Which of the Russian navigators discovered Antarctica. Discovery of Antarctica by Bellingshausen and Lazarev. How did the polar expedition proceed?

At the beginning of the XIX century. ships of the Russian fleet made a number of round-the-world trips. These expeditions have enriched world science with the largest geographical discoveries especially in the Pacific Ocean. However, the vast expanses of the Southern Hemisphere still remained a blank spot on the map. The question of the existence of southern mainland.

In 1819, after a long and very thorough preparation, the southern polar expedition as part of two sloops of war - "Vostok" and "Mirny". The first was commanded by Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, the second - by Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. The crew of the ships consisted of experienced, seasoned sailors.

The Naval Ministry appointed Captain Bellingshausen as head of the expedition, who already had extensive experience in long-distance sea voyages.

Expedition leaders

Bellingshausen F.F.

Bellingshausen was born on Ezel Island (Sarema Island in Estonia) in 1779. I was born in the sea he later said of himself, just as a fish cannot live without water, so I cannot live without the sea».

The boy was ten years old when he was sent to study at the Naval Cadet Corps in Kronstadt. As a cadet, young Bellingshausen sailed to the shores of England during summer practice. After graduating from the Naval Corps at the age of 18, he received the rank of midshipman.

In 1803-1806. the young sailor took part in the first Russian round-the-world voyage on the Nadezhda ship under the command of the talented and experienced navigator I.F. Kruzenshtern. During the expedition, Bellingshausen was mainly engaged in mapping and astronomical observations. These works have been highly commended.

Lazarev M.P.

Commander of the Mirny sloop M.P. Lazarev was born in 1788 in the Vladimir province. Together with two brothers, he also entered the Naval Corps. During training, he first visited the sea and fell in love with him forever.

Mikhail Petrovich began his service in the Navy in the Baltic Sea. He participated in the war between Russia and Sweden and distinguished himself in a naval battle on August 26, 1808. In 1813, during the war for the liberation of Germany from the Napoleonic yoke, Lazarev took part in the landing and bombardment of the city of Danzig, and in this campaign he established himself as brave, resourceful and diligent officer.

After the end of the war, Lieutenant Lazarev was appointed commander of the Suvorov ship sent to Russian America. This circumnavigation of the Russians enriched geographical science with new discoveries. In the Pacific Ocean, Lazarev discovered a group of unknown islands, which he named after Suvorov.

In sailing around the world, which was a good practical school for Lazarev, he proved himself to be a talented organizer and commander. And it is not surprising that it was he who was appointed assistant chief of the new round-the-world expedition.

Expedition

First stage

On July 16, 1819, the ships "Vostok" and "Mirny", which made up the "Southern Division", weighed anchor and left their native Kronstadt roadstead under the salute of coastal artillery batteries. There was a long journey to unknown countries. The expedition was given the task of penetrating as far south as possible in order to finally resolve the question of the existence of the Southern Continent.

In the major English port of Portsmouth, Bellingshausen stayed for almost a month to replenish provisions, purchase chronometers and various nautical instruments.

At the beginning of autumn, with a fair wind, the ships headed through Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Brazil. The weather was favorable for swimming. Rare and weak storms did not disturb the routine of life on ships. From the very first days of the voyage, scientific observations were made, which Bellingshausen and his assistants carefully and in detail recorded in the logbook. Every day, under the guidance of the professor of Kazan University, astronomer Simonov, the officers were engaged in astronomical observations and calculations. geographical location ship.

After 21 days of navigation, the sloops approached the island of Tenerife. While the crews of the ships stocked up on fresh water and provisions, the officers explored the mountainous picturesque island.

Further navigation took place in the zone of constant northeast trade winds with a cloudless sky. move sailing ships accelerated significantly. Having reached 10 ° with. sh., the sloops entered a period of calm, common for equatorial places. Sailors measured air and water temperatures at different depths, studied currents, and collected collections of marine animals. The ships crossed the equator, and soon, with a favorable southeast trade wind, the sloops approached Brazil and anchored in a beautiful, convenient bay, on the banks of which the city of Rio de Janeiro stretched. It was a big dirty city narrow streets, where many stray dogs roamed.

