What are the most ideal locations for Antarctican colonization?

Without going into the question of when and by whom it gets colonized and in what context, if one was to establish a medium-sized town (say, 10,000-20,000 people) in Antarctica, what would be the ideal location for that? Is there any part of the Antarctican coast that's accessible by ship year-round?
 
Um, 'ideal' and 'Antarctica' don't play well together. IMHO, you'd only keep access if based high up the Antarctic Peninsula, almost to Cape Horn. Even then, you'd need an ice-breaker handy...

IMHO, the Falklands are about as far South as you can get and still be 'All Weather'. IIRC, the Chilean and Argentine bases down by Cape Horn are a bit grim..
 
At work.

Are there any places where there is 'Ground' above the ice and yet still reasonably close to the sea?

Some sort of insulated cave system with a sub dock below the ice....... kind of thing?

Cheers.
 
Other than a substantial military base...why? Except for water from melting snow/ice, EVERYTHING has to be brought in. I suppose if there was some sort of super duper rare mineral deposit found under the ice you could consider mining it even with the dangers/expenses. Other than that...
 
https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk1/1989/8926/892606.PDF

A decent source as any. A city in Antarctica would pretty much be mining and tourism. Anything much bigger than 10,000 seems a bit unrealistic for the near future, although in a worst-case scenario for Earth, where
global warming exceeds our worst fears and we can't get anything going in space, colonising Antarctica will definitely take place and you'll probably see some sizable communities form.

Ideas would be:

Antarctic Peninsula--It's relatively ice free and has comfortable weather by Antarctic standards, plus no/minimal polar nights. It also is geologically associated with the Andes, and it is strongly believed that some of the world's richest deposits of copper are in those mountains. These are linked to large molybdenum deposits, a lot of lead, tin, and zinc too, as well as most enticingly, gold and silver. Let's say there's some initial prospecting, and someone finds an Antarctic equivalent of Cerro Rico, the mountain of Potosi. In the surrounding area (within a few hours distance), there's some other incredible strikes of gold and silver alongside mountains of copper. And at the same time, let's have Chile, Bolivia, and Peru be gripped by some massive chaos, causing their mining production to drop. It's worth throwing in South Africa having severe problems too to further wreck world prices. Obviously the best pick.

"Coast" of the Weddell Sea nearest Pensacola Mountains--The Pensacola Mountains are probably some of the richest on Earth in terms of resources, akin to the great finds of gold and especially platinum group metals in South Africa, and alongside it, chromium, copper, and uranium. The main problem is the mountains are well inland and locked by a huge ice shelf from which massive city-sized icebergs frequently break off from. The Weddell Sea also has some of the most awful conditions of any sea on the planet. On the bright side, the Weddell Sea likely has some of Antarctica's best offshore oil deposits. This would be my number two pick--collapse South Africa and the Andean states and why not the Middle East too, and with the right finds you might get something working.

The East Antarctic Shield, much like other very old formations in Australia, Canada, and South Africa, is also highly likely to have some incredible finds. Somewhere, if you have a few nearby (within a few hours distance) clusters of incredible finds, like a few high-quality rare-earth deposits, huge gold mines, etc., then you might be able to develop a port city in the area.

The problem in all this is mining it profitably. In theory, it's probably possible to mine Antarctica profitably, assuming key resource producing countries descend into utter chaos and mass violence. In the worst case scenario, it will definitely be profitable to mine Antarctica by 2100.
 
Here’s my try:

Maybe a scenario where the Southern Cone is colonized earlier and more aggressively, and is an united Uber wealthy and highly populated Super Power (or upper Great Power at least) we could get some some vanity project in the Peninsula.

