DOCSLIB.ORG

What Are the Polar Regions?!

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
What Are the Polar Regions?! A Message from R. Amundsen （Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen, 1872 - 1928) I was born in 1872 near Oslo, Norway. When I was a child, I was inspired to become a polar explorer by books on Arctic expeditions. By training myself to endure hardship and A roaring polar bear in the learning to sail, I was prepared for future adventures. Even after having grown up and becoming a medical student at the University of Oslo, I could not give up my childhood dream. In 1897, I joined the Belgian Antarctic expedition to gain experience. Later, I began planning an expedition to the North Pole and Penguins in Antarctica, lovely borrowed the famous sailing ship “Fram” from the Norwegian explorer severe weather. The temperature and the Nobel Peace Prize winner, F. there in summer was about －30˚C. Nansen. So, I think you will We experienced blizzard after understand how I was shocked on blizzard. We made depots to store hearing the news that the American provisions for our return trip. On explorer R. Peary reached the North December 14, 1911, we finally stood at Pole on April 6, 1909. I thus had to the South Pole! After planting a change my destination to the South Norwegian flag to measure the position Pole, notifying the British explorer R. of the Pole, we left there to return Scott, who was also heading for the home. Pole, of my intentions. As for Captain Scott, his team set Using sleds pulled by over 50 dogs, off on sleds pulled by ponies and our team marched on to the Pole in motorized vehicles, but because the （continued on the last page ...） The airship mooring mast in Ny-Ålesund. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station at the South Pole.＊ ＊Photo from “Two Poles,” Rika Nenpyo Dokuhon, Maruzen. Mol, a science- loving girl, and her robotic dog Mirubo are heading to the South Pole. We are almost Where am I, at the Pole, but Mirubo? I cannot see anything! What a blizzard! Oh No ! 1 Are you up yet? Ugh! Ummm ... Do you feel STARTLE!Monstrous all right? YAKINIKU is coming. Mumbling ... Where, where is this? You are at syowa station Syowa Station in Antarctica! We did it! We have finally arrived! But, what is Syowa Station...? you should know! All I could see when I found you lying You were I was flying was white trapped in a in snow when I drove color, then I got panicky. my snowmobile. I cannot remember whiteout! what happened In that condition, ... You should know after that. it is very dangerous to stay outside ! ... you lose sense of vision and You were saved direction because in the nick of of the snow and the time. diffuse lighting. 2 Where is Where are a public But, I do not you from? phone? have enough coins. Do your parents know you are here? You can communicate Wow, you via the Internet have access Why don‛t to/from Japan. you send an to the e-mail message Internet! to your family? Oh, they must be worried! Mirubo, connect to Mom. BZZZ By the way, I was wondering if I could ask We are you for something Well, well, awfully to eat... what‛s hungry. coming next? Oops! My communication system is broken. Hooray! Do you live in Antarctica, We can have many Antarctic Sensei? types of food. dishes! Although they Let‛s see. are mostly There seems to frozen and be nothing canned. special... No, I am just staying here for research purposes. 3 The Arctic is the region from More specifically, 66.5° N to the North Here is the Pole, whereas the we are studying Arctic region! Antarctic is the the polar regions. region from 66.5° S to the South Pole. The polar regions? And here is the Antarctic region! Polar research in Japan started with the international Japan‛s first research program on the Arctic Antarctic expedition and Antarctic called the opened Syowa It was in the International Geophysical Year (IGY) Station on January 32nd year of the . “Syowa (also which ran from 1957 to 1958 29, 1957. sometimes spelled Showa)” era. Countries such as Australia, Chile, Norway, USA, and Great That‛s why the station Britain, set up research was named stations in the region and Syowa! began observations. Scientists from various countries participated in research on During the IGY, meteorology, auroras, geomagnetism, Then, the Antarctic collaborative observations seismology, etc. in Antarctica. They Treaty, which came were also conducted on into force in 1961, realized that the best observational Svalbard in the Arctic, enhanced international results could be obtained by their although Japan did collaborative efforts. corporation in scientific observations not join this effort. in Antarctica. 