The assumption of the existence of a mysterious Terra Australis Incognita- The southern unknown land - they spoke out long before the first real expeditions were equipped there. Ever since scientists realized that the Earth is spherical, they believed that the areas of land and sea in the northern and southern hemispheres were approximately the same. Otherwise, they say, the balance would be disrupted, and our planet would be oriented toward the Sun with the side with the greater mass.
Once again one has to be surprised by the foresight of M.V. Lomonosov, who in 1763, even before Cook’s expeditions, very clearly formulated his idea of the Southern Land: “In the vicinity of the Strait of Magellan and opposite the Cape of Good Hope, about 53 degrees of midday width, there is great ice, so there should be no doubt that in the great distance the islands and the hardened earth are covered with many and permanent snows, and that a large expanse of the earth’s surface near the South Pole is occupied by them, than in the north".
An interesting point: at first the prevailing opinion was that the southern continent was much larger than it actually was. And when the Dutchman Willem Janson discovered Australia, he gave it a name based on the assumption that it was part of that very Terra Australis Incognita…
Off the coast of Antarctica. Photo: Peter Holgate.
The first who managed, albeit against their own will, to cross the Antarctic Circle and, in all likelihood, see Antarctica, became the Dutch. In 1559, a ship commanded by Dirk Geeritz, in the Strait of Magellan was caught in a storm and was carried far to the south. Having reached 64 degrees south latitude, the sailors saw "high land". But apart from this mention, history has not preserved any other evidence of a possible discovery. As soon as the weather permitted, Geeritz immediately left the inhospitable Antarctic waters.
Dutch galleon of the 16th century.
It is possible that the incident with the ship Geeritsa was not the only one. Already in our time, shipwrecks, clothing and kitchen utensils dating back to the 16th-17th centuries have been repeatedly found on the coast of the Antarctic islands. One of these wrecks, belonging to an 18th-century Spanish galleon, is kept in the museum of the Chilean city of Valparaiso. True, skeptics believe that all this evidence of shipwrecks could have been brought to Antarctica waves and currents.
In the 17th-18th centuries, French navigators distinguished themselves: they discovered the islands of South Georgia, Bouvet and Kerguelen, located in "Roaring Forties" latitudes The British, not wanting to lag behind their competitors, also equipped two expeditions in a row in 1768-1775. They became an important stage in the study of the southern hemisphere.
Both expeditions were led by the famous captain James Cook. He repeatedly crossed the Arctic Circle, was covered in ice, crossed 71 degrees south latitude and was only 75 miles from the shores of the sixth continent, but an insurmountable wall of ice prevented him from reaching them.
Cook's expedition ship Endeavor, a modern replica.
Despite failing to find mainland land, in general, Cook's expeditions brought impressive results. It was found that New Zealand is an archipelago, and not part of the southern mainland, as previously thought. In addition, the coasts of Australia, vast areas of water Pacific Ocean, several islands were discovered, astronomical observations were carried out, etc.
In Russian literature there are statements that Cook did not believe in the existence of the Southern Land and allegedly openly declared this. Actually this is not true. James Cook argued just the opposite: “I will not deny that there may be a continent or significant land near the pole. On the contrary, I am convinced that such a land exists, and it is possible that we have seen part of it. Great cold, a huge number of ice islands and floating ice - all this proves that there must be land in the south.".
He even wrote a special treatise "The Case for the Existence of Earth Near the South Pole", and named the open South Sandwich Islands Sandwich Land in honor of the First Lord of the Admiralty, mistakenly believing that it was a protrusion of the mainland of the southern continent. At the same time, Cook, faced with the extremely harsh Antarctic climate, came to the conclusion that further research was pointless. Since the mainland “being open and examined, it would still not be of benefit to navigation, geography, or other branches of science”. It was probably this statement that for a long time discouraged the desire to send new expeditions to the Southern Land, and for half a century the harsh Antarctic waters were visited mainly only by whaling and hunting ships.
