Yet the majority of human activity there is about science.
Indeed, the Antarctic Treaty defined Antarctica as a continent for science.
The difficulty is convincing readers that science makes a good read.
Gifted science communicator Rebecca Priestley, whose columns in the Listener show that she understands how to make science accessible, has compiled a wide-ranging anthology of science writing, dating back as far as Captain Cook, who was first to cross the Antarctic Circle.
Of course, many of the early expeditions had scientific endeavour as a (if not the) main purpose.
A team from Shackleton's Nimrod expedition was first to reach the South Magnetic Pole, while Scott and his men lugged 15kg of geological samples as they fought to survive on their return from the geographic South Pole.
Both get a mention here, along with lesser-known contemporaries like von Drygalski and Nordenskjold.
The latter had me wondering whether he was the first to identify evidence of the existence of Gondwanaland.
The more contemporary entries have a strong leaning towards work done by or with New Zealanders in the Ross Sea region.
Several of the most recent ones are taken from blogs, and thus have a writing style designed to make complex issues understandable to the non-technical reader.
A good example is Wellington-based glaciologist Nancy Bertler's account of collecting ice cores from the Ross Ice Shelf and how doing so enhances understanding of past periods of climate change.
When Antarctic science is at the heart of understanding much that is changing on our planet, this ability to reach out to non-scientists is important, and it seems to me is the key to this book.
A selection of relevant contemporary poems is interspersed among the chapters, while plenty of black-and-white photos illustrate the text.
- David Barnes has a long-standing interest in Antarctica.
