Are there roads on the Antarctic continent?

Answer 1

The routes traveled by people on foot and in vehicles in Antarctica are called 'flagged routes'. Flagged routes mark routes of safe travel over ice.

There are no way-finding signs, asphalt, lane markers, or posted speed limits on flagged routes.

Because about ninety-eight percent of the continent is covered by ice -- and the ice moves (like a river, only much more slowly) -- routes to and from work locations in the scientific bases are flagged.

Each year, workers stick bamboo poles into holes dug in the ice along the safest routes. Green and red 'flags' -- cotton squares about eighteen inches square with ties on two edges -- are tied to the poles. Once the pole is stuck in the ice, a worker pours water into the hole, which freezes. After a few minutes, the worker can then move on to the next 'flag plant', because the water in the hole has frozen and now supports the bamboo pole.

Originally, probably, the red and green flags were meant to mark the left and right sides of a route. However, over time, this aspect of flagging has become lost. Flags are planted about twenty feet apart, because during a blizzard or other whiteout condition, a person must be able to find the next flag in order to return to safety.

Where danger and crevasses are known, highly trained, survival-skill workers plant black flags, warning people to stay clear of these areas.

Sometimes, when people walk or travel in vehicles across routes that are not flagged, they have been known to drop into crevasses. Death often occurs in these accidents, because of the extreme cold in Antarctica.