Captain James Cook.
Next and perhaps most important discovery in history Antarctica was made by Russian sailors. In July 1819, the first Russian Antarctic expedition started, consisting of two Russian Imperial Navy "Vostok" and "Mirny". The first of them, and the detachment as a whole, was commanded by a captain of the 2nd rank, the second by a lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. It is curious that the goals of the expedition were exclusively scientific - it was to explore the remote waters of the World Ocean and find the mysterious southern continent, penetrating "to the furthest latitude that can be reached".
The Russian sailors completed their assigned tasks brilliantly. On January 28 (according to ship “mean astronomical” time, which was 12 hours ahead of St. Petersburg), 1820, they came close to the ice barrier of the Antarctic continent. According to them, there was "ice field dotted with mounds". Lieutenant Lazarev spoke more definitely: “we met hardened ice of extreme height... it extended as far as vision could reach... From here we continued our path to the east, trying whenever possible to the south, but we always met an icy continent”. This day is now considered the opening day Antarctica. Although, strictly speaking, the Russian sailors did not see the land itself then: they were 20 miles from the coast, later called Queen Maud Land, and only the ice shelf appeared before their eyes.
It is curious that just three days later, on the other side of the continent, an English sailing ship under the command of captain Edward Bransfield approached the Antarctic Peninsula, and land was allegedly visible from its side. The captain of the American hunting ship said the same thing. Nathaniel Palmer, who visited the same place in November 1820. True, both of these ships were engaged in fishing for whales and seals, and their captains were interested primarily in commercial gain, and not in the laurels of discoverers of new lands.
American whaling ships in Antarctic waters. Artist Roy Cross.
In fairness, we note that, despite a number of controversial issues, recognition and Lazarev discoverers Antarctica deservedly and fairly. January 28, 1821 - exactly one year from the date of meeting with "ice continent"- Russian sailors in sunny weather clearly saw and even sketched the mountainous coast. The last doubts disappeared: not just an ice massif, but snow-covered rocks extended to the south. The open land was put on the map as the Land of Alexander I. It is interesting to note that for a long time the Land of Alexander I was considered part of the mainland, and only in 1940 it became clear that it was an island: under a multi-meter layer of ice shelf, a strait was discovered separating it from the continent.
During the two years of sailing, the ships of the first Russian Antarctic expedition circumnavigated open continent, leaving more than 50 thousand miles behind the stern. 29 new islands were discovered, and a huge amount of various research was carried out.
The sloops “Vostok” and “Mirny” off the coast of Antarctica. Artist E.V.Voishvillo.
The first person to set foot on the land - or rather, the ice - of the southern continent, in all likelihood, was the American hunter John Davis. On February 7, 1821, he landed from a fishing vessel on the shore in West Antarctica near Cape Charles. However, this fact is not documented in any way and is given only from the words of the sailor, so many historians do not recognize it. The first confirmed landing on the ice continent took place 74 years (!) later - on January 24, 1895. Norwegian
Antarctica (Greek ἀνταρκτικός - the opposite of the Arctic) - the sixth, most recently discovered, continent in the very south of the Earth, the center of Antarctica approximately coincides with the southern geographic pole. Antarctica, together with the Antarctic region extending around it, is a world natural reserve.
The other day marks the 190th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica, so we have prepared this publication so that each of us can discover a little interesting and educational information about Antarctica and Antarctica.
Satellite view of Antarctica
Treaty, Protocol and claims
According to the Antarctic Treaty of December 1, 1959, both Antarctica as a whole and the Antarctic continent itself cannot belong to any state, are used only for peaceful purposes, researchers have access to any point in Antarctica and the right of access to information obtained by researchers of other countries; The Madrid Protocol 1991 prohibits any production activities and mining in Antarctica. Compliance with the provisions of the treaty and protocol is monitored by a special Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, which includes representatives of 45 states. 
