The name "Antarctica" is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική ("antarktiké"), feminine of ἀνταρκτικός ("antarktikós"), meaning "opposite to the Arctic", "opposite to the north". Aristotle wrote in his book "Meteorology" about an "Antarctic region" in c. 350 BC. Marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century CE. The Roman authors Hyginus and Apuleius (1–2 centuries CE) used for the South Pole the romanised Greek name "polus antarcticus," from which derived the Old French "pole antartike" (modern "pôle antarctique") attested in 1270, and from there the Middle English "pol antartik" in a 1391 technical treatise by Geoffrey Chaucer (modern "Antarctic Pole").
Etymology
Antarctica
Antarctica | Etymology
It is the romanised version of the Greek compound word "antarktiké" meaning "opposite to the Arctic", "opposite to the north" vThe name "Antarctica" is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική ("antarktiké"), feminine of ἀνταρκτικός ("antarktikós"), meaning "opposite to the Arctic", "opposite to the north". The name is the romanised version of the Greek compound word “antarktiké" meaning "opposite to the Arctic”. The name "Antarctica" is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική ("antarktiké"), feminine of ἀνταρκτικός ("antarktikós"), meaning "opposite to the Arctic", "opposite to the north".
who makes up most of the population of antarctica
user
5,000 in the summer and much lesser in winter
assistant
where did it get the name from?
user
The name "Antarctica" is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική ("antarktiké"), feminine of ἀνταρκτικός ("antarktikós"), meaning "opposite to the Arctic", "opposite to the north". Aristotle wrote in his book "Meteorology" about an "Antarctic region" in c. 350 BC. Marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century CE. The Roman authors Hyginus and Apuleius (1–2 centuries CE) used for the South Pole the romanised Greek name "polus antarcticus," from which derived the Old French "pole antartike" (modern "pôle antarctique") attested in 1270, and from there the Middle English "pol antartik" in a 1391 technical treatise by Geoffrey Chaucer (modern "Antarctic Pole").
Antarctica | Etymology
The word "Antarctica" comes from Greek "antarktikos" (ἀνταρκτικός), from "anti" (ἀντί) and "arktikos" (ἀρκτικός) "Arctic". Literally "opposite to the Arctic (opposite to the North)". "Arktikos" comes from "Arktos", the Greek name for the constellation of the Great Bear Ursa Major, visible only in the Northern Hemisphere, which comes from the ancient Greek word ἄρκτος (), which means "bear".
List of continent name etymologies | <a href="Antarctica">Antarctica</a>
Eventually "Antarctica" was adopted as continental name in the 1890s—the first use of the name is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew.
Antarctica | Change of name
Integral to the story of the origin of Antarctica's name is that it was not named "Terra Australis"—this name was given to Australia instead, because of the misconception that no significant landmass could exist further south. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has been credited with popularising the transfer of the name "Terra Australis" to Australia. He justified the titling of his book "A Voyage to Terra Australis" (1814) by writing in the introduction: European maps continued to show this hypothetical land until Captain James Cook's ships, and , crossed the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773, in December 1773 and again in January 1774.
Antarctica | History of exploration
"Acaena antarctica" was first formally described in 1846 by Joseph Dalton Hooker. Kew holds specimens collected by Hooker from Hermite Island, Cape Horn on the Ross expedition. The genus name "Acaena" is derived from the Ancient Greek word "akaina" meaning "thorn" or "spine", referring to the spiny calyx of many species of "Acaena". The specific epithet, "antarctica", derives from the Greek ("anti", "opposite" and "arktos", "bear") and designates the place opposite the constellations of the Great and the Little Bear, thus describing the species as coming from south of the South Pole circle.
Acaena antarctica | Taxonomy and naming
"Pachyptila", the word, comes from the Greek words "pakhus" and "ptilon". "Pakhus" means "thick" or "stout" and "ptilon" means "a feather". "Desolatus" is Latin for "forsaken" or "desolate". This is in reference to the desolate Antarctic region where they live. Also from the Greek language, "prion" comes from the word "priōn" meaning "a saw", in reference to the serrated edges of its bill.