At that time, the slave trade flourished in Rio de Janeiro. With a feeling of indignation, Bellingshausen wrote: There are several shops in which Negroes are sold: adult men, women and children. At the entrance to these vile shops, one sees several rows of sitting Negroes covered with scabies, the small ones in front, and the big ones behind ... The buyer, having chosen a slave at will, leads him out of the rows forward, examines his mouth, feels his whole body, beats with his hands but various parts, and after these experiments, being convinced of the strength and health of the Negro, he buys him ... All this produces disgust for the inhuman owner of the shop».

Loaded with provisions and checking the chronometers, the ships left Rio de Janeiro, heading south into the unknown regions of the polar ocean.

In the temperate zone of the South Atlantic Ocean, a coolness began to be felt in the air, although it was already beginning to southern summer. The farther south, the more birds were encountered, especially petrels. Whales swam by in large herds.

Scientific work

At the end of December 1819, the sloops approached the island of South Georgia. The sailors were busy describing and shooting it south coast. north side This mountainous island, covered with snow and ice, was mapped by the English navigator James Cook. The ships moved slowly forward, maneuvering very carefully among the floating ice.

Soon Lieutenant Annenkov discovered and described not big Island who were named after him. Bellingshausen on the way forward made several attempts to measure the depth of the ocean, but the lot did not reach the bottom. At that time, no scientific expedition attempted to measure the depth of the ocean. Bellingshausen was many decades ahead of other researchers in this; unfortunately, the technical means of the expedition did not allow us to solve this problem.

Then the expedition met the first floating " ice island". The farther south, the more often giant ice mountains- icebergs.

At the beginning of January 1820, the sailors opened unknown island completely covered with snow and ice. The next day, two more islands were seen from the ship. They were also put on the map, naming the names of the expedition members (Leskov and Zavadovsky). Zavadovsky Island turned out to be active volcano more than 350 m high. Having landed on the shore, the members of the expedition climbed the slope of the volcano to the middle of the mountain. Collected penguin eggs and specimens along the way rocks. There were a lot of penguins here. The sailors took on board several birds that entertained the crews of the ships along the way.

Penguin eggs were found to be edible and were used as food. open group The islands were named in honor of the then Minister of the Navy - Traverse Islands.

On ships that long voyages, people usually suffered from a lack of fresh fresh water. During this voyage, Russian sailors invented a way to obtain fresh water from the ice of icebergs.

Moving further south, the ships soon again met a small group of unknown rocky islands, which they called the Candlemas Islands. Then the expedition approached the Sandwich Islands discovered by the English explorer James Cook. It turned out that Cook took the archipelago for one large island. The Russian sailors corrected this mistake on the map.

Whole group open islands Bellingshausen named the South Sandwich Islands.

Foggy, overcast weather made sailing very difficult. The ships were in constant danger of running aground.

With every mile to the south, it became more and more difficult to wade through the ice. At the end of January 1820, the sailors saw thick broken ice stretching to the horizon. It was decided to go around it, turning sharply to the north. Again the sloops passed the South Sandwich Islands.

On some Antarctic islands, sailors met a huge number of penguins and elephant seals. The penguins usually stood in tight formation, the seals were immersed in a deep sleep.

But Bellingshausen and Lazarev did not abandon their attempts to break through to the south. When the ships hit solid ice, they now and then turned to the north and hastily got out of the ice captivity. Great skill was required to save ships from damage. Everywhere there were masses of perennial solid ice.