International Antarctic Post
True, the existence of a treaty does not mean that even the states that joined it renounced their territorial claims to the continent and the adjacent space. Against, territorial claims some countries are huge. For example, Norway claims territory ten times larger than its own. Great Britain “claimed” vast territories as its own. Australia considers almost half of Antarctica its own, into which, however, the “French” Adélie Land is wedged. New Zealand also made territorial claims. Great Britain, Chile and Argentina claim almost the same territory, including the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands.
Territorial claims to Antarctica
The United States and Russia took a special position, declaring that, in principle, they could put forward their territorial claims in Antarctica, but have not yet done so. Moreover, both states do not recognize the claims of other countries, as well as the claims of each other. Moreover, several obscure virtual states have also “registered” on the territory of Antarctica.
Russian research station "Vostok", south geomagnetic pole
Discovery of Antarctica
The coast of Antarctica without eternal ice The first to be seen were Russian navigators, members of the expedition of F.F. Bellingshausen January 29, 1821. Bellingshausen’s travel diary for January 17 says: “At 11 o’clock in the morning we saw the coast; its cape, stretching to the north, ended in a high mountain, which is separated by an isthmus from other mountains... I call this finding a coast because the distance of the other end to to the south has disappeared beyond the limits of our vision... A sudden change in color on the surface of the sea gives the idea that the shore is extensive, or at least does not consist only of the part that was before our eyes." Bellingshausen gave this coast the name of the Russian Emperor Alexander I. The land of Alexander I turned out to be part of the continent of Antarctica.Land of Alexander I. Drawing from life, made by artist Pavel Nikolaevich Mikhailov, a member of the Bellingshausen expedition, in January 1821.
Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth, the average height of the continent's surface above sea level is more than 2000 m, and in the center it reaches 4000 meters. Most of this height is made up of the continent's permanent ice sheet, and only 0.3% of its area is ice-free.
Ice of Antarctica
The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest on our planet and is approximately 10 times larger in area than the Greenland ice sheet. It contains ~30,000,000 km³ of ice, and the thickness of the ice layer reaches almost 5 kilometers in some areas of Antarctica. Another special feature of Antarctica is its large area of ice shelves (~10% of the area above sea level); these glaciers are the source of icebergs of record sizes. For example, in 2000, the largest ice shelf in the world broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf. at the moment iceberg, which was given the name B-15, with an area of over 10 thousand km². In winter (we have summer in the Northern Hemisphere), the area sea ice around Antarctica increases to 18 million km². 
Antarctica map
Weather in Antarctica
Antarctica has an extremely harsh cold climate. There is no colder place on Earth. In East Antarctica, at the Russian, then still Soviet Antarctic station Vostok - on July 21, 1983, the most low temperature air on Earth for the entire history of meteorological measurements: 89.2 degrees below zero.In addition to the pole of cold, Antarctica contains points of the lowest relative humidity, the strongest and longest wind, the most intense solar radiation.
Another feature of Antarctica is the winds that blow only near the surface. Due to the large amount of icy dust carried by them, visibility is practically zero. The wind force is proportional to the steepness of the slopes of the continent and in coastal areas with a high slope towards the sea reaches hurricane levels. The winds reach their maximum strength in the Antarctic winter. In addition, they blow almost continuously around the clock, and from November to March - throughout the night. Only in summer, during the daytime, due to the slight heating of the surface layer of air by the sun, do the winds stop.
Antarctic winds from an airplane
Antarctic ice contains up to 90% of all fresh water Earth. And despite the almost constant strong sub-zero temperatures, there are even lakes in Antarctica, and in summer time and rivers. The rivers are fed by glaciers. Thanks to intense solar radiation due to the exceptional transparency of the air, glaciers melt even at subzero temperatures. With the onset of severe frosts, the melting stops, and the deep channels of melted streams with steep banks are covered with snow. Sometimes the beds of streams are blocked even before the current freezes, and then the streams flow in ice tunnels, completely invisible from the surface, gradually forming lakes. They are almost always covered with a thick layer of ice. However, in summer period If the lake is not deep from the surface, along the banks and at the mouths of streams their banks open up.