Antarctic prion | Etymology
Kyustendil Ridge in Graham Land, Antarctica is named after the city, and Pautalia Glacier on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Pautalia (its Thracian ancestor settlement).
Kyustendil | Eponymy
The long-imagined (but undiscovered) south polar continent was originally called "Terra Australis", sometimes shortened to "Australia" as seen in a woodcut illustration titled "Sphere of the winds", contained in an astrological textbook published in Frankfurt in 1545. In the nineteenth century, the colonial authorities in Sydney removed the Dutch name from New Holland. Instead of inventing a new name to replace it, they took the name "Australia" from the south polar continent, leaving it nameless for some eighty years. During that period, geographers had to make do with clumsy phrases such as "the Antarctic Continent". They searched for a more poetic replacement, suggesting various names such as Ultima and Antipodea.
Antarctica | Change of name
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 but although they discovered nearby islands, they did not catch sight of Antarctica itself.
History of Antarctica | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (H) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (R) | Introduction
The largest station, McMurdo Station, has a summer population of about 1,000 people and a winter population of about 200. At least 11 children have been born in Antarctica. The first was Emilio Marcos Palma, born on 7 January 1978 to Argentine parents at Esperanza, Hope Bay, near the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. The first girl born in the Antarctic Continent was Marisa De Las Nieves Delgado, born on May 27, 1978. The birth occurred at Fortín Sargento Cabral, Base Esperanza (Argentine Army) to parents Nestor Arturo Delgado and Juana Pabla Benitez, both Argentines from the province of Salta in northwest Argentina.
Demographics of Antarctica | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (J) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (Q) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (N) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (D) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (T) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (V) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (A) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (F) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (S) | Introduction
It was named by United States Antarctic Research Program biologists David T. Mason, Charles R. Goldman and Brian J.B. Wood Jr., who studied the lake in the 1961–62 and 1962–63 seasons. The name derives from the striking mat of blue-green algal remains around the leeward edge of the lake. The final lake is Island Lake, which was apparently also named by members of the second British Antarctic Expedition.
Cape Evans | Geography
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (I) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (M) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (C) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (P) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (E) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (W) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (L) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (U) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (K) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (B) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (G) | Introduction
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (O) | Introduction
The genus name refers to its location on the continent of Antarctica and its armored nature. Antarctica is derived from the Greek words "αντ"/"ant-" ('opposite of') and "αρκτος"/"arktos" ('bear' referring to the constellation Ursa Major, which points north). The Greek "πελτη"/"pelte" ('shield') is commonly used to name genera of ankylosaurs ("Cedarpelta" and "Sauropelta", for example). The single known species, "A. oliveroi", is named after Eduardo Olivero, who discovered the holotype, first mentioned it in print, and has worked in Antarctica for decades. Earlier work suggested that the James Ross Island ankylosaur was a juvenile. More recent research indicates that the different parts of the vertebrae are completely fused together, while a juvenile would be expected to have visible sutures between the neural arch and body ("centrum") of the vertebrae.
Antarctopelta | Discovery and naming
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (Z) | Introduction
As of 2009, eleven children were born in Antarctica (south of the 60th parallel south): eight at the Argentine Esperanza Base and three at the Chilean Frei Montalva Station.
Antarctica | Population
The peninsula and its features were named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1995. The peninsula was named for Leonard Frank Spath (1882–1957), eminent UK paleontologist. The cliffs and gully were named for Anders Karlsen, First Engineer on the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04 and Professor Otto Wilckens, eminent German paleontologist, respectively. Thyasira Hill was named because of the abundance of the fossil bivalve mollusk "Thyasira townsendi" found in this area. Tesore Hill is the English translation of the original Argentine name "Cerro Tesore".
