The Same Coordinates Since 2015. The Station Moved 84 Kilometres In 2019.
Eleven consecutive Article VII notifications carry one latitude and longitude. Two satellite passes and the programme's own approach plate put the buildings 84 kilometres away. The treaty prescribes no way to correct a coordinate, and nobody has asked for one.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The coordinates have not changed since 2015. The station has.
An unnamed national programme has filed the identical latitude and longitude — 74°21′S, 11°04′E — in eleven consecutive advance notifications under Article VII(5) of the Antarctic Treaty, which requires each party to give notice of all stations and expeditions before they take place.
Two commercial satellite passes eighteen months apart, purchased by this newspaper, put the buildings at 73°49′S, 13°02′E. So does the programme's own aeronautical approach plate, published for aircrew in March 2024 and still on its website.
That is 84 kilometres.
Given the arithmetic in writing, the programme confirmed that the station was relocated in February 2019 after crevassing at the old site, and described the unchanged notification as "a clerical continuity in the station identifier."
Nothing in the treaty text requires a correction. None has been filed.
An inspection team flying to the notified position would land on bare ice. That is what happened to the only party that ever tried, in November 2013, which found nothing at 74°21′S and turned back on fuel after fifty-one minutes.
Elsewhere in this edition this newspaper reports a different inland station, run by a different programme, which four Consultative Parties were asked to inspect this summer and which none of them reached. Two stations, two routes to the same result: nobody arrives, and no party has ever queried a coordinate.
We have asked whether a corrected position will be filed for the 2026–27 season. The programme says it will answer in November. We will print it.
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Sources & Method
We downloaded eleven seasons of the programme's Article VII(5) notifications and compared the coordinate fields line by line. We then bought two commercial satellite scenes eighteen months apart, and found the programme's own approach plate on its own website. The arithmetic was put to the programme in writing before publication and its reply is printed whole.
Who we spoke to
- Advance notifications, eleven seasons, Filed under Article VII(5) of the Antarctic Treaty. Downloaded season by season from the secretariat's public exchange system and read against each other June–July 2026 The latitude and longitude fields are byte-identical in all eleven.
- Two commercial satellite passes, November 2019 and May 2021, eighteen months apart. Purchased by this newspaper at list price; both scenes released for publication Ordered May 2026
- The programme's aeronautical approach plate, Published for aircrew, revision 3, March 2024. Downloaded from the programme's own operations page, where it remains July 2026 Gives the position 84 kilometres from the notified one.
- Dr. Ingvild Sørhaug-Mbeki, Director of operations, the national Antarctic programme. Written questions with the arithmetic attached; replied in writing after nine days 12 August 2026 Her answer is printed unedited under Right of Reply.
- A retired inspection officer, Flew the 2013 observer party; not a national of the programme concerned. Interviewed by telephone twice, with his own flight log open July 2026 Spoke on the record about the flight and declined to discuss anything after 2013.
What we could not confirm
- Why the buildings moved. The programme says crevassing opened under the old site over the 2018–19 summer. That is entirely plausible and we have not seen the engineering report, which the programme says exists and has not released.
- Whether the secretariat checks a notified position against anything at all. We asked in writing on 2 June, 19 June, 7 July and 28 July. We have had an acknowledgement and no answer, and we are printing without one.
How Others Covered This
The same events, as reported elsewhere on the same day. We list what each outlet had that we did not, as well as what we had that they did not — including where we come off worse. Why we print this.
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The Meridian TelegraphTHE BASE THAT ISN'T WHERE THEY SAY IT IS
Ran the 84 kilometres as concealment of a facility, and put a second, undeclared installation at the notified coordinates.
Had that we did not
The two satellite passes, correctly dated, and the gap between them. They had the imagery a week before we did.
Left out
The approach plate, which the programme publishes itself and which gives the true position to any pilot who looks. Aircrew have been told for two years. The register that governs the right of inspection has not, and the Telegraph never opened it.
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The Continental WireAntarctic Programme Confirms 2019 Station Relocation
Carried the confirmation as a routine operational note and closed on the crevassing explanation.
Had that we did not
The programme's statement, in full, faster than anyone.
Left out
That the notification was never amended. A reader of the wire item learns the station moved and does not learn that the treaty's register still says otherwise.
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They Buriedthis newspaperThe Same Coordinates Since 2015. The Station Moved 84 Kilometres In 2019.
Read eleven seasons of notifications against two satellite passes and the programme's own chart, and asked the programme to explain the difference.
Had that we did not
The 2013 inspection flight, the arithmetic, and the programme's answer printed whole.
Left out
We asked the treaty secretariat four times whether it checks a notified position against anything, and we have published without an answer rather than waiting for one. That is our choice and it leaves a hole in the middle of this brief. — V. Ashcombe-Doyle, standards editor
Right of Reply
They Buried contacted Dr. Ingvild Sørhaug-Mbeki, director of operations, the national Antarctic programme in writing on 3 August 2026, with the coordinate table, both satellite scenes and the approach plate attached. Replied 12 August 2026. Printed in full and unedited.
Thank you for the courtesy of the attachments. I will confirm your facts and then tell you why I do not accept your conclusion.
The station was relocated in February 2019. Crevassing opened beneath the eastern accommodation module over the preceding summer and we moved rather than argue with it. The present position is the one on our approach plate, which we publish ourselves, on a public page, for the safety of anyone flying into that sector, including aircrew who are not ours. We have never hidden where the station is. We publish where the station is. You found it by reading our own chart.
The notification is a separate instrument and it does what it has always done. The coordinate field in an Article VII(5) notification is not a survey product. It is part of a station identifier of long standing, and it has been carried forward unchanged since 2015 for continuity of the record, so that a party reading the series can see that this is the same station across eleven seasons and not eleven different ones. Your own headline depends on that continuity, incidentally. Without it you would have no series to compare.
You ask what obligation we have breached. Name it. Article VII(5) requires advance notice of expeditions, of stations occupied by its nationals, and of military personnel or equipment. We have given that notice, in the prescribed form, in every season, and it has never once been queried by any party. There is no provision requiring the amendment of a coordinate field, no prescribed tolerance, and no procedure for filing a correction. I have asked our legal adviser to look for one twice. There is nothing there to correct against.
On your 2013 flight. I was not in this post then and I have read the file since your questions arrived. An observer party is entitled under Article VII to inspect any station at any time and we have never refused one and never would. What an observer party is not entitled to expect is that we will conduct its flight planning for it. Two aircraft flew to a coordinate without telephoning ahead, in a sector where the weather closes in ninety minutes, and turned back on fuel. Our radio was staffed. Our frequency is published. Nobody called.
I will put the general point plainly, because I think it is the honest one and I would rather you printed it than paraphrased it. The obligation in Article VII(5) is an obligation to notify. It is not an obligation to be found. The treaty was written by people who assumed both parties wanted the same thing, and it has held for sixty-seven years on that assumption, and I am not going to volunteer my programme into a stricter reading of it than any other party accepts.
We will consider your question about the 2026–27 season, and you will have an answer in November, after the notification deadline rather than before it.
Published unedited under our right-of-reply guarantee.
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