4 Polar regions have unique characteristics compared The Earth‛s magnetic Charged particles with other regions field is distorted by accumulate and are on the Earth. the solar wind. energized here. The Earth has a geomagnetic field - it is like Then, they come a huge magnet. down into the atmosphere over the polar regions, creating the aurora! We are able to Hey Mol, peer into the “Windows to here is a map universe through of Antarctica! the polar regions. the universe” Oh, that is nice! As we call the polar regions. It is amazing We are here that almost the at Syowa entire continent Station. is covered by snow and ice! To South Africa Deception Island To Argentina Pole of Inaccessibility South Geographic Pole Japan is shown South Geomagnetic in pink for Pole comparison in size. Antarctica is To Australia far bigger than our country! in 1909 in 1999 5 South Magnetic Pole I want to go to the South Eh!? Pole! Look! I got it. Penguins! Hold on to me, A lot of Adelie Sensei and Mol! penguins live around our station. Those sea birds eat Antarctic krill, squid, and fish. There are no trees, but mosses and algae grow on the ice- and snow- There is free ground. no snow over there! Ah..., this is Here we are at the ceremonial The true South the South Pole. South Pole Geographic Pole Amundsen went through set up mainly changes slowly tremendous hardship for tourists. with the drift of to reach here, ... the ice. ... but it is an easy job for a super-dooper robot like me. WHUMP! 6 There are “three poles” in each of the polar regions. ① The “South Geographic Pole” is the point where the Earth‛s rotation axis intersects the Earth‛s surface. ② The “South Geomagnetic Pole” is the point where the axis of magnetic dipole intersects the Earth‛s surface. ③ The “South Magnetic Pole” is the point where a compass needle stands vertically. I did not know Visiting all the there are as many poles makes me as three “poles.” freezing! Three South Poles: ① The South Geographic Pole at 90° S, ② The South Geomagnetic Pole at 79.6° S and 108.4° E (in 2001), and ③ The South Magnetic Pole at 64.6° S and 138.2° E (in 2001). 7 You can “bathe” close to the shore at Deception Now, why don‛t we go to Island at the tip of the Yeah, that‛s a Antarctic Peninsula. the Arctic? good idea! Leave it to me. Whoof, I feel so good! Wha What!? Let‛s go to Svalbard in the Arctic!! Also, it is not so hard Unlike Antarctica, to come here from other Svalbard belongs Spitsbergen is countries. You do not to one particular the largest island experience that country - Norway. in the Svalbard in Antarctica. Islands, and is a You will find famous place to many people and watch auroras! towns here. There are three North Poles: ① The North Geographic Pole at 90° N, ② The North Geomagnetic Pole at 79.6° N and 71.6° W (in 2001), and ③ The North Magnetic Pole at 81.4° N and 110.9° W (in 2001). 8 When the Sun The rotation axis ... we have the of the Earth is does not set even at midnight, ... tilted 23.5° with ... around the Sun, “Midnight Sun.” respect to its which leads us to orbit plane ... have days in polar regions without sunlight or without darkness. And when the Sun does not ... throughout rise ... a day, we have the “Polar Night.” Confusing! Is there a morning or evening? The midnight ... does not sun ... …… …… …… set but moves along the horizon. In contrast, the Sun never Can I sleep in rises during the as long as I like? I bet you do polar night. that every weekend. 