Blue ice covering Lake Fryxell in the Transantarctic Mountains
In the 1990s, Russian scientists discovered the subglacial non-freezing Lake Vostok, the largest of the Antarctic lakes, with a length of 250 km and a width of 50 km, and in 2006 the second and third largest subglacial lakes were discovered, with an area of 2000 km² and 1600 km², respectively. , located at a depth of about 3 km from the surface of the continent.
In Antarctica there are peculiar glacial “swamps”. They form in the summer in lowlands. Melt water flowing into them forms a snow-water porridge, viscous, like ordinary swamps. The depth of such “swamps” is most often no more than one and a half meters. But on top they are covered with a thin ice crust, and like real swamps, they are sometimes impassable even for tracked vehicles: a tractor or all-terrain vehicle that gets stuck in such a place, stuck in a snow-water mess, will not get out without outside help.
Dormant Volcano Erebus - "Guardian of the Gates of the South Pole"
Why is it necessary to study and develop Antarctica?
. Antarctica is the last resource reserve of humanity; it is the last place where humanity will be able to extract mineral raw materials after it has been depleted on the five inhabited continents. Geologists have found that the depths of Antarctica contain a significant amount of minerals - iron ores, coal, traces of ores of copper, nickel, lead, zinc, molybdenum were found, rock crystal, mica, and graphite were found.. Observations of climatic and meteorological processes on the continent, which, like the Gulf Stream in the Northern Hemisphere, is a climate-forming factor for the entire Earth.
. Antarctica contains up to 90% of the world's fresh water reserves.
. In Antarctica, the effects of space and the processes occurring in earth's crust, which is already bringing serious scientific results today, informing us about what the Earth was like a hundred, thousand, hundreds of thousands of years ago. In the Antarctic ice sheet, data on the climate and composition of the atmosphere over the past hundred thousand years was “recorded on ice.” By chemical composition different layers of ice determine the level solar activity over the past several centuries.
. Antarctic bases, especially Russian ones, located around the continent's perimeter, provide ideal opportunities for monitoring seismological activity across the planet.
. Antarctic bases are testing technologies that are planned to be used for the exploration, development and colonization of the Moon and Mars
In what sequence the continents were discovered by Europeans, you will learn from this article.
In what centuries were the continents discovered?
The discovery of continents was consistent and natural. It is known that there are 6 continents on our planet. The largest of them is Eurasia. The second continent in terms of territorial size is Africa. Its shores are washed by two oceans - the Atlantic and Indian. The two subsequent continents, South and North America, are connected by the small Isthmus of Panama. The fifth continent is Antarctica, which is covered with a thick shell of ice. This is the only continent of all 6 continents where there are no permanent residents. created on it large number polar stations, scientists regularly visit them and conduct observations. Australia is the latest and greatest small continent on the planet.
How did the continents get their names?
The continents were named by the Europeans who discovered them. There is no exact date for the discovery of Eurasia and Africa. What is known is that even the ancient Greeks knew and distinguished Eurasia into Asia and Europe. Europe is the part of the territory that was located to the west of Greece, and Asia was on the eastern side. Africa became known to the world after the Romans conquered the southern part of the Mediterranean coast.
At the end of the 15th century - the beginning of the 16th century, namely in 1492 he made a long sea expedition and discovered America.
In the 17th century Dutch navigators discovered a fifth continent, which they called Terra Australis Incognita. It stands for Unknown Southern Land. The fifth continent was Australia.
January 16 (28 BC) 1820 The sailing ships Vostok and Mirny approached the coast of Antarctica “covered with lumpy ice,” as Bellingshausen indicated in his diary. This is how the last continent on Earth was discovered - the era of the great geographical discoveries ended successfully.