The ships of the expedition nevertheless crossed the Antarctic Circle and on January 28, 1820 reached 69 ° 25′ S. sh. In the foggy haze of a cloudy day, travelers saw an ice wall that blocked further way South. These were continental ice. The expedition members were sure that the Southern continent was hiding behind them. This was confirmed by the many polar birds that appeared above the sloop. And indeed, only a few miles separated the ships from the coast of Antarctica, which the Norwegians called the coast of Princess Martha more than a hundred years later. In 1948, the Soviet whaling flotilla Slava visited these places, and found that only poor visibility prevented Bellingshausen from clearly seeing the entire coast of Antarctica and even Mountain peaks deep in the mainland.

In March, with the onset of autumn, the nights became longer, frost intensified, and storms became more frequent. Swimming among the ice became more and more dangerous, the general fatigue of the team from the continuous severe struggle with the elements affected. Then Bellingshausen decided to lead ships to Australia. In order to cover a wider band with the study, the captain decided to send the sloops to Australia in different ways.

March 21, 1820 in Indian Ocean a violent storm broke out. Bellingshausen wrote: The wind roared, the waves rose to extraordinary heights, the sea seemed to mix with the air; the creaking of the parts of the sloop drowned out everything. We were left completely without sails to the mercy of a raging storm; I had several sailor's berths stretched out on mizzen shrouds, in order to keep the sloop closer to the wind. We were consoled only by the fact that we did not encounter ice in this terrible storm. Finally, at 8 o'clock they shouted from Baku: ice floes ahead; this announcement struck everyone with horror, and I saw that we were being carried onto one of the ice floes; they immediately raised the fore-staysail and put the rudder to the wind on board; but as all this did not produce the desired effect and the ice floe was already very close, we only watched how it brought us closer. One ice floe was carried under the stern, and the other was directly opposite the middle of the side, and we expected the blow that was to follow: fortunately, a huge wave that came out from under the sloop pushed the ice floe a few fathoms».

The storm continued for several days. The exhausted team, straining all their strength, struggled with the elements.

And albatross birds with outstretched wings swam between the waves as if nothing had happened.

In mid-April, the sloop "Vostok" anchored in the Australian harbor of the port of Zhaksoy (now Sydney). Seven days later, the Mirny sloop came here. Thus ended the first period of research.

Second phase

During all the winter months, the sloops sailed in the tropical part Pacific Ocean, among the islands of Polynesia. Here the members of the expedition performed many important geographical works: clarified the position of the islands and their outlines, determined the height of the mountains, discovered and mapped 15 islands, which were given Russian names.

Returning to Zhaksoi, the sloop crews began to prepare for a new voyage to the polar seas. The preparation took about two months. In mid-November, the expedition again went to sea, keeping to the southeast direction. Soon, a leak opened in the bow of the Vostok sloop, which they managed to destroy with great difficulty. Continuing to sail south, * the sloops crossed 60 ° S. sh. On the way, floating ice floes began to come across, and then solid ice appeared. The ships headed east along the ice edge. The weather deteriorated noticeably: the temperature dropped, a cold gusty wind drove dark snow clouds. Collisions with small ice floes threatened to intensify the leak in the hull of the Vostok sloop, and this could lead to disastrous consequences.

Suddenly, a violent storm broke out. I had to go north again. The abundance of floating ice and bad weather hindered progress to the south. The further the sloops moved, the more often icebergs were encountered. At times, up to 100 ice mountains surrounded the ships. Tacking between icebergs strong wind and snowfall required a huge effort and great skill. Sometimes only the skill, dexterity and speed of the crew saved the sloops from inevitable death.

At the slightest opportunity, the ships turned again and again due south and went until solid ice blocked the way.

Victoria!

Finally, on January 22, 1821, fortune smiled on the sailors. A blackening spot appeared on the horizon.

« I recognized the pipe at a glance Bellingshausen wrote, that I see the shore, but the officers, also looking into the pipes, had different opinions. At 4 o'clock I informed Lieutenant Lazarev by telegraph that we were seeing the shore. The Mirny sloop was then close to us astern and understood the answer ... It is impossible to express in words the joy that appeared on the faces of everyone when they exclaimed: “Shore! Shore!».