9 － I am It is about 70°C while it is about shivering. in Antarctica in winter (July), －30°C in the Arctic in winter (January). In the Arctic, the temperature is a little higher than it is in Antarctica. Either way, it is Really? ! Still, I want Oh, I have to to look around, tell you that, Mirubo. Let‛s go. although we did not encounter any dangerous animals in Antarctica, ... ... there are polar bears in the Arctic. Noooooo! You must watch out! 10 This should be high enough! We are safe! Wow, I can see only snow and ice like in Antarctica! It is an ice The polar regions hold about 99% world! of the world‛s total ice. We have a lot to The polar regions learn from the polar are mysterious regions, about places! weather phenomena, auroras, animals, and plants. I am freezing. I want to eat hot noodles! Mol and Mirubo were Oh well, anything you fascinated by the HACHOO! want, kids ... wonders of the polar regions. 11 What are the Polar Regions?! Unnhh..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Annual Report COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE for RESEARCH in ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
    2015 Annual Report COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 2015 annual report University of Colorado Boulder UCB 216 Boulder, CO 80309-0216 COOPERATIVE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES University of Colorado Boulder 216 UCB Boulder, CO 80309-0216 303-492-1143 [email protected] http://cires.colorado.edu CIRES Director Waleed Abdalati Annual Report Staff Katy Human, Director of Communications, Editor Susan Lynds and Karin Vergoth, Editing Robin L. Strelow, Designer Agreement No. NA12OAR4320137 Cover photo: Mt. Cook in the Southern Alps, West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island Birgit Hassler, CIRES/NOAA table of contents Executive summary & research highlights 2 project reports 82 From the Director 2 Air Quality in a Changing Climate 83 CIRES: Science in Service to Society 3 Climate Forcing, Feedbacks, and Analysis 86 This is CIRES 6 Earth System Dynamics, Variability, and Change 94 Organization 7 Management and Exploitation of Geophysical Data 105 Council of Fellows 8 Regional Sciences and Applications 115 Governance 9 Scientific Outreach and Education 117 Finance 10 Space Weather Understanding and Prediction 120 Active NOAA Awards 11 Stratospheric Processes and Trends 124 Systems and Prediction Models Development 129 People & Programs 14 CIRES Starts with People 14 Appendices 136 Fellows 15 Table of Contents 136 CIRES Centers 50 Publications by the Numbers 136 Center for Limnology 50 Publications 137 Center for Science and Technology
    [Show full text]
  • Recent North Magnetic Pole Acceleration Towards Siberia Caused by flux Lobe Elongation
    Recent north magnetic pole acceleration towards Siberia caused by flux lobe elongation Philip W. Livermore,1∗, Christopher C. Finlay 2, Matthew Bayliff 1 1School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK, 2DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Copenhagen, Denmark ∗To whom correspondence should be addressed; E-mail: [email protected]. Abstract The wandering of Earth’s north magnetic pole, the location where the magnetic field points vertically downwards, has long been a topic of scien- tific fascination. Since the first in-situ measurements in 1831 of its location in the Canadian arctic, the pole has drifted inexorably towards Siberia, ac- celerating between 1990 and 2005 from its historic speed of 0-15 km/yr to its present speed of 50-60 km/yr. In late October 2017 the north magnetic pole crossed the international date line, passing within 390 km of the geo- graphic pole, and is now moving southwards. Here we show that over the last two decades the position of the north magnetic pole has been largely determined by two large-scale lobes of negative magnetic flux on the core- mantle-boundary under Canada and Siberia. Localised modelling shows that elongation of the Canadian lobe, likely caused by an alteration in the pattern of core-flow between 1970 and 1999, significantly weakened its signature on Earth’s surface causing the pole to accelerate towards Siberia. A range of simple models that capture this process indicate that over the next decade arXiv:2010.11033v1 [physics.geo-ph] 21 Oct 2020 the north magnetic pole will continue on its current trajectory travelling a further 390-660 km towards Siberia.