Spath Peninsula | Naming
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica (Y) | Introduction
The genus is named for Tupaia (c. 1725 – 1770), a Tahitian navigator and priest. The specific epithet, "antarctica", derives from the Latin word, "anti", meaning "against" or "opposite" and the Greek word, "arktos", meaning "bear", giving an adjective, "antarctica", which meant opposite the constellations of the Ursus Major and Ursus Minor, "opposing the north", or "Antarctic".
Tupeia | Etymology
Winter Island was named by the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE), 1934–37, which made this island the site of its winter base during 1935. The Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey established a base on Winter Island in 1947, Base F (Argentine Islands). The main hut, built on the site of the old BGLE hut, was named "Wordie House" after Sir James Wordie, a member of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition who visited during its construction. Wordie House "was constructed using building materials from the hut at Port Lockroy and material salvaged from the whaling station at Deception Island,” according to the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust.
Winter Island (Antarctica) | History
This species was originally given the scientific name "Aptenodytes antarctica" by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1781, thereby placing it in the same genus as the king and emperor penguins. In 1990, Graham Turbott transferred this species into the genus "Pygoscelis", together with the Adélie and gentoo penguins. This gave it the new name "P. antarctica". However, this is an orthographic error due to the disagreement in Latin grammar between "antarctica" and its assigned genus. The corrected form, "P. antarcticus", is the currently accepted name for this species.
Chinstrap penguin | Taxonomy
Millions of years ago the climate in Antartica was warmer, and was able to support flora well into the Neogene. This included forests of podocarps and southern beech. Antarctica was also part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, which gradually broke up by plate tectonics starting 110 million years ago. The separation of South America from Antarctica 3035 million years ago allowed the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to form, which isolated Antarctica climatically and caused it to become much colder. The Antarctic flora subsequently died out in Antarctica, but is still an important component of the flora of southern Neotropic (South America) and Australasian realms, which were also former parts of Gondwana.
Antarctic flora | Origin
The first semi-permanent inhabitants of regions near Antarctica (areas situated south of the Antarctic Convergence) were British and American sealers who used to spend a year or more on South Georgia, from 1786 onward. During the whaling era, which lasted until 1966, the population of that island varied from over 1,000 in the summer (over 2,000 in some years) to some 200 in the winter. Most of the whalers were Norwegian, with an increasing proportion of Britons. The settlements included Grytviken, Leith Harbour, King Edward Point, Stromness, Husvik, Prince Olav Harbour, Ocean Harbour and Godthul. Managers and other senior officers of the whaling stations often lived together with their families.
Antarctica | Population
Antarctica was separated from South America at the Drake Passage by the Miocene, becoming isolated geologically and thermal isolation resulted in a colder climate while the continent was centered at the South Pole. Large ice sheets were present by the Middle-Late Eocene
Geology of Antarctica | Cenozoic
Blagoevgrad Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica is named after the city, and Skaptopara Cove in Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after its ancient ancestor Skaptopara.
Blagoevgrad | Honours
The terrestrial and native all year round species appears to be the descendants of ancestors who lived in geothermally warmed environments during the last ice age, when these areas were the only places on the continent not covered by ice.
Antarctica | Biodiversity
"P. antarctica" is native to Antarctica. It is known from the Antarctic Peninsula, McMurdo Sound, the Ross Sea, South Georgia, Victoria Land and various subarctic islands. The type locality is Coulman Island near Cape Wadworth in the Ross Sea.
Phyllophora antarctica | Distribution
The region was discovered in 1902 by Otto Nordenskjold, leader of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, who gave the name "Scott Bay". The name did not survived in usage, perhaps due to the large number of features already named after Captain Robert F. Scott. The present name was given in 1963 by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) after the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions, in recognition of the role of this organization in furthering scientific research in the Antarctic. It is the remaining fragment of the much larger Larsen B ice shelf which disintegrated in 2002.