The island was named after Peter I. Now Bellingshausen was sure that there must be more dry land somewhere nearby.

Finally, his expectations came true. On January 29, 1821, Bellingshausen wrote: “ At 11 o'clock in the morning we saw the shore; its cape, extending to the north, ended high mountain, which is separated by an isthmus from other mountains". Bellingshausen called this land the Alexander I Coast.

« I call this finding the shore because the remoteness of the other end to the south disappeared beyond our vision. This coast is covered with snow, but the scree on the mountains and the steep cliffs had no snow. The sudden change of color on the surface of the sea gives the idea that the coast is extensive, or at least does not consist of the only part that was before our eyes.».

The land of Alexander I is still insufficiently explored. Upon its discovery, Bellingshausen finally convinced that the Russian expedition had approached the still unknown Southern Continent.

Thus, the greatest geographical discovery of the 19th century took place.

Having solved the centuries-old riddle, the sailors decided to go to the northeast to explore the South Shetland Islands. Having completed the work on shooting them south coast, the sailors were forced to urgently leave to the north: every day the flow intensified in the ships battered by storms. And Bellingshausen sent them to Rio de Janeiro.

In early March 1821, the sloops anchored in the roadstead of Rio de Janeiro. Thus ended the second stage of a wonderful voyage.

Two months later, after a thorough repair, the ships went to sea, heading for their native shores.

August 5, 1821 "Vostok" and "Mirny" arrived in Kronstadt and anchored in the same place from which they left more than two years ago.

They spent 751 days at sea and traveled over 92,000 km. This distance is two and a quarter times more length equator. In addition to Antarctica, the expedition discovered 29 islands and one coral reef. The scientific materials she collected made it possible to form the first idea of Antarctica.

Prologue

Russian sailors not only discovered a huge continent located around South Pole, but also carried out the most important research in the field of oceanography. This branch of science was only in its infancy at that time. F.F. Bellingshausen was the first to correctly explain the causes of sea currents(e.g. Canarian), origin of algae Sargasso Sea, and coral islands in tropical areas.

The discoveries of the expedition turned out to be a major achievement of Russian and world geographical science of that time.

All future life Bellingshausen and Lazarev, after returning from the Antarctic voyage, took place in continuous voyages and combat naval service. In 1839, Bellingshausen, with the rank of admiral, was appointed chief commander of the Kronstadt port. Under his leadership, Kronstadt turned into an impregnable fortress.

Bellingshausen died in 1852 at the age of 73.

Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev did a lot for the development of Russian navy. Already in the rank of admiral, commanding the Black Sea Fleet, he achieved a complete rearmament and restructuring of the fleet. He brought up a whole generation of glorious Russian sailors.

Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev died in 1851.

Already in our time, some states sought to divide Antarctica among themselves. Geographic Society Soviet Union strongly protested against the unilateral actions of these states. In the resolution on the report of the late President of the Graphic Society, Acad. L. S. Berg says: “ The Russian navigators Bellingshausen and Lazarev circumnavigated the Antarctic continent in 1819-1821, approached its shores for the first time, and in January 1821 discovered Peter I Island, Alexander I Land, the Traverse Islands and others. In recognition of the merits of Russian navigators, one of the southern polar moraines was named the Bellingshausen Sea. And therefore, all attempts to resolve the issue of the regime of Antarctica without the participation of the Soviet Union cannot find any justification ... The USSR has every reason not to recognize any such decision».

On September 20, 1778 (according to the new style), the famous navigator, Admiral Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen, was born.

The future discoverer was born on the island of Ezel (modern Saaremaa, Estonia). The proximity of the sea, communication with sailors and fishermen from early childhood instilled in the boy a love for the fleet. At the age of ten he was sent to the Naval Cadet Corps in Kronstadt. After graduating from it in 1797 with the rank of midshipman, Thaddeus Bellingshausen walked for some time Baltic Sea on the ships of the Revel squadron.

