antarctica the great southern continentexploration.woodsfords.uk/programme/bill-block... · 2017....
TRANSCRIPT
ANTARCTICA The Great Southern Continent
World Exploration
Themes and Quests
U3A Cambridge
DISCOVERY Six phases of exploration
• Early voyages (1770 – 1894)
• Antarctic sealing & whaling (1770 – 1968)
• ‘Heroic Age’ (1895 – 1915)
• Between WW1 & WW2 (1918 – 1936)
• International Geophysical Year (1957 - 58)
• Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955 – 58)
• Scientific exploration to present
Early voyages (1770 – 1894)
1620
1763
Dutch explorers
Ice-filled sea around the South Pole
British Naval Expedition 1772 – 1775
Resolution & Adventure
“doomed by Nature ….
to lie for ever buried
under everlasting
snow and ice”
Resolution and Adventure
circum-navigated Antarctica
did not sight land furthest south –
71⁰10’S
Antarctic sealing & whaling (1770 – 1968)
Sealing
• William Smith (Williams) landed on South Shetland Islands–1819
• Edward Bransfield (Williams) landed on Trinity Island–1820
• George Powell (Dove) & Nathaniel Palmer (James Munro) explored South Shetland Is. and Sourth Orkney Is.-1821
• Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (Vostock, Mirnyi) discovered Alexander Is.-1820
● 1904 - Norwegian Captain Carl Anton Larsen
● Grytviken whaling station established on South Georgia
● Whaling continued until 1965; 7 shore stations
Whaling
HMS Challenger Captain G S Nares
February 1874 – crosses the Antarctic Circle
‘The birth of the science of oceanography’
‘Heroic Age’ (1895 – 1915)
Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901- 03
October 1902
Party of 3 men, 2 sledges, 5 dogs
Covered 380 miles (611 km) in 33 days
Reached 65°57’S
Named Borchgrevink Nunatak
Hope Bay
Paulet Island
Snow Hill Island
South Pole – 1908-09
Wild Shackleton Marshall Adams 1,700 miles trek to within 97 miles of the South Pole
14 December 1911
17 January 1912
Imperial Trans-Antarctic
Expedition 1914-16
Weddell Sea Party Endurance Ernest Shackleton
Ross Sea Party Aurora Mackintosh Stenhouse Davis
Launch of the James Caird at Elephant Island
British Graham Land Expedition
1934 - 37
Penola John Rymill
Tabarin – 1943 - 46
Operation Tabarin began in 1943
Secret naval operation
3 bases established on the Antarctic Peninsula (Hope Bay, Port Lockroy, Argentine Islands)
Renamed Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) in 1945
Evolved into British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1962
Fuchs’ party
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955- 58
Fuchs & Hillary
12 countries operated 47
research stations
U K Royal Society base at Halley Bay
International Geophysical Year (IGY) 1957 - 58
Territorial claims 8 nations
Signed in 1959; ratified by 12 nations (IGY participants) in 1961
Currently 47+ signatories (representing >80% of world population)
Established Antarctica (south of 60°S) as a region of peace and science; territorial claims were set aside
Treaty remains in place indefinitely
Antarctic Treaty
Antarctic Treaty nations
Antarctic Treaty System
• Ensures peaceful exploration and international scientific collaboration
• Bans nuclear activities
• Suspends all territorial claims
• Moratorium on mineral exploitation
• Enforces wildlife conservation
• Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs)
• Manages pollution, waste and protected areas
“Tourism industry conserves Antarctica”
IAATO
International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators
Antarctica – Themes and Quests
Exploration of the unknown Exploitation of natural resources
Land claims (Empire) First to the South Pole Wartime occupation
Emergence of scientific discovery First crossing of Antarctica
Antarctic Treaty & SCAR Responsible tourism
Antarctica today
– a continent for peace,
science and exploration
Some reading
Antarctica – Great Stories from the Frozen Continent Reader’s Digest , 1985. Reader’s Digest Services Pty Ltd, London
Chronological List of Antarctic Expeditions and Related Historical Events
Robert K Headland, 1989. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Forgotten Footprints – Lost Stories in the Discovery of Antarctica John Harrison, 2012. Parthian, Cardigan