    [Show full text]
  • Northwest Passage Trail
    Nunavut Parks & Special Places – Editorial Series January, 2008 NorThwesT Passage Trail The small Nunavut community of Gjoa Haven Back in the late eighteenth and nineteenth is located on King William Island, right on the centuries, a huge effort was put forth by historic Northwest Passage and home to the Europeans to locate a passage across northern Northwest Passage Trail which meanders within North America to connect the European nations the community, all within easy walking distance with the riches of the Orient. From the east, many from the hotel. A series of signs, a printed guide, ships entered Hudson Bay and Lancaster Sound, and a display of artifacts in the hamlet office mapping the routes and seeking a way through interpret the local Inuit culture, exploration of the ice-choked waters and narrow channels to the the Northwest Passage, and the story of the Gjoa Pacific Ocean and straight sailing to the oriental and Roald Amundsen. It is quite an experience lands and profitable trading. The only other to walk the shores of history here, learning of routes were perilous – rounding Cape Horn at the exploration of the North, and the lives of the the southern tip of South America or the Cape of people who helped the explorers. Good Hope at the southern end of Africa. As a result, many expeditions were launched to seek a passage through the arctic archipelago. Aussi disponible en français xgw8Ns7uJ5 wk5tg5 Pilaaktut Inuinaqtut ᑲᔾᔮᓇᖅᑐᖅ k a t j a q n a a q listen to the land aliannaktuk en osmose avec la terre Through the efforts of the Royal Navy, and WANDER THROUGH HISTORY Lady Jane Franklin, John Franklin’s wife, At the Northwest Passage Trail in the at least 29 expeditions were launched to community of Gjoa Haven, visitors can, seek Franklin and his men, or evidence of through illustrations and text on interpretive their fate.
    [Show full text]
  • Map and Compass
    UE CG 039-089 2018_UE CG 039-089 2018 2018-08-29 9:57 AM Page 56 MAP The north magnetic pole is not the same as the geographic North Pole, also known as AND COMPASS true north, which is the northern end of the axis around which the earth spins. In fact, the north magnetic pole currently lies Background Information approximately 800 mi (1300 km) south of the geographic North Pole, in northern A compass is an instrument that people use Canada. And because the north magnetic to find a direction in relation to the earth as pole migrates at 6.6 mi (10 km) per year, its a whole. The magnetic needle in the location is constantly changing. compass, which is the freely moving needle in the compass that has a red end, points The meridians of longitude on maps and north. More specifically, this needle points globes are based upon the geographic to the north magnetic pole, the northern North Pole rather than the north magnetic end of the earth’s magnetic field, which pole. This means that magnetic north, the can be imagined as lines of magnetism that direction that a compass indicates as north, leave the south magnetic pole, flow north is not the same direction as maps indicate around the earth, and then enter the north for north. Magnetic declination, the magnetic pole. difference in the angle between magnetic north and true north must, therefore, be Any magnetized object, an object with two taken into account when navigating with a oppositely charged ends, such as a magnet map and a compass.
    [Show full text]
  • Antarctic Primer
    Antarctic Primer By Nigel Sitwell, Tom Ritchie & Gary Miller By Nigel Sitwell, Tom Ritchie & Gary Miller Designed by: Olivia Young, Aurora Expeditions October 2018 Cover image © I.Tortosa Morgan Suite 12, Level 2 35 Buckingham Street Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia To anyone who goes to the Antarctic, there is a tremendous appeal, an unparalleled combination of grandeur, beauty, vastness, loneliness, and malevolence —all of which sound terribly melodramatic — but which truly convey the actual feeling of Antarctica. Where else in the world are all of these descriptions really true? —Captain T.L.M. Sunter, ‘The Antarctic Century Newsletter ANTARCTIC PRIMER 2018 | 3 CONTENTS I. CONSERVING ANTARCTICA Guidance for Visitors to the Antarctic Antarctica’s Historic Heritage South Georgia Biosecurity II. THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT Antarctica The Southern Ocean The Continent Climate Atmospheric Phenomena The Ozone Hole Climate Change Sea Ice The Antarctic Ice Cap Icebergs A Short Glossary of Ice Terms III. THE BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT Life in Antarctica Adapting to the Cold The Kingdom of Krill IV. THE WILDLIFE Antarctic Squids Antarctic Fishes Antarctic Birds Antarctic Seals Antarctic Whales 4 AURORA EXPEDITIONS | Pioneering expedition travel to the heart of nature. CONTENTS V. EXPLORERS AND SCIENTISTS The Exploration of Antarctica The Antarctic Treaty VI. PLACES YOU MAY VISIT South Shetland Islands Antarctic Peninsula Weddell Sea South Orkney Islands South Georgia The Falkland Islands South Sandwich Islands The Historic Ross Sea Sector Commonwealth Bay VII. FURTHER READING VIII. WILDLIFE CHECKLISTS ANTARCTIC PRIMER 2018 | 5 Adélie penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula I. CONSERVING ANTARCTICA Antarctica is the largest wilderness area on earth, a place that must be preserved in its present, virtually pristine state.
