earth science

Southernmost settlements

Southernmost settlements is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Southernmost settlements rather than just read about it. In short: This article covers towns, weather stations and permanent military bases that are farther south than latitude 45°S. Unlike the northern hemisphere, where several major metropolitan areas such as Moscow, Harbin, London, Paris, Seattle, and Montreal are all located north of the 45°N parallel, the only permanently populated areas south of the 45°S parallel are the small and sparsely populated regions of southern Patago…

Key takeaways

Southernmost settlements belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Southernmost settlements to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Southernmost settlements from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This article covers towns, weather stations and permanent military bases that are farther south than latitude 45°S. Unlike the northern hemisphere, where several major metropolitan areas such as Moscow, Harbin, London, Paris, Seattle, and Montreal are all located north of the 45°N parallel, the only permanently populated areas south of the 45°S parallel are the small and sparsely populated regions of southern Patagonia in South America, the Falkland Islands, and the southernmost tip of New Zealand.

Southernmost city The southernmost city in the world is mainly a slogan used for tourism purposes to attract visitors to a city as well as the tourists headed for Antarctica. Ciudad (city) is not a legal designation in Chile and Argentina, except for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Currently, three places use this slogan: Ushuaia in Argentina as well as Punta Arenas and Puerto Williams in Chile, with the last being the absolute southernmost town by latitude. There are several more settlements further south but none are considered to be large enough to be classified as a 'city'. The three contending cities are from north to south:

Punta Arenas (53°10′S 70°56′W, population: 123,403), literally in Spanish: "Sandy Point", is the oldest and largest city in Southern Patagonia, at the Strait of Magellan and the capital of the Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region. It is the largest of the three contenders with around 130,000 permanent residents and it is called the southernmost city by some media outlets. The basis of its claim to be the southernmost city rests on it being larger than Ushuaia, Río Grande, and Puerto Williams, all of which are farther south. Ushuaia (54°48′S 68°18′W, population: 82,615), the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, is more commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world due to its sufficiently large population, its infrastructure, and its accepted classification as a city. Ushuaia is located in a wide bay on the southern coast of the island of Tierra del Fuego, on the northern shore of the Beagle Channel; hence, it is further north than Puerto Williams. Puerto Williams (54°56′S 67°37′W, population: 1,868), located on Isla Navarino, is the southernmost town in the world on the southern shore of the Beagle Channel. It is the capital of the Antártica Chilena Province, one of four provinces located in the Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Region. Puerto Williams is sometimes considered the southernmost city in the world by Chilean media and some large media international organisations, although it promotes itself with the slogan Puerto Williams, the southernmost town in the world in its tourism campaigns. It has a Naval Hospital of Puerto Williams, the Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum, the Guardiamarina Zañartu Airport and a university campus and it is a naval base of the Chilean Navy.

The southernmost city with a population of over one million is Melbourne, Australia.

Settlements of more than 1,000 inhabitants south of 45°S

This is a list of all settlements south of the 45th parallel south with over 1,000 permanent inhabitants.

Southernmost settlements outside Antarctica This list of settlements excludes research stations in Antarctica and its surrounding islands.

The former Argentine base Corbeta Uruguay (59°28′ S) in South Sandwich Islands was the southernmost settlement outside Antarctica from 1976–1982.

Settlements on the Antarctic continent

There are many research stations in Antarctica, both permanent and summer only. Many of the stations are staffed all year. McMurdo Station is the largest with an average population of 1200. A total of 30 countries (as of October 2006), all signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, operate seasonal (summer) or year-round research stations on the continent and on its surrounding islands. In addition to these permanent stations, approximately 30 field camps are established each austral summer to support specific one-off projects.

See also Northernmost settlements Extremes on Earth List of southernmost items

Notes

References

Bibliography L. Ivanov and N. Ivanova. Southernmost city. In: The World of Antarctica. Generis Publishing, 2022. pp. 126-130. ISBN 979-8-88676-403-1

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Southernmost settlements

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Southernmost settlements claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Southernmost settlements before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Southernmost settlements ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Southernmost settlements

In research: Southernmost settlements appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Southernmost settlements in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Southernmost settlements is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Extreme points of Earth, Geography of Antarctica, Geography of the Southern Ocean, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Southernmost settlements outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Southernmost settlements in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Southernmost settlements means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Southernmost settlements out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Southernmost settlements in simple terms?

Why does Southernmost settlements matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Southernmost settlements?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Southernmost settlements.