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First sighting. Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen was one of the first to spot the continent of Antarctica. The first land south of the parallel 60° south latitude was documented by Englishman William Smith, who sighted Livingston Island in the South Shetlands archipelago on 19 February 1819.
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As defined by the Antarctic Treaty System, the Antarctic region is everything south of the 60°S latitude. The Treaty area covers Antarctica and the archipelagos of the Balleny Islands, Peter I Island, Scott Island, the South Orkney Islands, and the South Shetland Islands. However, this area does not include the Antarctic Convergence, a transition z...
Antarctica
A variety of animals live in Antarctica for at least some of the year, including: 1. Seals 2. Penguins 3. South Georgia pipits 4. Albatrosses 5. Antarctic petrels 6. Whales 7. Fish, such as Antarctic icefish, Antarctic toothfish 8. Squid, including the colossal squid 9. Antarctic krill Most of the Antarctica continent is permanently covered by ice and snow, leaving less than 1 percent of the land exposed. There are only two species of flowering plant, Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlw...
Sub-Antarctic Islands
Biodiversityamong terrestrial flora and fauna is low on the islands: studies have theorized that the harsh climate was a major contributor towards species richness, but multiple correlations have been found with area, temperature, remoteness of islands, and food chain stability. For example, herbivorous insects are poor in number due to low plant richness, and likewise, indigenous bird numbers are related to insects, which are a major food source. 1. Isla de los Estados (Argentina) 2. Isla Gr...
The Antarctic hosts the world's largest protected area comprising 1.07 million km2, the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protection Area created in 2012. The latter exceeds the surface area of another vast protected territory, the Greenland National Park's 972,000 km2 (375,000 sq mi). (While the Ross Sea Marine Protection Area es...
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The first recorded sighting of Antarctica is credited to the Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla, who reported seeing distant southern snow-capped mountains in 1603. The first Antarctic land discovered was the island of South Georgia, visited by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675. Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis ("Southern Land") date back to antiquity, the first confirmed sighting of the continent of Antarctica is commonly accepted to have occurred in 1820 by th...
Time zones
Because Antarctica surrounds the South Pole, it is theoretically located in all time zones. For practical purposes, time zones are usually based on territorial claimsor the time zone of a station's owner country or supply base.
Krupnik, Igor; Michael A. Lang; Scott E. Miller (eds). Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar Year Science. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2009.
Tamarereti, a Polynesian explorer, also saw the icy south, according to oral tradition. European explorers first approached Antarctica in 1520, when Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan rounded South America during his journey to circumnavigate the world. In the 18th century, British.
The Russian F.G. von Bellingshausen (b. 1778—d. 1852), the Englishman Edward Bransfield (b. 1795?—d. 1852), and the American Nathaniel Palmer (b. 1799—d. 1877) all claimed first sightings of the continent in 1820. The period to c. 1900 was dominated by the exploration of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic seas.
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Edward Bransfield (born c. 1785, Ballinacurra, Ireland—died 1852, Brighton, England) was an Irish-born English naval officer believed to have been the first to sight the Antarctic mainland and to chart a portion of it.
Jan 27, 2020 · Americans weren’t far behind: John Davis, a sealer and explorer, was the first person to step foot on Antarctic land in 1821. The race to find Antarctica sparked competition to locate the South...