    [Show full text]
  • Polar “Wandering” Curves
    POLAR “WANDERING” CURVES We have learned that rock samples containing magnetic minerals (commonly magnetite) provide information (direction and inclination) on where they were formed relative to the north magnetic pole. Turning this around – if we collect recent volcanic rocks from different places around the world, measurement of their magnetic direction and inclination will converge on the present magnetic north pole. POLE POSITION ~ 900 - INCLINATION Does this happen with ancient rocks? If we measure their magnetic inclination and direction, we might expect that rocks of the same age on different continents would give identical polar positions, which should correspond with the present polar position. Rocks of different ages give different polar positions Rocks of the same age but on different continents give different polar positions The older the rock the further the calculated polar position is from the present position Not here as expected! EXAMPLE Permian ~ 245-286 million years Examples of so-called “Polar Wandering Curves” Plotting the apparent polar positions for rocks of different ages from North America and Eurasia produces two curves, the so-called “polar wandering curves”. Note that as the curves get younger they converge. Fitting the continents back together results in a single curve. Nonetheless, the positions still do not correspond with the current magnetic position. To account for this, the continents would have had to move northwards as well. Explanation of “Polar Wandering Curves” 300 million years ago Today Sideways
    [Show full text]
  • AQUILA BOOKS Specializing in Books and Ephemera Related to All Aspects of the Polar Regions
    AQUILA BOOKS Specializing in Books and Ephemera Related to all Aspects of the Polar Regions Winter 2012 Presentation copy to Lord Northcliffe of The Limited Edition CATALOGUE 112 88 ‘The Heart of the Antarctic’ 12 26 44 49 42 43 Items on Front Cover 3 4 13 9 17 9 54 6 12 74 84 XX 72 70 21 24 8 7 7 25 29 48 48 48 37 63 59 76 49 50 81 7945 64 74 58 82 41 54 77 43 80 96 84 90 100 2 6 98 81 82 59 103 85 89 104 58 AQUILA BOOKS Box 75035, Cambrian Postal Outlet Calgary, AB T2K 6J8 Canada Cameron Treleaven, Proprietor A.B.A.C. / I.L.A.B., P.B.F.A., N.A.A.B., F.R.G.S. Hours: 10:30 – 5:30 MDT Monday-Saturday Dear Customers; Welcome to our first catalogue of 2012, the first catalogue in the last two years! We are hopefully on schedule to produce three catalogues this year with the next one mid May before the London Fairs and the last just before Christmas. We are building our e-mail list and hopefully we will be e-mailing the catalogues as well as by regular mail starting in 2013. If you wish to receive the catalogues by e-mail please make sure we have your correct e-mail address. Best regards, Cameron Phone: (403) 282-5832 Fax: (403) 289-0814 Email: [email protected] All Prices net in US Dollars. Accepted payment methods: by Credit Card (Visa or Master Card) and also by Cheque or Money Order, payable on a North American bank.