Scar Inlet | History
For example, the word "Antarctic" is etymologically derived from the word "Arctic" ("ARK-tik"), and originally both "c"s were pronounced in the former word, as in the latter ("ant-ARK-tik"). This is still the usual pronunciation of the word. However, some speakers omit the first "c" sound from "Antarctic", resulting in a pronunciation ("ant-AR-tik"), of which some disapprove. The word "Arctic" itself has undergone a similar change, with a corresponding change in spelling; it is not unusual to see the word "Artic" ("AR-tik") in names of parks and populated areas.
Mispronunciation | Omission of phonemes
in Antarctica.
Snowcat | History
Millions of years ago, Antarctica was warmer and wetter, and supported the Antarctic flora, including forests of podocarps and southern beech. Antarctica was also part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland, which gradually broke up by continental drift starting 110 million years ago. The separation of South America from Antarctica 30-35 million years ago allowed the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to form, which isolated Antarctica climatically and caused it to become much colder. The Antarctic flora subsequently died out in Antarctica, but is still an important component of the flora of southern Neotropical (South America) and Australasian realms, which were also former parts of Gondwana.
Antarctic realm | History
A small glacier close west of The Watchtower on the south side of the island was originally named 'Rabot Gletscher', after the French glaciologist Charles Rabot, by Otto Nordenskjold, leader of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901–04. However, the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey surveyed the south part of the island in 1953 and found the glacier to be very insignificant and does not require a name. In order to preserve the name Rabot in the vicinity, the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee decided to apply it to 'Rabot Point' instead.
Rabot Point | Origin of the name
The cooling of Antarctica occurred stepwise, as the continental spread changed the oceanic currents from longitudinal equator-to-pole temperature-equalising currents to latitudinal currents that preserved and accentuated latitude temperature differences. Africa separated from Antarctica in the Jurassic, around 160 Ma, followed by the Indian subcontinent in the early Cretaceous (about 125 Ma). By the end of the Cretaceous, about 66 Ma, Antarctica (then connected to Australia) still had a subtropical climate and flora, complete with a marsupial fauna. In the Eocene epoch, about 40 Ma Australia-New Guinea separated from Antarctica, so that latitudinal currents could isolate Antarctica from Australia, and the first ice began to appear.
Antarctica | Gondwana breakup (160–23 Ma)
Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen of Norway, born in the island territory of South Georgia on 8 October 1913, was the first person born and raised in the Antarctic (the world region south of the Antarctic Convergence). The first human born in the wider Antarctic region was the Australian James Kerguelen Robinson, born in the Kerguelen Islands on 11 March 1859.
Emilio Palma | Other births in Antarctica
A drier northern Gondwanan flora had developed in northern South America and northern Africa.
Antarctic flora | Origin
During a paleontological expedition to the Transantarctic Mountains in 2010 and 2011, a small skeleton was discovered at the Graphite Peak. In 2019, the type species "Antarctanax shackletoni" was named and described by Brandon Robert Peecook, Roger Malcolm Harris Smith and Christian Alfred Sidor. The generic name combines a reference to Antarctica — itself derived from Greek "anti", "opposite of", and "arktikos", "of the Bear" — with a Greek "anax", "ruler", a reference to the Archosauria, the "Ruling Reptiles". The specific name honours Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer who named the Beardmore Glacier which runs along the Graphite Peak. The holotype, UWBM 95531, was found in a layer of the lower Fremouw Formation, which dates to the Early Triassic.
Antarctanax | Discovery and naming
During the time in which "Imperobator" lived, Earth's climate was much warmer and humid than it is today and as a result Antarctica was without ice. The environment was mainly dominated by large dense conifer forests, cycads and gingkos. Despite the warmer climate, the animals inhabiting Antarctica at this time would have to endure long periods of darkness during the winter, much like what happens in modern-day Antarctica. Currently a plethora of other extinct organisms from the Snow Hill Island Formation have been discovered, which are likely to have interacted with "Imperobator" during the Late Cretaceous period. This includes the ornithopods "Trinisaura santamartaensis" and "Morrosaurus antarcticus", the nodosaurid "Antarctopelta oliveroi", the shark "Notidanodon" sp.
