Antarctica (novel)

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Antarctica
Antarctica (Kim Stanley Robinson novel) cover.jpg
Author Kim Stanley Robinson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science fiction
Publisher HarperVoyager (formerly Voyager)
Publication date
1997
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages414
ISBN 0-002-25359-3
OCLC 37828247

Antarctica (1997) is a science fiction novel by American writer Kim Stanley Robinson. It deals with a variety of characters living at or visiting an Antarctic research station. It incorporates many of Robinson's common themes, including scientific process and the importance of environmental protection. [1]

Contents

Overview

Most of the story is centred on McMurdo Station, the largest settlement in Antarctica, which is run as a scientific research station by the United States. Robinson's characteristic multiple-protagonist style is employed here to show many aspects of polar life; among the viewpoints presented are those of X, an idealistic young man working as a General Field Assistant at McMurdo; Val, an increasingly embittered trek guide; and Wade Norton, who works for the California Senator Phil Chase (Wade and Phil also appear in the "Science in the Capital" trilogy). As well as McMurdo, the story involves the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, the Shackleton Glacier, the McMurdo Dry Valleys and a South American drilling platform near Roberts Massif.

Themes

Antarctica involves many of the ideas Robinson uses elsewhere; as in the Mars trilogy, much emphasis is placed on the importance of living sustainably and the issues of existing in a hostile environment. The significance of Antarctica as a "continent for science" is contrasted with the need to provide a decent environment also for the support staff essential in a place so marginal. Other recurring themes include rock-climbing, physical athleticism, the process and ideology of science, exploitation of natural resources, and the formation of cooperative and anarchic social systems. [2]

The novel was heavily influenced by Robinson's 1995 stay in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, and was nominated for a Locus Award in 1998. [3] While researched in great detail, and generally accurate, some reviews noted that the book was in parts slowed down by heavy amounts of technical and historic detail. [4]

Related Research Articles

Transport in Antarctica has transformed from explorers crossing the isolated remote area of Antarctica by foot to a more open era due to human technologies enabling more convenient and faster transport, predominantly by air and water, as well as land. Transportation technologies on a remote area like Antarctica need to be able to deal with extremely low temperatures and continuous winds to ensure the travelers' safety. Due to the fragility of the Antarctic environment, only a limited amount of transport movements can take place and sustainable transportation technologies have to be used to reduce the ecological footprint. The infrastructure of land, water and air transport needs to be safe and sustainable. Currently thousands of tourists and hundreds of scientists a year depend on the Antarctic transportation system.

Kim Stanley Robinson American science fiction writer

Kim Stanley Robinson is an American writer of science fiction. He has published twenty-two novels and numerous short stories but is best known for his Mars trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. Robinson's work has been labeled by The Atlantic as "the gold-standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers."

McMurdo Station American Antarctic base

McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand–claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as one of three year-round United States Antarctic science facilities. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo. By road, McMurdo is 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from New Zealand's smaller Scott Base.

Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station US scientific research station at the South Pole, Antarctica

The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is the United States scientific research station at the South Pole of the Earth. It is the southernmost point under the jurisdiction of the United States. The station is located on the high plateau of Antarctica at 2,835 metres above sea level. It is administered by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation, specifically the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). It is named in honor of Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Briton Robert F. Scott, who led separate teams that raced to become the first to the pole in the early 1900s.

Scott Base Antarctic base

Scott Base is a New Zealand Antarctic research facility at Pram Point on Ross Island near Mount Erebus in New Zealand's Ross Dependency territorial claim. The research facility was named in honour of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, RN, leader of two British expeditions to the Ross Sea area of Antarctica. The base was set up as support to field research and the centre for research into earth sciences, and now conducts research in many fields, operated by Antarctica New Zealand.

Polar regions of Earth Regions around the Earths geographical poles

The Polar Regions, also called the frigid zones, of Earth are the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles, lying within the polar circles. These high latitudes are dominated by floating sea ice covering much of the Arctic ocean in the north, and by the Antarctic ice sheet on the continent of Antarctica in the South.

McMurdo Sound

McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica. The sound, which extends about 55 kilometres long and wide, connects to the Ross Sea to the north, and to the Ross Ice Shelf cavity to the south via Haskell Strait. The strait is largely covered by the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 4,205 metres on the western shoreline. Ross Island, an historic jumping-off point for polar explorers, designates the eastern boundary. The active volcano Mount Erebus at 3,794 metres dominates Ross Island. Antarctica's's largest scientific base, the United States' McMurdo Station, as well as the New Zealand Scott Base are on the southern shore of the island. Less than 10 percent of McMurdo Sound's shoreline is free of ice. It is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world.

United States Antarctic Program U.S. Government agency which maintains U.S. presence and research in Antarctica

The United States Antarctic Program is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the Antarctica continent. Founded in 1959, the USAP manages all U.S. scientific research and related logistics in Antarctica as well as aboard ships in the Southern Ocean.

<i>Forty Signs of Rain</i> 2004 hard science fiction novel by Kim Stanley Robinson

Forty Signs of Rain (2004) is the first book in the hard science fiction "Science in the Capital" trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Robinson has been nicknamed the "Master of Disaster" for his description of natural disasters based partly on the contents of this book.