O. Tikhomirov
Even in ancient times, people believed that in the southern polar region there was a large, unexplored land. There were legends about her. They talked about all sorts of things, but most often about gold and diamonds, with which she was so rich. Brave sailors set off on their journey to the South Pole. In search of the mysterious land, they discovered many islands, but no one was able to see the mysterious mainland.
The famous English navigator James Cook made a special voyage in 1775 to “find a continent in the Arctic Ocean,” but he too retreated before the cold, squally winds and ice.
Does it really exist, this unknown land? On July 4, 1819, two ships left the port of Kronstadt Russian ships. On one of them - on the sloop "Vostok" - the commander was captain Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen. The second sloop, Mirny, was commanded by Lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. Both officers, experienced and fearless sailors, by that time had each already managed to do trip around the world. Now they were given the task: to get as close as possible to the South Pole, “check everything that is incorrect” that was indicated on the maps, and “discover unknown lands.” Bellingshausen was appointed head of the expedition.
Four months later, both sloops entered the Brazilian port of Rio de Janeiro. The teams got a short break. After the holds were replenished with water and food supplies, the ships weighed anchor and continued on their way. Bad weather became more and more frequent. It was getting colder. There were squalls of rain. A thick fog enveloped everything around.
In order not to get lost, the ships had to not move far from one another. At night, by order of Bellingshausen, lanterns were lit on the masts. And if it happened that the sloops lost sight of each other, they were ordered to fire from the cannons.
Every day "Vostok" and "Mirny" came closer and closer to the mysterious land. When the wind died down and the sky cleared, the sailors admired the play of the sun in the blue-green waves of the ocean, watched with interest the whales, sharks and dolphins that appeared nearby and accompanied the ships for a long time. On the ice floes, seals began to be seen, and then penguins - large birds that walked funny, stretched out in a column. It seemed that the penguins had thrown open black cloaks over their white clothes. Russian people have never seen such amazing birds before. The first iceberg, a floating mountain of ice, also amazed travelers.
Having discovered several small islands and marked them on maps, the expedition headed for Sandwich Land, which Cook was the first to discover. The English navigator did not have the opportunity to explore it and believed that a large island lay in front of him. The shores of Sandwich Land were densely covered with snow. Ice floes were piled up near them. Having called these places the “terrible south,” the Englishman turned back. In the logbook, Cook wrote: “I take the liberty of saying that the lands that may be located in the south will never be explored.”
Bellingshausen and Lazarev managed to go 37 miles further than Cook and study the Sandwich Land more precisely. They found out that this is not one island, but a whole series islands. The Englishman was mistaken: what he called capes turned out to be islands.
Making their way between the heavy ice, "Vostok" and "Mirny" tried to find a passage to the south at every opportunity. Soon there were so many icebergs near the sloops that they had to maneuver every now and then so as not to be “shattered by these huge masses, which sometimes extended up to 100 meters above the surface of the sea.” Midshipman Novosilsky made this entry in his diary.
On January 15, 1820, a Russian expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. The next day, from Mirny and Vostok they saw a high strip of ice on the horizon. The sailors initially mistook them for clouds. But when the fog cleared, it became clear that the ships faced a coast consisting of lumpy piles of ice.
What is this? Could the mysterious Southern continent have opened up before the expedition? Bellingshausen did not allow himself to draw such a conclusion. The researchers put everything they saw on the map, but again the approaching fog and snow prevented them from determining what was behind the lumpy ice. Later, many years later, this very day - January 16 - began to be considered the day of the discovery of Antarctica. This was also confirmed by photographs from the air: “Vostok” and “Mirny” were indeed located 20 kilometers from the sixth continent.
