The administration of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is conducted as a British Overseas Territory, managed by a Commissioner who also serves as the Governor of the Falkland Islands. While the territory is constitutionally distinct from the Falkland Islands, many administrative functions are coordinated from Stanley. The legal system is based on English Common Law, supplemented by local ordinances issued by the Commissioner. There is no permanent indigenous population; instead, the islands are inhabited by a rotating group of scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, government officials, and museum staff. This administrative structure ensures that the territory remains self-governing in its internal affairs while relying on the United Kingdom for defense and foreign relations.

Grytviken, located on the edge of King Edward Cove, serves as the most significant historical site in the territory and was the first whaling station established in the Antarctic sub-region. Founded in 1904 by the Norwegian captain Carl Anton Larsen, it operated for sixty years as a hub for the global whaling industry. Today, it is a ghost town preserved for its historical value, featuring a restored church, a whaling museum, and the grave of the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. The site serves as a physical record of the industrial exploitation of the Southern Ocean, showcasing the rusted remains of whale oil vats and scuttled harpoon ships that once powered the local economy before the industry collapsed in the 1960s.

The South Sandwich Islands comprise an arc of eleven volcanic islands stretching across 400 kilometers of the Southern Ocean. Unlike the rugged sedimentary mountains of South Georgia, these islands are geologically young and highly active. Mount Michael on Saunders Island is particularly notable for hosting one of the world’s few persistent lava lakes within its summit crater. Most of these islands are almost entirely covered in ice or volcanic ash, and landings are exceptionally difficult due to steep cliffs and heavy surf. Because they are so remote and volcanically unstable, they remain one of the least explored archipelagoes on Earth, serving primarily as a natural laboratory for studying island arc volcanism and seafloor spreading.