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.
Peter I Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea, 450 kilometres (280 mi) from continental Antarctica. It is claimed as a dependency of Norway, and along with Bouvet Island and Queen Maud Land comprises one of the three Norwegian dependent territories in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. Peter I Island is 11 by 19 kilometres long and 156 square kilometres (60 sq mi), slightly larger than Staten Island as an example. The tallest peak is the ultra and 1,640-meter (5,380 ft) tall Lars Christensen Peak. Nearly all of the island is covered by a glacier and it is surrounded most of the year by pack ice, making it inaccessible during these times. There is little vertebrate animal life on the island apart from some seabirds and seals.
Elephant Island is an ice-covered mountainous island off the coast of Antarctica in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands, in the Southern Ocean. Its name was given by early explorers sighting elephant seals on its shores. The island is situated 245 kilometres north-northeast of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, 1,253 kilometres west-southwest of South Georgia, 935 kilometres south of the Falkland Islands, and 885 kilometres southeast of Cape Horn. It is within the Antarctic claims of Argentina, Chile and the UK. Brazil has a shelter on the island, Goeldi, supporting the work of up to six researchers each during the summer and had another (Wiltgen), which was dismantled in the summer of 1997/98.
New Swabia is a cartographic name sometimes given to an area of Antarctica between 20°E and 10°W in Queen Maud Land, which is claimed as a Norwegian dependent territory under the Antarctic Treaty System. New Swabia was explored by Germany in early 1939 and named after that expedition's ship, Schwabenland, itself named after the German region of Swabia.
The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions is the historical name for the Australian Antarctic Program (AAp) administered for Australia by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD).
Clarence Island is 21.46 km (13.3 mi) long in south-southwest to north-northeast direction and the easternmost of the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. The name dates back to at least 1821 and is now established in international usage. Ernest Shackleton saw Clarence Island on his famous boat voyage but landed on Elephant Island. It is claimed by Argentina as part of Argentine Antarctica, by Britain as part of the British Antarctic Territory, and by Chile as part of the Chilean Antarctic Territory.
Brabant Island is the second largest island of the Palmer Archipelago within the British Antarctic Territory, lying between Anvers Island and Liège Island. Brabant Island is 59 km (37 mi) long north-south, 30 km (19 mi) wide, and rises to 2,520 m (8,268 ft) in Mount Parry. The interior of the island is occupied by two mountain ranges, Solvay Mountains in its southern part and Stribog Mountains in its central and northern parts.
Danco Island or Isla Dedo is an island off Antarctica, 2 kilometres (1 nmi) long lying in the southern part of Errera Channel, off the west coast of Graham Land. It was charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Adrien de Gerlache, 1897–1899. Danco Island was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey from Norsel in 1955, and named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee for Emile Danco (1869–1898), a Belgian geophysicist and member of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, who died on board Belgica in the Antarctic.
The Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE) was an expedition from 1947–1948 which researched the area surrounding the head of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.
The French Antarctic Expedition is any of several French expeditions in Antarctica.
A number of 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.
The Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–1904) was led by Otto Nordenskjöld and Carl Anton Larsen.
Pourquoi Pas? IV was the fourth ship built for Jean-Baptiste Charcot. She completed the second Charcot expedition of the Antarctic regions from 1908 to 1910. Charcot died aboard when she was wrecked on 16 September 1936, off the coast of Iceland. Of the forty men on board, only one survived.
Adams Glacier, also known as John Quincy Adams Glacier, is a broad channel glacier in Wilkes Land, Antarctica which is over 20 miles (32 km) long. It debouches into the head of Vincennes Bay, just east of Hatch Islands. It was first mapped in 1955 by G.D. Blodgett from aerial photographs taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump (1947), and it was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States. Adams was instrumental while later serving as U.S. representative from Massachusetts in gaining congressional authorization of the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–42) under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, and perpetuating the compilation and publication of the large number of scientific reports based on the work of this expedition.
Posadowsky Glacier is a glacier about 9 nautical miles long, flowing north to Posadowsky Bay immediately east of Gaussberg. Posadowsky Bay is an open embayment, located just east of the West Ice Shelf and fronting on the Davis Sea in Kaiser Wilhelm II Land. Kaiser Wilhelm II Land is the part of East Antarctica lying between Cape Penck, at 87°43'E, and Cape Filchner, at 91°54'E, and is claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory. Other notable geographic features in this area include Drygalski Island, located 45 mi NNE of Cape Filchner in the Davis Sea, and Mirny Station, a Russian scientific research station.
Gnomon Island is a small rocky island lying just north of Point Wild, on Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands. It was charted by Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition, 1914–16, and so named by them because when viewed from Point Wild the shape of the feature is suggestive of a gnomon, the elevated arm of a sundial.
