Antarctic Treaty
The Antarctic Treaty governs activities in Antarctica, where meteorites are collected only by scientific programmes.
The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 and came into force in 1961. It sets Antarctica aside for peaceful purposes and scientific research and freezes territorial claims. Later agreements, including a 1991 protocol on environmental protection, add rules about what may be done on the continent.
Antarctica has produced more meteorites than anywhere else, over 45,000 named specimens, because the ice sheet gathers them in blue-ice areas. Under the treaty system, they are collected by national scientific programmes, such as the American ANSMET programme, and teams from Japan, China, Korea, Italy, Belgium and others. Specimens are curated and made available to researchers worldwide.
Antarctic meteorites are not sold commercially, and private hunting there is not permitted. The 2001 guidance agreed by treaty members discourages the collection of meteorites for non-scientific purposes. This is why Antarctic meteorites have names such as ALH 84001 and are held in national collections.
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