After U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's unusual visit to Antarctica recently, a visit that readers here will recall I blogged about, and a visit scheduled during what was otherwise a global diplomatic junket, I received a number of articles from various readers here, many of them speculating on why such a high ranking official would be visiting our planet's southern-most, and polar, continent. Most of what I received have concerns the "discovery" of a pyramid on that continent, or at least, what are in my un-expert opinion, mighty peculiar and "regularly formed 'mountains.'" Here's the U.K. Daily Mail's version of the story:

Is there a PYRAMID in the Antarctic? Bizarre theory claims an alien base is hidden in a huge triangular structure

The title here says it all, and its a familiar meme within "pyramidology," namely, humans are not capable of building such massive structures, only extraterrestrials are, and besides, they were built so long ago that mankind was not around to build them... Q.E.D. Of course, there are the usual counter-arguments and skeptical articles, such as this one:

Debunking the Pyramids of Antarctica Myth

Relax, all is completely explainable, the latter article reassures us, from natural causes:

It appears the pyramids are not a mystery, after all. For years, climbers heading to Antarctica's largest peak, Vinsen Massif, have passed by one of these supposed pyramids. Even a National Geographic photographer snapped a few pictures of it from the peak of Vinsen Massif. There are other photos and videos on the Internet showing climbers ascending this peak, while the pyramid can be seen in the background. And, by all appearance, no one is really paying much attention to it. There's a reason. The "pyramid" may well be a natural formation known as nunatak. These are mountain peaks that jut up above massive glaciers. They are found throughout Antarctica and Greenland. It is believed that these formations were formed by years of erosion caused by the shifting glaciers.

OK, sure, I get that. Even the Matterhorn, viewed from certain angles, has a "regularity" to it, but no one (as far as I know) is maintaining it was built by extraterrestrials. And for good measure, the latter article gives the following explanation for the more recent resurgence of the "Antarctica Pyramid Story", an interesting history in its own right:

From Google Earth (not cropped) From Vicente Fuentes' video (cropped) Just when the Antarctica Pyramid was starting to fade into obscurity, another article on the matter has gone viral. This time, a name – as well as coordinates – was given. Vicente Fuentes, a Spanish paranormal investigator who writes for Ufotopia.com, posted an image of a supposed pyramid and a Spanish language documentary on the topic in mid-March 2016. Nearly every paranormal blog and internet fringe publication -- such as Before-Its-News.com -- published duplicate articles. Fuentes (who was described as a “vivid researcher”) made the claim that Google Earth captured evidence of a pyramid in Antarctica. And, for good measure, he placed the satellite image side-by-side with another satellite image of a pyramid in Egypt. Also, he gave the coordinates that anyone could plug in for Google Earth (79°58'39.25"S 81°57'32.21"W) Many true believers have touted this as being the best evidence to date. They claimed that it was impossible for mountain ridges and peaks to be nearly perfect in symmetry. However, a closer look reveals that the Antarctic pyramid -- possibly a mountain peak known as Schatz Ridge (a better view is the lead photo used for this article) – is not as perfect as many pyramid believers suggests. There appears to be a canyon on one side. Also, as mentioned, this particular ridge is located near a popular mountain routinely used by mountain climbers (who probably didn’t give it much thought about it being anything more than a glacier horn or nunatak).