Imperobator | Paleoecology
In 1823, British sailor James Weddell discovered the Weddell Sea. Otto Nordenskiöld, leader of the 1901–1904 Swedish Antarctic Expedition, spent a winter at Snow Hill with a team of four men when the relief ship became beset in ice and was finally crushed. The crew managed to reach Paulet Island where they wintered in a primitive hut. Nordenskiöld and the others finally were picked up by the Argentine Navy at Hope Bay. All but one survived. The Antarctic Sound is named after the expedition ship of Otto Nordenskiöld. The sound that separates the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula from Dundee Island is also named “Iceberg Alley”, because of the huge icebergs that are often seen here.
Weddell Sea | History
The name of the genus is derived from the Greenlandic word "", meaning "predator" or "hunter". The specific epithet is in honor of Norman John (Jack) Soper who, together with A. K. Higgins, discovered the Sirius Passet fauna and collected the first fossils from the locality.
Kiisortoqia | Etymology
Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen was the first person born and raised south of the Antarctic Convergence, and South Georgia is usually classified as an Antarctic island and part of the Antarctic for that reason. The first human born south of the Convergence was the Australian James Kerguelen Robinson, born in Kerguelen Islands on 11 March 1859. However, the Antarctic Treaty defines Antarctica as any territory located South of the 60th parallel, which excludes both South Georgia and Kerguelen. The first person born in the Antarctic Treaty area (also first on the Antarctic mainland) was the Argentine citizen Emilio Palma, born at Esperanza Base in 1978.
Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen | First person born in Antarctica
Emilio Marcos Palma was the first person born south of the 60th parallel south, the first born on the Antarctic mainland, and the only living human to be the first born on any continent. He was born in 1978 at Esperanza Base, on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula; his parents were sent there along with seven other families by the Argentine government to determine if the continent was suitable for family life. In 1984, Juan Pablo Camacho was born at the Frei Montalva Station, becoming the first Chilean born in Antarctica. Several bases are now home to families with children attending schools at the station.
Antarctica | Population
Several governments maintain permanent manned research stations on the continent. The number of people conducting and supporting scientific research and other work on the continent and its nearby islands varies from about 1,000 in winter to about 5,000 in the summer, giving it a population density between 70 and 350 inhabitants per million square kilometres (180 and 900 per million square miles) at these times. Many of the stations are staffed year-round, the winter-over personnel typically arriving from their home countries for a one-year assignment. An Orthodox church—Trinity Church, opened in 2004 at the Russian Bellingshausen Station—is manned year-round by one or two priests, who are similarly rotated every year.
Antarctica | Population
Nordenskiöld named Station Nunatak because of its proximity to the expedition's winter station, and he gave Haslum Crag its original name, "Basaltspitze". Concerned that "Basaltspitze" could be mistaken for descriptive information, the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee changed it to Haslum Crag, honoring H.J. Haslum, second mate on the "Antarctic", the ship of the Swedish expedition. This area of the northeast coast consists of Cretaceous sedimentary rocks with abundant fossils of ammonites, gastropods, and bivalves. There are numerous basalt dikes that project up through the sedimentary rocks near the station Nunatak. Day Nunatak and Dingle Nunatak appear within the main ice cap of the island.
Snow Hill Island | Geography
As of May 2018 the AAT was believed to have a population of around 80 people during winters and 200 during summers.
Australian Antarctic Territory | People
Although Antarctica in the Cretaceous was in the southern polar region, the Earth had a much warmer climate during this time period, and the continent would have been ice-free. Animals like "Antarctopelta oliveroi" would have lived in forests of conifers and even deciduous trees. Despite the higher temperatures, darkness would still have descended for the winter, just as it does today at high latitudes. The Antarctic Peninsula, including James Ross Island, was connected to South America throughout this time period, allowing interchange of fauna between both continents. However, no evidence has yet been found to support a common ankylosaur fauna between Antarctica and South America.