In 1803-1806 he took part in the first Russian circumnavigation on the ship "Hope" under the command of Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern. This expedition became an excellent school for the young sailor. Upon returning to his homeland, Bellingshausen continued to serve in the Baltic, and from 1810 he was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet, where he commanded the frigates Minerva and Flora. During this time, the researcher has great job to clarify nautical charts Caucasian coast and made a number of astronomical observations.

In 1819 - 1821, Captain 2nd Rank Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Lieutenant Mikhail Lazarev led the first Russian antarctic expedition into the waters of the Southern Ocean on the sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny". The researchers managed to see the coast of Antarctica in January 1820. Bellingshausen spoke cautiously: "Beyond the ice fields fine ice and the mainland of ice is visible with islands, the edges of which are broken off perpendicularly and which continues as far as we see, rising to the south like a shore. "In February of that year, the expedition came almost close to the ice massif. "Ice Continent"

The expedition also discovered a number of islands in the tropical Pacific. In addition, during the voyage, observations were made of air and ocean temperature, air pressure, ethnographic, zoological and botanical collections were collected. Thaddeus Bellingshausen made the first attempt at classification polar ice and creation of the theory of ice formation.

The gratitude of the whole world for these discoveries was summarized in 1867 by the German geographer August Peterman: “The name of Bellingshausen can be directly put on a par with the names of Columbus and Magellan, with the names of those people who did not retreat before the difficulties and imaginary impossibilities created by their predecessors, with the names of people who went their own independent way, and therefore were the destroyers of barriers to discoveries, which mark the epochs.

In 1828-1829, Bellingshausen, with the rank of Rear Admiral, took part in the Russo-Turkish War. In 1839, the sailor became the military governor-general of Kronstadt. In 1843 he was promoted to the rank of admiral.

In 1845, Thaddeus Bellingshausen was elected a full member of the newly created Russian Geographical Society.

A sea in the Pacific Ocean, a cape on South Sakhalin and an island in the Tuamotu archipelago.

January 28, 1820 (January 16, old style) went down in history as the day of the discovery of the sixth continent - Antarctica. The honor of its discovery belongs to the Russian round-the-world naval expedition led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev.

At the beginning of the XIX century. ships of the Russian fleet made a number of round-the-world trips. These expeditions have enriched world science with major geographical discoveries, especially in the Pacific Ocean. However, the vast expanses of the Southern Hemisphere still remained a blank spot on the map. The question of the existence of the southern mainland was not clarified either.

In July 1819, after a long and very thorough preparation, the southern polar expedition set off from Kronstadt on a long voyage, consisting of two sloops of war - Vostok and Mirny. The first was commanded by Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, the second - by Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev.

The Naval Ministry appointed Captain Bellingshausen as head of the expedition, who already had extensive experience in long-distance sea voyages. The expedition was given the task of penetrating as far south as possible in order to finally resolve the question of the existence of the Southern Continent.

In the major English port of Portsmouth, Bellingshausen stayed for almost a month to replenish provisions, purchase chronometers and various nautical instruments.

In early autumn, with a fair wind, the ships headed across the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Brazil. From the very first days of the voyage, scientific observations were made, which Bellingshausen and his assistants carefully and in detail recorded in the logbook. After 21 days of navigation, the sloops approached the island of Tenerife.

The ships crossed the equator, and soon approached Brazil and anchored in Rio de Janeiro. Stocking up on provisions and checking the chronometers, the ships left the city, heading south into the unknown regions of the polar ocean.

At the end of December 1819, the sloops approached the island of South Georgia. The ships moved slowly forward, maneuvering very carefully among the floating ice.

Soon Lieutenant Annenkov discovered and described small island who were named after him. Bellingshausen on the way forward made several attempts to measure the depth of the ocean, but the lot did not reach the bottom. Then the expedition met the first floating "ice island". The farther to the south, the more often giant ice mountains - icebergs - began to come across on the way.

