Every Year, Scientists “Move” the South Pole

Every Jan. 1, while much of the world is still busy making New Year’s resolutions, a small group of scientists and technicians at one of the most extreme places on Earth carries out a ritual that sounds impossible. They move the South Pole.

Of course, the planet itself is not being shifted, nor is Earth’s axis of rotation. What is moved is the physical marker that designates latitude 90 degrees south—the geographic South Pole—which sits atop the Antarctic ice sheet, a massive body of ice that slowly but relentlessly flows toward the sea.

The tradition dates back to 1959, the year the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was established as a permanent U.S. research base. Each year, scientists install a new marker to ensure the pole’s position remains geographically accurate, even as the ground beneath their feet never truly stays in place.

“Every year we have to mark the new location of the axis of rotation,” said Denis Barkats, an astrophysicist who has worked at the South Pole, in an interview with Canadian Geographic. “The ice sheet here moves about 10 meters a year. Without adjustment, the marker would quickly be off.”

Flowing Ice, a Moving Earth

The Antarctic ice sheet is not solid ground. It is a vast, slow-moving mass of ice more than two kilometers thick, gradually flowing toward the continent’s edges. The movement is imperceptible to the human senses, but over the course of a year it is enough to shift buildings, survey lines, and the marker that identifies the southernmost point on Earth.

That is why, every New Year’s Day, station personnel step out into the frozen plateau—where temperatures can plunge well below minus 40 degrees Celsius—to install a new pole. Each marker is unique, often decorated with a metallic sphere, flags, or small ornaments designed by the previous winter’s crew.

The old markers are not discarded. Instead, they are kept inside the station as a visual archive, documenting the slow but steady movement of the ice and the scientific need to adapt to it.

According to Scientific American, the annual relocation is often misunderstood as evidence that the South Pole itself is wandering. In reality, the geographic coordinates remain fixed. What moves is the ice sheet supporting the station and its markers.

Where Science Meets Symbol

For scientists, the annual relocation is more than a technical correction. It has become a symbol of life and work in Antarctica—a place where precision, patience, and an awareness of long-term change are part of daily survival.

During the months-long polar night, when darkness, extreme cold, and isolation dominate life at the station, the ceremony serves as a rare communal moment, blending science with human ritual.

“The ceremony reminds us that all the work done here is temporary in a physical sense, but the data collected has long-lasting importance,” the U.S. Antarctic Program noted in one of its official reports.

In a report published on usap.gov, Tim Ager, an operations supervisor, and Marco Tortonese, the station’s winter site manager, described how the event includes moving the U.S. flag from the old marker to the new one.

“The crew gathers together,” the report said. “The flag is relocated, the old marker is photographed for documentation, and the new one is unveiled to stand watch over the scientific work of the coming year.”

Tradition at the End of the World

The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station houses dozens to hundreds of people depending on the season. Research there ranges from cosmology and measurements of the cosmic microwave background to atmospheric chemistry and climate science.

Yet behind the cutting-edge instruments and complex experiments, daily life at the South Pole is shaped by small traditions rich in meaning. Alongside the moving geographic marker is the so-called “ceremonial pole,” surrounded by the flags of the nations that signed the Antarctic Treaty. Unlike the geographic South Pole, the ceremonial pole does not move.

For many researchers, the two poles represent two faces of Antarctica. One symbolic, rooted in diplomacy and international cooperation. The other grounded in physical reality, constantly shifting beneath the ice.

Atlas Obscura notes that many visitors mistakenly assume the ceremonial pole marks the true South Pole. For scientists, however, the annually relocated marker is the more honest representation of the planet’s behavior.

Lessons from the Ice

In an era of global climate concern, the tradition of moving the South Pole is often used as a metaphor. Even the most seemingly fixed point on Earth requires constant adjustment.

Scientists emphasize, however, that the ice movement at the South Pole is not a new phenomenon driven solely by modern climate change. The ice sheet has been flowing for thousands of years. What has changed is humanity’s ability to measure it precisely and to understand its broader implications.

“The South Pole teaches humility,” Barkats told Canadian Geographic. “It reminds us that science is not about controlling nature, but about recognizing that we live on top of systems that are always in motion.”

Every Jan. 1, on an endless white plain at the bottom of the world, a small pole is planted once again. It stands not as a symbol of human dominance over Earth, but as a simple acknowledgment: the planet is always changing, and science must change with it. (Sulung Prasetyo)

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