Antarctopelta | Paleoecology
More than 170 million years ago, Antarctica was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. Over time, Gondwana gradually broke apart, and Antarctica as we know it today was formed around 25 million years ago. Antarctica was not always cold, dry, and covered in ice sheets. At a number of points in its long history, it was farther north, experienced a tropical or temperate climate, was covered in forests, and inhabited by various ancient life forms.
Antarctica | Geological history and palaeontology
Geographical names in Antarctica reflect the history and practice of Antarctic exploration. The nations involved in Antarctic research give new names to nameless geographical features for the purposes of orientation, logistics, and international scientific cooperation. As of 2018, there are some 19,788 named Antarctic geographical features, including 1,433 features with names given by Bulgaria. Since the Bulgarian Antarctic base is situated in the South Shetland Islands, most of the Bulgarian place names are concentrated in that area too, especially on Livingston Island, Greenwich Island, Robert Island, Snow Island, and Smith Island. However, two early Bulgarian names were given even in 1989 (by the then State Council, a collegial presidency) to geographical features on Alexander Island in relation to field work carried out on that island by the first Bulgarian Antarctic expedition during the 1987/88 season.
Antarctic Place-names Commission | Bulgarian names in Antarctica
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica are approved by the Antarctic Place-names Commission in compliance with its "", and formally given by the President of the Republic according to the Bulgarian Constitution and the established international and Bulgarian practice. Place naming is confined to nameless geographic features situated in the Antarctic Treaty area, the region south of the parallel 60 degrees south latitude. Details of the Bulgarian Antarctic toponyms are published by the websites of the Commission and the international Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica maintained by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Alphabetical lists of the relevant place names: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z
Bulgarian toponyms in Antarctica | Introduction
The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was later named after these two men.
History of Antarctica | Race to the Pole
The Aristotle Mountains in Antarctica are named after Aristotle. He was the first person known to conjecture, in his book "Meteorology", the existence of a landmass in the southern high-latitude region and called it "Antarctica". Aristoteles is a crater on the Moon bearing the classical form of Aristotle's name.
Aristotle | Eponyms
Antarctica only has a very small, fluctuating population of about 1200 people based mainly in polar science stations.
World population | Population by region
The name of the genus is a compound of the Greenlandic word ' (walrus), reflecting the likeness of the tail spines to the tusks of a walrus, and the Greek word ' (shield). The species was named after Jon R. Ineson to honour him for his studies of the Cambrian of North Greenland.
Aaveqaspis | Etymology
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.
History of Antarctica | The search for "Terra Australis Incognita"
The first human born on an Antarctic island was Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen born on 8 October 1913 in Grytviken, South Georgia. The Antarctic region had no indigenous population when first discovered, and its present inhabitants comprise a few thousand transient scientific and other personnel working on tours of duty at the several dozen research stations maintained by various countries. However, the region is visited by more than 40,000 tourists annually, the most popular destinations being the Antarctic Peninsula area (especially the South Shetland Islands) and South Georgia Island. In December 2009, the growth of tourism, with consequences for both the ecology and the safety of the travellers in its great and remote wilderness, was noted at a conference in New Zealand by experts from signatories to the Antarctic Treaty.
Antarctic | People
The island was discovered by a German expedition of 1873–74, who named it after geographer August Petermann. The French Antarctic Expedition of 1908-10 wintered over aboard ship in a cove on the southeast side of the island, named Port Circumcision because it was spotted 1 January 1909, the traditional day for the Feast of the Circumcision. Huts built by the expedition are gone, although a cairn remains, along with a refuge hut built by Argentina in 1955, and a cross commemorating three members of the British Antarctic Survey who died in a 1982 attempt to cross the sea ice from Petermann to Faraday Station.
Petermann Island | History
The continent that would come to be named Antarctica would be explored decades after Flinders' 1814 book on Australia, which he had titled "A Voyage to Terra Australis", and after his naming switch had gained popularity.
