Fact Check: Map featuring Antarctica ‘ice wall’ is an art forum creation
A video of a map depicting Earth’s continents surrounded by an Antarctic “ice wall” is a creative interpretation from an online art forum. Some posts on social media have shared it with claims it proves the Earth is flat.
The image shows a map of Earth where the planet’s continents are labelled but structured differently, centered in the middle of a flat Earth, with Antarctica forming an ice ring around them. The map depicts unknown lands sandwiched between the first ice wall and a second, further ice wall.
The claim surfaced on TikTok and Facebook. Comments include: “Incredible,” and: “Where did you find this?”
One user shared the video on Facebook saying, in part, that the map shows that there is a “whole continent that’s been hidden from us for centuries.”
It was uploaded to an art community website called DeviantArt in June.
The image is part of a series titled: “The World Beyond the Ice Wall,” that is inspired by “worldbuilding,” “alternative history” and “conspiracy theories,” among other things, according to the image’s description on DeviantArt.
The term “worldbuilding” refers to the creation of fictional worlds often linked to fantasy and science fiction.
A YouTube channel (Italian P&C) that routinely publishes videos describing such maps, uploaded a video detailing this creation in July.
The description of the video provides a link to the DeviantArt page. The bottom of the YouTube video contains a disclaimer saying that the map is a “worldbuilding project” that is “not to be taken as reality.”
The Earth is an irregular elliptical shape. NASA describes it as an imperfect sphere. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent and is located in the southern hemisphere. The European Union’s Copernicus mapped Antarctica, compiled using satellite data, in July.
Reuters has previously addressed false claims that misinterpret maps to further the flat Earth conspiracy theory.
VERDICT
Missing context. The image stems from an online artistic forum that creates fictional world maps. It is not evidence of a flat Earth.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