    [Show full text]
  • Magnetic North Pole Shifting at 50Km a Year
    International Union of Marine Insurance Magnetic North Pole shifting at 50km a year 14th January 2019 For unknown reasons the shift in the Magnetic North Pole has accelerated rapidly in the past 40 years, potentially causing problems for navigation for vessels within the Arctic Circle, just as the northern route is opening up to commercial traffic, Reuters reported at the weekend. Compass needles point towards the north magnetic pole, which has been moving at an unpredictable rate from the coast of northern Canada a century ago to the middle of the Arctic Ocean, heading in the direction of Russia. Ciaran Beggan, of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, UK, told Reuters last week that it was “moving at about 50 km (30 miles) a year. It didn’t move much between 1900 and 1980 but it’s really accelerated in the past 40 years,” The rapid shift has forced researchers to update early a model that helps navigation by ships, planes and submarines in the Arctic. A five-year update of the World Magnetic Model was due in 2020, but the US military has requested an unprecedented early review, he said. The BGS runs the model in association with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Beggan said that the moving pole affected navigation, particularly in the Arctic Ocean north of Canada. As well as civilian navigation, NATO, the US and UK militaries use the magnetic model. An update will be released on January 30th, delayed from January 15th because of the current shutdown of the US government. Beggan said the recent shifts in the north magnetic pole would be unnoticed by most people outside the Arctic.
    [Show full text]
  • Earth's Magnetic Field Is Acting Up
    IN FOCUS NEWS target in the Kuiper belt, the realm of space a public naming contest. rocks that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune. New Ultima Thule means ‘beyond the known Horizons visited its first Kuiper belt object, world’ in Latin, and is commonly associated Pluto, in July 2015. with the Arctic and exploration. But the Nazis NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI But MU69 is special because it hails from an also appropriated the phrase to describe the undisturbed part of the Solar System known mythological homeland of the Aryan race, as as the cold classical Kuiper belt. Scientists Newsweek pointed out last March. A retweet of think that objects there have been in a deep that piece on 1 January drew attention to the freeze since the Solar System formed, more Nazi associations. than 4.5 billion years ago. Data from the MU69 Asked about the issue, Alan Stern, the mis- fly-by will give scientists their most direct look sion’s principal investigator, said that Ultima at these pristine relics of planetary formation. Thule has been used for centuries to describe “This is a perfect contact binary,” says far-off lands. “That’s why we chose it,” says Michele Bannister, a planetary astronomer Stern, a planetary scientist at the Southwest at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. “Of all the Research Institute. hundreds of thousands of cold classicals out Like much of the US government, NASA there, this is a gorgeous choice.” remains shut down while Congress and Its two lobes probably formed as President Donald Trump battle over federal in numerable small particles swirled together spending and immigration policy.