The Russian ships were unable to advance even deeper to the south: solid ice blocked the path. The fogs did not stop, the wet snow fell continuously. And then there was a new misfortune: on the sloop “Mirny” an ice floe broke through the hull, and a leak formed in the hold. Captain Bellingshausen decided to head to the shores of Australia and there, in Port Jackson (now Sydney), to repair the Mirny.
The repair turned out to be difficult. Because of it, the sloops stood in the Australian port for almost a month. But then the Russian ships raised their sails and, having fired their cannons, left for New Zealand to explore the tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean while winter lasted in the Southern Hemisphere.
Now the sailors were pursued not by the icy wind and blizzard, but by the scorching rays of the sun and sweltering heat. The expedition discovered a chain of coral islands, which were named after heroes Patriotic War 1812. During this voyage, the Vostok almost hit a dangerous reef - it was immediately given the name stranded Beware.
When the ships dropped anchor near the inhabited islands, many boats with natives rushed towards the sloops. The sailors were heaped with pineapples, oranges, coconuts and bananas. In exchange, the islanders received items useful to them: saws, nails, needles, dishes, fabrics, fishing gear, in a word, everything that was needed on the farm.
On July 21, "Vostok" and "Mirny" stood off the coast of the island of Tahiti. The Russian sailors felt as if they were in a fairy-tale world - this piece of land was so beautiful. Dark high mountains stuck their peaks into the bright blue sky. Lush coastal greenery glowed emerald against the background of azure waves and golden sand. The King of the Tahitians, Pomare, wished to be on board the Vostok. Bellingshausen kindly received him, treated him to lunch and even ordered him to fire several shots in honor of the king. Pomare was very pleased. True, with every shot he hid behind Bellingshausen’s back.
Returning to Port Jackson, the sloops began to prepare for a new difficult voyage to the land of eternal cold. On October 31, they weighed anchor, heading south. Three weeks later the ships entered the ice zone. Now Russian ships were going around the southern polar circle from the opposite side.
"I see land!" - such a signal came from the Mirny to the flagship on January 10, 1821. All members of the expedition flocked on board in excitement. And at this time the sun, as if wanting to congratulate the sailors, looked out for a short moment from the torn clouds. Ahead, about forty miles away, a rocky island was visible. The next day they came closer to him. The mountainous island rose 1300 meters above the ocean. Bellingshausen, having assembled the team, solemnly announced: “The open island will bear the name of the creator of the Russian fleet, Peter the Great.” Three times "Hurray!" rolled over the harsh waves.
A week later, the expedition discovered a coast with a high mountain. Bellingshausen tried to bring the sloops to him, but an impassable ice field appeared in front of them. The land was called the Coast of Alexander I. The waters themselves washing this land and the island of Peter I were later called the Bellingshausen Sea.
The journey of “Vostok” and “Mirny” continued for more than two years. It ended in his native Kronstadt on July 24, 1821. Russian navigators traveled eighty-four thousand miles on sloops - this is more than a double journey around the globe along the equator.
The first to reach the South Pole was the Norwegian Raoul Amudsen at the end of 1911. He and his expedition of several people reached the Pole on skis and dog sleds. A month later, another expedition approached the pole. It was led by the Englishman Robert Scott. This, undoubtedly, was also a very courageous and strong-willed man. But when he saw the Norwegian flag left by Amudsen, Scott experienced a terrible shock: he was only the second! We've been here before! Power on way back The Englishman no longer has any left. “God Almighty, what a terrible place!” he wrote in the diary with a weakening hand.
But who owns the sixth continent, where valuable minerals and minerals have been discovered deep under the ice? Many countries claimed different parts of the continent. Mining would, of course, lead to the destruction of this cleanest continent on Earth. And the human mind won. Antarctica has become a world nature reserve - the "Land of Science". Now only scientists and researchers from 67 countries work here at 40 scientific stations. Their work will help to better know and understand our planet. In honor of the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev, Russian stations in Antarctica are named “Vostok” and “Mirny”.
