Case file · Folklore / legend
The 'pyramids of Antarctica'
In 2016 websites and tabloids claimed that a pyramid-shaped peak in the Ellsworth Mountains, seen on satellite images, was an ancient artificial pyramid, perhaps alien.
2016 CE · -79.97, -81.96 · status: hoax
The account
The images spread widely with claims of a cover-up.
The sceptical view
Geologists, among them Mitch Darcy of the GFZ in Potsdam, explained it as a nunatak, a rock peak standing above the ice, shaped by glaciers and freeze-thaw erosion like the Matterhorn in the Alps. The image went viral again in 2023.
Connections in the atlas
- Buzz Aldrin's evacuation and the fake 'evil' tweet
- The 'doorway' in the ice near Showa Station
- Lovecraft's 'At the Mountains of Madness'