    [Show full text]
  • A Calculation Algorithm for the Remotest Places
    Scottish Geographical Journal Vol. 123, No. 3, 227 – 233, September 2007 Poles of Inaccessibility: A Calculation Algorithm for the Remotest Places on Earth DANIEL GARCIA-CASTELLANOS* & UMBERTO LOMBARDO** *ICT Jaume Almera, Sole i Sabarı´s, Barcelona, Spain **Universita¨t Bern, Bern, Switzerland ABSTRACT An algorithm is presented to calculate the point on the surface of a sphere maximising the great-circle distance to a given spherical polygon. This is used to calculate the spots furthest from the sea in major land masses, also known as Poles of Inaccessibility (PIA), a concept that has raised the interest of explorers. For the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility (EPIA), Downloaded By: [Garcia-Castellanos, Daniel] At: 13:01 6 March 2008 the results reveal a misplacement in previous calculations ranging from 156 to 435 km. Although in general there is only one pole for a given coastline, the present calculations show that, within the error inherent to the definition of the coastline, two locations are candidates for EPIA, one equidistant from Gulf of Ob, Gulf of Bengal and Arabian Sea, and the other equidistant from Gulf of Ob, Gulf of Bengal and Gulf of Bohai, both poles being located in the north westernmost Chinese province of Xinjiang. The distance to the sea at these locations is 2510 and 2514 km respectively, about 120 km closer than generally thought. KEY WORDS: Distance to sea, computer method Introduction Distance from the sea is historically related to isolation and inaccessibility. A Pole of Inaccessibility (PIA) is defined as the location furthest from a particular coastline (Figure 1). The concept was first introduced by Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1920) to distinguish between the North Pole and the most difficult-to-reach place in the Arctic.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction EXPLORATION and SACRIFICE: the CULTURAL
    Introduction EXPLORATION AND SACRIFICE: THE CULTURAL LOGIC OF ARCTIC DISCOVERY Russell A. POTTER Reprinted from The Quest for the Northwest Passage: British Narratives of Arctic Exploration, 1576-1874, edited by Frédéric Regard, © 2013 Pickering & Chatto. The Northwest Passage in nineteenth-century Britain, 1818-1874 Although this collective work can certainly be read as a self-contained book, it may also be considered as a sequel to our first volume, also edited by Frederic Regard, The Quest for the Northwest Passage: Knowledge, Nation, Empire, 1576-1806, published in 2012 by Pickering and Chatto. That volume, dealing with early discovery missions and eighteenth-century innovations (overland expeditions, conducted mainly by men working for the Hudson’s Bay Company), was more historical, insisting in particular on the role of the Northwest Passage in Britain’s imperial project and colonial discourse. As its title indicates, this second volume deals massively with the nineteenth century. This was the period during which the Northwest Passage was finally discovered, and – perhaps more importantly – the period during which the quest reached an unprecedented level of intensity in Britain. In Sir John Barrow’s – the powerful Second Secretary to the Admiralty’s – view of Britain’s military, commercial and spiritual leadership in the world, the Arctic remained indeed the only geographical discovery worthy of the Earth’s most powerful nation. But the Passage had also come to feature an inaccessible ideal, Arctic landscapes and seascapes typifying sublime nature, in particular since Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1818). And yet, for all the attention lavished on the myth created by Sir John Franklin’s overland expeditions (1819-1822, 1825-18271) and above all by the one which would cost him his life (1845-1847), very little research has been carried out on the extraordinary Arctic frenzy with which the British Admiralty was seized between 1818, in the wake of the end of the Napoleonic wars, and 1859, which may be considered as the year the quest was ended.
    [Show full text]
  • Public Information Leaflet HISTORY.Indd
    British Antarctic Survey History The United Kingdom has a long and distinguished record of scientific exploration in Antarctica. Before the creation of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), there were many surveying and scientific expeditions that laid the foundations for modern polar science. These ranged from Captain Cook’s naval voyages of the 18th century, to the famous expeditions led by Scott and Shackleton, to a secret wartime operation to secure British interests in Antarctica. Today, BAS is a world leader in polar science, maintaining the UK’s long history of Antarctic discovery and scientific endeavour. The early years Britain’s interests in Antarctica started with the first circumnavigation of the Antarctic continent by Captain James Cook during his voyage of 1772-75. Cook sailed his two ships, HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure, into the pack ice reaching as far as 71°10' south and crossing the Antarctic Circle for the first time. He discovered South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands although he did not set eyes on the Antarctic continent itself. His reports of fur seals led many sealers from Britain and the United States to head to the Antarctic to begin a long and unsustainable exploitation of the Southern Ocean. Image: Unloading cargo for the construction of ‘Base A’ on Goudier Island, Antarctic Peninsula (1944). During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, interest in Antarctica was largely focused on the exploitation of its surrounding waters by sealers and whalers. The discovery of the South Shetland Islands is attributed to Captain William Smith who was blown off course when sailing around Cape Horn in 1819.
    [Show full text]