Terra Australis | Change of name
A baby, named Emilio Marcos de Palma, was born near Hope Bay on 7 January 1978, becoming the first baby born on the continent. He also was born farther south than anyone in history. On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 on a sightseeing trip crashed into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, killing all 257 people on board. In 1991 a convention among member nations of the Antarctic Treaty on how to regulate mining and drilling was proposed. Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke and French Prime Minister Michel Rocard led a response to this convention that resulted in the adoption of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, now known as the Madrid Protocol.
History of Antarctica | Recent history
In 1991, there were 142 "permanent residents" including 19 minors. "Residents" are families that live in Antarctica or scientists that have lived for more than two years. They were 121 men and 21 women that lived mostly in the colony of Esperanza and other bases. As of 1998–1999, Argentine Antarctica had a winter population of 165.
Argentine Antarctica | Demographics
Antarctica is a continent, in the Southern Hemisphere with no permanent population. Antarctica may also refer to:
Antarctica (disambiguation) | Introduction
The island was mapped from air photographs taken in the course of the US Navy's Operations Highjump (1946–47) and Windmill (1947-48). It was named by Carl R. Eklund for Chief Electronics Technician Frederick E. Charlton, of the Wilkes Station party, 1957.
Charlton Island, Antarctica | History
Due to its location at the South Pole, Antarctica receives relatively little solar radiation except along the southern summer. This means that it is a very cold continent where water is mostly in the form of ice. Precipitation is low (most of Antarctica is a desert) and almost always in the form of snow, which accumulates and forms a giant ice sheet which covers the land. Parts of this ice sheet form moving glaciers known as ice streams, which flow towards the edges of the continent. Next to the continental shore are many ice shelves. These are floating extensions of outflowing glaciers from the continental ice mass.
Antarctica | Ice mass and global sea level
(Some histories consider the "Discovery" expedition, which departed in 1901, as the first proper expedition of the Heroic Age.)
History of Antarctica | Origins
A piece of wood, from the South Shetland Islands, was the first fossil ever recorded from Antarctica, obtained during a private United States expedition during 1829–31, commanded by Captain Benjamin Pendleton. Charles Wilkes, as commander of a United States Navy expedition in 1840, discovered what is now known as Wilkes Land, a section of the continent around 120 degrees East.
History of Antarctica | Early exploration
Multiple biographical articles and obituaries claim that an entire range of mountains on Antarctica is named for Roots, but there appears to be no evidence for this in gazetteers and geographic name directories.
Fred Roots | Namesake locations
He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Back Award in 1901. On their way south the "Morning" celebrated Christmas Day 1902 by crossing the Antarctic Circle and discovering a previously uncharted island which they named Scott Island. Colbeck and three officers landed on the island where they collected rock samples and had a drink. The adjacent cone-shaped islet Colbeck named Haggitt's Pillar, after his mother's maiden name. In January 1904, Colbeck returned with "Morning", this time with firm instructions that unless "Discovery" could be speedily released from the ice, she was to be abandoned; Colbeck was to bring Scott and the expedition home.
William Colbeck (sea captain) | Biography
Antarctica has no permanent residents. It contains research stations and field camps that are staffed seasonally or year-round, and former whaling settlements. Approximately 12 nations, all signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, send personnel to perform seasonal (summer) or year-round research on the continent and in its surrounding oceans. The population of people doing and supporting scientific research on the continent and its nearby islands south of 60 degrees south latitude (the region covered by the Antarctic Treaty) varies from approximately 4,000 in summer to 1,000 in winter. In addition, approximately 1,000 personnel including ship's crew and scientists doing onboard research are present in the waters of the treaty region.
Demographics of Antarctica | Introduction
On the Alaska North Slope, "Metasequoia" was the dominant conifer. Much of the diversity represented migrants from nearer the equator. Deciduousness was dominant, probably to conserve energy by retroactively shedding leaves and retaining some energy rather than having them die from frostbite. At the South Pole, due to the increasing isolation of Antarctica, many plant taxa were endemic to the continent instead of migrating down. Patagonian flora may have originated in Antarctica. The climate was much cooler than in the Late Cretaceous, though frost probably was not common in at least coastal areas. East Antarctica was likely warm and humid.