In early January 1820, sailors discovered an unknown island, completely covered with snow and ice. The next day, two more islands were seen from the ship. They were also put on the map, naming the names of the expedition members (Leskov and Zavadovsky). Zavadovsky Island turned out to be an active volcano with a height of more than 350 meters.

The open group of islands was named in honor of the then naval minister - the Traverse Islands.

On ships that made long voyages, people usually suffered from a lack of fresh fresh water. During this voyage, Russian sailors invented a way to obtain fresh water from the ice of icebergs.

Bellingshausen called the entire group of open islands the South Sandwich Islands.

At the end of January 1820, the sailors saw thick broken ice stretching to the horizon. It was decided to go around it, turning sharply to the north. Again the sloops passed the South Sandwich Islands.

The ships of the expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle and on January 28, 1820 reached 69 degrees 25 minutes south latitude. In the foggy haze of an overcast day, the travelers saw an ice wall blocking the further path to the south. As Lazarev wrote, the sailors "met hardened ice of extraordinary height ... it extended as far as vision could only reach." Moving further to the east and trying to turn to the south whenever possible, the explorers always encountered an "ice continent". Russian travelers approached less than 3 km to the northeastern ledge of that section of the coast of Antarctica, which 110 years later was seen by Norwegian whalers and named the Princess Martha Coast.

In February 1820, the sloops entered the Indian Ocean. Trying to break through to the south from this side, they approached the coast of Antarctica two more times. But heavy ice conditions forced the ships to move north again and move east along the ice edge.
On March 21, 1820, a severe storm broke out in the Indian Ocean, which lasted several days. The exhausted team, straining all their strength, struggled with the elements.

In mid-April, the sloop "Vostok" anchored in the Australian harbor of the port of Port Jackson (now Sydney). Seven days later, the Mirny sloop came here. Thus ended the first period of research.

During all the winter months, the sloops sailed in the tropical part of the Pacific Ocean, among the islands of Polynesia. Here, the expedition members carried out many important geographical works: they specified the position of the islands and their outlines, determined the height of the mountains, discovered and mapped 15 islands, which were given Russian names.

Returning to Zhaksoi, the sloop crews began to prepare for a new voyage to the polar seas. The preparation took about two months. In mid-November, the expedition again went to sea, keeping to the southeast direction. Continuing to sail south, the sloops crossed 60 degrees south latitude. Finally, on January 22, 1821, fortune smiled on the sailors. A blackening spot appeared on the horizon. The island was named after Peter I.

On January 29, 1821, Bellingshausen wrote: “At 11 o'clock in the morning we saw the shore; its cape, stretching to the north, ended in a high mountain, which was separated by an isthmus from other mountains. Bellingshausen called this land the Alexander I Coast. The land of Alexander I is still insufficiently explored. But its discovery finally convinced Bellingshausen that the Russian expedition approached the still unknown Southern Continent.

On February 10, 1821, when it turned out that the Vostok sloop was leaking, Bellingshausen turned north and arrived in Kronstadt via Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon on August 5, 1821, completing his second circumnavigation.

The expedition members spent 751 days at sea, covered more than 92 thousand kilometers. 29 islands and one coral reef have been discovered. The scientific materials she collected made it possible to form the first idea of Antarctica.

Russian sailors not only discovered a huge continent located around the South Pole, but also carried out the most important research in the field of oceanography. This branch of science was only in its infancy at that time. The discoveries of the expedition turned out to be a major achievement of Russian and world geographical science of that time.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

Antarctica was discovered in 1820, but the idea of exploring " southern land appeared among sailors in the 16th century. Antarctica is still the most mysterious continent of the Earth, and the development and exploration of these lands does not stop even for a minute.

The history of the discovery of Antarctica

Assumptions that somewhere in the south there is a land completely covered with ice were expressed by ancient Greek scientists. Aristotle, for example, believed that there was a mainland connected to Africa that balances the northern continents.