Colonization of Antarctica Establishing permanent human societies in Antarctica.

Colonization of Antarctica refers to having humans, including families, living permanently on the continent of Antarctica. Currently, the continent hosts only a temporary transient population of scientists and support staff. Antarctica is the only continent on Earth without indigenous human inhabitants, despite its proximity to Argentina and Chile at the Antarctic Peninsula.

Research stations in Antarctica Research stations in Antarctica

Multiple governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the Research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rock or on ice that is fixed in place.

South Pole Traverse Highway in Antarctica

The South Pole Traverse, also called the South Pole Overland Traverse, is an approximately 995-mile-long (1,601 km) flagged route over compacted snow and ice in Antarctica that links McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, both operated by the National Science Foundation of the United States. It was constructed by levelling snow and filling in crevasses; flags mark its route from McMurdo Station across the Ross Ice Shelf to the Leverett Glacier, where the route ascends to the polar plateau and on to the South Pole.

Marble Point Antarctic base in the United States

Marble Point is a rocky promontory on the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica, located at 77° 26' S latitude and 163° 50' E longitude. The United States operates a station at the point. The outpost is used as a helicopter refueling station supporting scientific research in the nearby continental interior such as the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Weather permitting, helicopters are able to fly in and out of the station 24 hours a day during the summer research season.

Antarctica Continent

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent. It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,200,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent and nearly twice the size of Australia. It is by far the least populated continent, with around 5,000 people in the summer and around 1,000 in the winter. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness.

Tourism in Antarctica

Tourism in Antarctica started by the sea in the 1960s. Air overflights of Antarctica started in the 1970s with sightseeing flights by airliners from Australia and New Zealand, and were resumed in the 1990s. The (summer) tour season lasts from November to March. Most of the estimated 14,762 visitors to Antarctica from 1999–2000 were on sea cruises. During the 2009 to 2010 tourist season, over 37,000 people visited Antarctica.

Mullins Valley is a four mile long valley located at 5,400 ft elevation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. It is one of the few dry valleys in the world to contain rock glaciers. US Antarctic Program (USAP) research has dated the subsurface ice in Mullins Valley at 4 million years old making it among the oldest ice on earth. United States Antarctic Program (USAP) research has also shown the rock glaciers in the valley to be analogous to the Arsia Mons region on Mars. Named for Jerry L. Mullins, Physical Scientist, Director, Polar Programs, Antarctic and Arctic Program for United States Geological Survey (USGS), National Science Foundation Antarctic geophysical research, and U.S Scientific Committee (SCAR) delegate to SCAR SCAGI committee. Appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, Polar Research Board. His was responsible for Antarctic field research in the Transantarctic Mountains, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Shackleton Mountains, Beardmore Mountains, Antarctic Peninsula, Mount Siple, Amundsen-Scott South Pole station and at deep field research locations in West Antarctica. His program conducted research in the disciplines of global positioning systems, geodesy, crustal motion, glacial geophysics, airborne geospatial systems, airborne geophysics, seismology, light radar (lidar), topographic mapping and he managed the USGS South Pole winter-over program from 1989 to 1994. He was appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, Polar Research Board as a US delegate to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Geosciences Standing Scientific Group from 1995–July 2012 and was appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1994. Mullins Valley appears in the Antarctic research literature, on the maps from the British expedition of Captain Scott and in aerial photographs from the United States expedition Operation Highjump by Admiral Byrd. Mullins Valley, Mullins Lake, Mullins Glacier, and Mullins Geodetic Station, Antarctica are named for United States polar explorer and researcher Jerry L. Mullins.

James B. McClintock

James B. McClintock is an American professor of biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and studies various aspects of marine biology in Antarctica. He is an authority on the effects of climate change in Antarctica which is detailed in his book Lost Antarctica – Adventures in a Disappearing Land,.

Kathleen Elizabeth Conlan is an Antarctic marine biologist who studies sea floor marine life. She was named one of Canada's greatest explorers by Canadian Geographic.

Lois Jones (scientist) American geochemist

Lois M. Jones was an American geochemist who led the first all-woman science team to Antarctica in 1969. They were also the first women to reach the South Pole. Jones was well regarded for her contribution to geological research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, one of the few ice-free areas of Antarctica, and published many papers and abstracts.

Women in Antarctica Women in Antarctica

There have been women in Antarctica and exploring the regions around Antarctica for many centuries. Oral tradition of Māori explorers reaching Antarctic waters as early as 650 CE, put women on the Antarctic map. The most celebrated "first" for women was in 1935 when Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on one of Antarctica's islands. Early male explorers, such as Richard Byrd, named areas of Antarctica after wives and female heads of state. As Antarctica moved from a place of exploration and conquest to a scientific frontier, women worked to be included in the sciences. The first countries to have female scientists working in Antarctica were the Soviet Union, South Africa and Argentina.

References

  1. Internet Book List. "Book Information: Antarctica". Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  2. NetMassimo. "Happy birthday Kim Stanley Robinson!" . Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  3. "1998 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
  4. "Antarctica. Kim Stanley Robinson. 1997. London: Harper Collins Publishers. 414 p, hard cover. ISBN 0-00-225359-3. £16.99". Polar Record. 34 (188): 73. 2009. doi: 10.1017/S0032247400015151 .