Paleocene | Polar forests
McMurdo is a surname, as well as a name given to many places in Antarctica, including:
McMurdo (disambiguation) | Introduction
Zhefarovich Crag on Fallières Coast, Antarctica is named after Hristofor Zhefarovich.
Hristofor Žefarović | Honours
Excavations took places during three Antarctic summer expeditions in 1993, 1999 and 2005. MLP 93-I-5-1 was collected from an area of 3 square meters in a semi-articulated state, at locality "Assemblage 10", which belongs to the middle section of Cape Lamb Member of the Snow Hill Island Formation, dating to the early Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, about 72 million years ago. "Vegasaurus" was first described and named by José P. O’Gorman, Leonardo Salgado, Eduardo B. Olivero and Sergio A. Marenssi in 2015 and the type species is "Vegasaurus molyi". The generic name is derived from "Vega", in reference to the Vega Island where the holotype was found, and from Greek "saurus", meaning "lizard", a common suffix for genus names of extinct reptile.
Vegasaurus | Discovery and naming
SWEAT stands for southwestern United States and East Antarctica, which theorizes that the Southwestern United States was at one time connected to East Antarctica. A hypothesis for a late Precambrian fit of western North America with the Australia-Antarctic shield region permits the extension of many features through Antarctica and into other parts of Gondwana, specifically, the Grenville orogen may extend around the coast of East Antarctica into India and Australia. The ophiolitic belt of the latter may extend into East Antarctica. The Wopmay orogen of northwest Canada may extend through eastern Australia into Antarctica and thence beneath the ice to connect with the Yavapai-Mazatzal orogens of the southwestern United States.
SWEAT (hypothesis) | Introduction
The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica.
Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names | Introduction
The separation of South America from Antarctica 30-35 million years ago allowed the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to form, which isolated Antarctica climatically and caused it to become much colder. The Antarctic flora subsequently died out in Antarctica, but is still an important component of the flora of southern Neotropic (South America) and Australasia, which were also former parts of Gondwana.
Ecology of Tasmania | Flora
The glacier was photographed from the air by the U.S. Navy in 1968. It was delineated from these photographs by Directorate of Overseas Surveys, 1980, and positioned from surveys by Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, 1947–57. In association with the names of Antarctic historians around the area, it was named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Fred G. Alberts, an American toponymist, and secretary of the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names 1949–80.
Alberts Glacier | History
In 1903 the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition under William Speirs Bruce applied the name "Cape Buchanan", after J.Y. Buchanan, a member of the Challenger Expedition of 1872–76, to the prominent cape north-westward, which had been named "Cape Valavielle" in 1838 by a French expedition under Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville. At the same time, the French name (in English form but misspelled "Cape Vallavielle") was transferred to the point now described. The name Cape Valavielle has been retained for the prominent cape, as applied by d'Urville, on the basis of priority and wide usage. For the sake of historical continuity, the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1954 recommended that the name Buchanan Point be applied to the point now described.
Buchanan Point | Etymology
Today on the Antarctic Peninsula there are many abandoned scientific and military bases. Argentina's Esperanza Base was the birthplace of Emilio Marcos Palma, the first person to be born in Antarctica.
Antarctic Peninsula | Research stations
The word "arctic" comes from the Greek word ἀρκτικός ("arktikos": "near the Bear, northern") and that from the word ἄρκτος ("arktos": "bear").
Arctic Circle | Etymology
The genus name is derived from Aónikenk, a group of indigenous Tehuelche-speaking people from Patagonia. "Anko" means "father" and "netta" is derived from Greek, meaning "duck". The species epithet refers to Claudio Larriestra, who studied the Pinturas Formation, another important fossiliferous formation of Patagonia.
Ankonetta | Etymology
Ingrid Christensen Coast in East Antarctica was discovered and named by Klarius Mikkelsen in 1935.
Ingrid Christensen | Name given to part of Antarctica