The first attempts in search of Antarctica belong to the Portuguese expedition, which included the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci. In 1501-1502, the ships of the expedition approached the island of South Georgia, but could not move further because of the unbearable cold.

Rice. 1. Amerigo Vespucci.

During his world travel in 1772-1775 English navigator James Cook penetrated the Antarctic waters furthest. He reported that he had almost completely explored the southern hemisphere, but did not find a mainland there. And if such a land exists, it is very difficult to reach it. Cook's authority was so great that over the next 40 years there were no sea expeditions towards Antarctica.

The exploration of Antarctica resumed in 1819, when the Russian Tsar Alexander I sent an expedition to its shores. It was headed by an experienced navigator with German roots Thaddeus Bellingshausen, and Mikhail Lazarev became his deputy. On the ships "Vostok" and "Mirny" they set off to conquer unknown lands.

Antarctica explorers and their discoveries

After the discovery of Antarctica by Bellingshausen and Lazarev, interest in this continent increased with renewed vigor.

Despite the fact that Russian explorers are the discoverers of the mainland, Bellingshausen and Lazarev did not land on the mainland. The crew of the American ship Cecilia was the first to do this a year after the great discovery.

Between 1838 and 1842 as many as three expeditions were able to land in Antarctica and conduct great scientific research and make new discoveries. The expedition under the command of the Frenchman J. Dumont-Durville discovered Clari Land, Joinville Land, Louis Philippe Land. The American expedition under the command of C. Wilks discovered the Earth, which was named after its discoverer. And the English expedition under the command of J. Ross discovered Victoria Land.

in 1911, Raoul Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole, and a month later, as a result hiking R. Scott's team got there. On the way back, Scott and his comrades died.

The first flight over the South Pole was made by R. Baird in 1928.

Rice. 3. Table of exploration of Antarctica.

On December 1, 1959, 12 countries, including the USSR, signed an agreement on Antarctica, according to which only research for peaceful purposes is possible on its territory. Report Evaluation

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Antarctica - huge continent encased in ice. The center of the mainland practically coincides with the location of the South Pole. In addition to the mainland, Antarctica includes islands located in the waters of the ocean washing the shores of the continent.

Mainland Antarctica

Today, a knowledgeable person knows that Antarctica is not only, but also the most high continent. Average Height above sea level is about 2000 meters, and in the central part -. The territory of the mainland is divided into Transarctic, Western and Eastern. Almost the entire area of Antarctica was once covered with ice, except for small areas of mountains.

Now the ice of Antarctica is actively melting. Mosses and lichens appear in their place. Scientists do not exclude that in 100 years the first shrubs and trees will appear in Antarctica.

How did you find Antarctica?

Many sailors tried to reach the shores of the unknown mainland. For example, even Amerigo Vespucci, exploring the southern latitudes, reached the island South Georgia. However, the extreme cold prevented the expedition from advancing further.

In January 1820, the boats Mirny and Vostok landed on the coast of the mainland. The discoverers of the continent were Mikhail Lazarev and Thaddeus Bellingshausen, who led the expedition, the results of which became proof of the existence of Antarctica. Science teacher Carsten Borchgrevink and Christensen, captain of the Antarctic, were the first people to set foot on the shores of the continent.

During the voyage, the Vostok and Mirny ships covered a distance equal to 100,000 kilometers. It's about 2.5 turns around globe. The journey took 751 days. During the expedition, 29 new islands were discovered and mapped, as well as the discovery of Antarctica. By the way, earlier during a long voyage, sailors suffered from a lack of fresh water. The expedition members of Lazarev and Bellingshausen quickly realized that water could be obtained by melting the ice of the icebergs they encountered.

On January 28, 1820, the sailors saw a wall of ice and flocks of birds soaring above them. This is how Antarctica was discovered. Russian navigators. Currently, many countries claim the territory of the continent, since mineral deposits have been discovered in Antarctica, its ice contains 80% of all world fresh water reserves.