Ceremonial Pole

Here are some pictures from the Ceremonial South Pole. It has the flags of the countries that originally signed the Antarctic Treaty, and also a Pole marker, consisting of a metallic, mirrored ball on top of a ‘barber pole’ plinth. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–58. The 12 countries had significant interests in Antarctica at the time: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. (I got most of the information above from Wikipedia, again…).

I am not sure why there a distinction between the Geographic South Pole and a Ceremonial South Pole. Maybe they marked two places to have one that looks good and highly official (Ceremonial Pole), and one that actually is placed at 90°S which is newly placed every year and could therefore be somewhere with not such a nice background (Geographic South Pole)?

Did I actually mention that the Geographic South Pole marker is different every year? It is newly placed each January 1st, but it is also specifically made each year.