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History of Antarctica
The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn in the 15th and 16th centuries proved that Terra Australis Incognita ("Unknown Southern Land"), if it existed, was a continent in its own right. In 1773, James Cook and his crew crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. Although he discovered new islands, he did not sight the continent itself. It is believed that he came as close as 240 km (150 mi) from the mainland.
Exploration of the region began after William Smith accidentally discovered the South Shetland Islands on 19 February 1819. The following summer, at the turn of 1819 and 1820, the far south was visited by several ships, mainly sealers, but also by Edward Bransfield, a representative of the British Empire, and the First Russian Antarctic Expedition, which is credited with the earliest, albeit unconscious, sighting of the continent. The search for new seal colonies led to the discovery of several more areas of land, but it was only the data collected by three national expeditions led by Charles Wilkes, Jules Dumont d'Urville and James Clark Ross in 1840 that confirmed the existence of the continent. In the twenty years following Ross' return, there was a general lull internationally in Antarctic exploration.
The exploration of Antarctica was resumed in the 1870s, and subsequent expeditions gradually moved from being commercial-scientific to being characteristic of the heroic age. The culmination of this era is considered to be the race to the South Pole achieved by Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, which ended with Amundsen's conquest of the pole on 14 December 1911 and the death of Scott's group on the way back. The Shackleton-Rowett expedition, which ended in 1922, is considered the last expedition of the Heroic Age, after which exploration became increasingly technology-based. In the 1950s, the most famous permanent bases were built, such as Mawson, McMurdo, Amundsen-Scott and Mirny.
The International Geophysical Year was pivotal in establishing a cooperative international framework in Antarctica, and led on to the Antarctic Treaty System in 1959.
Aristotle speculated, "Now since there must be a region bearing the same relation to the southern pole as the place we live in bears to our pole...".
It was not until Prince Henry the Navigator began in 1418 to encourage the penetration of the torrid zone in the effort to reach India by circumnavigating Africa that European exploration of the southern hemisphere began. In 1473, Portuguese navigator Lopes Gonçalves proved that the equator could be crossed, and cartographers and sailors began to assume the existence of another, temperate continent to the south of the known world.
The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 by Bartolomeu Dias first brought explorers within touch of the Antarctic cold, and proved that there was an ocean separating Africa from any Antarctic land that might exist.
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History of Antarctica AI simulator
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History of Antarctica
The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn in the 15th and 16th centuries proved that Terra Australis Incognita ("Unknown Southern Land"), if it existed, was a continent in its own right. In 1773, James Cook and his crew crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. Although he discovered new islands, he did not sight the continent itself. It is believed that he came as close as 240 km (150 mi) from the mainland.
Exploration of the region began after William Smith accidentally discovered the South Shetland Islands on 19 February 1819. The following summer, at the turn of 1819 and 1820, the far south was visited by several ships, mainly sealers, but also by Edward Bransfield, a representative of the British Empire, and the First Russian Antarctic Expedition, which is credited with the earliest, albeit unconscious, sighting of the continent. The search for new seal colonies led to the discovery of several more areas of land, but it was only the data collected by three national expeditions led by Charles Wilkes, Jules Dumont d'Urville and James Clark Ross in 1840 that confirmed the existence of the continent. In the twenty years following Ross' return, there was a general lull internationally in Antarctic exploration.
The exploration of Antarctica was resumed in the 1870s, and subsequent expeditions gradually moved from being commercial-scientific to being characteristic of the heroic age. The culmination of this era is considered to be the race to the South Pole achieved by Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, which ended with Amundsen's conquest of the pole on 14 December 1911 and the death of Scott's group on the way back. The Shackleton-Rowett expedition, which ended in 1922, is considered the last expedition of the Heroic Age, after which exploration became increasingly technology-based. In the 1950s, the most famous permanent bases were built, such as Mawson, McMurdo, Amundsen-Scott and Mirny.
The International Geophysical Year was pivotal in establishing a cooperative international framework in Antarctica, and led on to the Antarctic Treaty System in 1959.
Aristotle speculated, "Now since there must be a region bearing the same relation to the southern pole as the place we live in bears to our pole...".
It was not until Prince Henry the Navigator began in 1418 to encourage the penetration of the torrid zone in the effort to reach India by circumnavigating Africa that European exploration of the southern hemisphere began. In 1473, Portuguese navigator Lopes Gonçalves proved that the equator could be crossed, and cartographers and sailors began to assume the existence of another, temperate continent to the south of the known world.
The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 by Bartolomeu Dias first brought explorers within touch of the Antarctic cold, and proved that there was an ocean separating Africa from any Antarctic land that might exist.