues, which popularises the disc ringed by a wall of ice.

  10. – "The Final Experiment" · Union Glacier Camp, Antarctica

    Pastor Will Duffy takes flat-Earth and globe YouTubers to Union Glacier; they film the midnight sun and the flat-Earthers admit it is real.

Related dossiers

  • Contains: Other continents allegedly exist beyond the ice wall

    The continents beyond the wall are this dossier's "multiple lands" variant.

  • Related story: Reptilians (accounts)

    Reptilians and draconians are placed in the lands beyond the wall.

  • Related story: Antarctica hides a Nazi base

    The Nazi base is the other explanation given for Operation Highjump.

  • Related story: Operation Highjump allegedly fought flying saucers in Antarctica

    Highjump and Admiral Byrd are at the heart of both stories.

  • Related story: Flat Earth
  • Related story: Antarctica borders the Earth's disc
  • Related theme: Ancient maps show Antarctica without ice

    Old maps are also invoked to say what Antarctica really is.

  • Related theme: Antarctica hides a civilization

    The hidden civilisations of the outer lands overlap with the one said to live under the ice.

  • Related theme: Artificial celestial dome

    In this story the celestial dome rests on the ice wall that closes the disc.

  • Related to: Antarctic Treaty conceals a worldwide ban

    Same reading of the Antarctic Treaty as a worldwide ban on access.

  • Related to: The Antarctic Treaty allegedly serves to forbid access to a geographic truth

    There the 1959 Treaty is read as a ban on going to see the wall.