BRITISH ANTARCTIC

TERRITORIES

538,000 miles (over five times the area of Great Britain) of ice. More ice. And more ice.

-----------------------------------------------------------

1832: Graham Land (the northernmost extremity of BAT) is explored by John Briscoe and named for Sir James Graham, then First Lord of the Admiralty.

1908: Formal British claim extended over South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, Graham Land, the South Orkneys and the South Shetlands.

1961: The Antarctic Treaty freezes (no joke intended, none given) all claims to the continent, banning all exploitation of its resources.. This leads to....

1962: The Falkland Island Dependencies are split in two parts, British Antarctic Territories (Graham Land, the South Orkneys and the South Shetlands) and South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands.

-------------------------------------------------------