Maybe a strangly situated military base in 1950 is put there when the government wants to show its people that they are serious about Antarctica and haven’t wasted resources buying it from other countries, and a major research base built right next to it. For little to no practical reason, a prison for particularly bad people is established there in 1970, when the government deals with scandals about a series of prison escapes and someone important decides to build a prison there to act tough. Starting in the 60s, a small amount of tourism starts going that way. The government also heavily subsidizes costs to make it dirt cheap to live there, and removes many taxes for anyone living there. The government and military pay for virtually all power, and special shelters that can resist the extreme conditions.

By 1980 the city has a winter population of 5000 and a summer population of 10000, plus a thousand tourists at any given time in summer. The city enters their national consciousness as a symbol of their conquest of the Antarctic and consequently tourism and subsidies both go up. As global temperatures rise a bit, it also becomes a little more tolerable, and as the world population and GDP surge, international tourism also booms. Several thousand civilians move there mostly to accommodate the increased tourism, but also for the experience in some cases. Hotels, restaurants, tourist shops, cuisine based on Antarctic wildlife, specialized fishing vessels, artificial beaches, and even a Casino pop up. By the present the city has 20,000 residents during the summer with 1000s of tourists at any given time, and even during the winter the population stands at roughly 10,000 now.
 
Here’s my try:

Maybe a scenario where the Southern Cone is colonized earlier and more aggressively, and is an united Uber wealthy and highly populated Super Power (or upper Great Power at least) we could get some some vanity project in the Peninsula.

Maybe a strangly situated military base in 1950 is put there when the government wants to show its people that they are serious about Antarctica and haven’t wasted resources buying it from other countries, and a major research base built right next to it. For little to no practical reason, a prison for particularly bad people is established there in 1970, when the government deals with scandals about a series of prison escapes and someone important decides to build a prison there to act tough. Starting in the 60s, a small amount of tourism starts going that way. The government also heavily subsidizes costs to make it dirt cheap to live there, and removes many taxes for anyone living there. The government and military pay for virtually all power, and special shelters that can resist the extreme conditions.

How is this not a political scandal when the government is being beyond wasteful with money? That's beyond a vanity project, that's what some mad dictator would come up. Small military base, sure, research base, obviously. Tourism, yes. But a prison? There's so much empty and desolate space in the Southern Cone that why would you put prisoners there? An Antarctic prison would basically be a prison sentence for the guards and a death camp for the inmates. Polar housing is expensive--permafrost is a nightmare to build on, and you have to consider literally the worst wind and storms in the world. I can't see anyone but the wealthy trying to live there, and the wealthy wouldn't actually live there in person but use it as their legal residence to evade taxes. There's almost no amenities compared to the mainland, it would make a tiny Patagonian hamlet look like Buenos Aires. Almost everything would need to be imported and all that shipping is ridiculously expensive. It would be a village of a few eccentrics and hermits at most.

By 1980 the city has a winter population of 5000 and a summer population of 10000, plus a thousand tourists at any given time in summer. The city enters their national consciousness as a symbol of their conquest of the Antarctic and consequently tourism and subsidies both go up. As global temperatures rise a bit, it also becomes a little more tolerable, and as the world population and GDP surge, international tourism also booms. Several thousand civilians move there mostly to accommodate the increased tourism, but also for the experience in some cases. Hotels, restaurants, tourist shops, cuisine based on Antarctic wildlife, specialized fishing vessels, artificial beaches, and even a Casino pop up. By the present the city has 20,000 residents during the summer with 1000s of tourists at any given time, and even during the winter the population stands at roughly 10,000 now.

How much tourism can you realistically draw when the price to visit is so expensive? How can you realistically drive that price down? Minimal tourism equals minimal full-time inhabitants. Antarctic wildlife makes for poor eating outside of the fish. Penguin is apparently an acquired taste, and there isn't much meat on seabirds. An artificial beach? What are you powering this with? Because not many people are going to want to go to the beach when the daily highs only exceed freezing for a few months out of the year.

An Antarctic city will have to be based on mining, there's just no way around it. If your city has the Cerro Rico de Potosí next door, then maybe it would be a bit more believable.
 
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