Lazarev discovered Antarctica. Who was lucky enough to make the discovery and exploration of Antarctica. Assumptions about the existence of Terra Australis Incognita

Almost 200 years after the discovery of the sixth continent of the planet, it is of interest to scientists. Because of the ice cover, it is called the "high" land. Average Height- 2,000 m, and the maximum - 5140. The area of ​​​​Antarctica - 14 million km2 - only 3 million km2 less than Russia. Who discovered the land of eternal ice?

Who discovered Antarctica

Even before the first expeditions, scientists assumed that there were big land. However, there was no evidence of this. M. V. Lomonosov did not doubt its existence and gave a very clear description: “Far to the south, between the cape Good Hope and the Strait of Magellan, there is a large land covered with ice. At the same time, Mikhail Vasilievich noticed that there was much more ice in the south than in the north.

The involuntary discoverer is Captain Dirk Gerritz. He was the first to approach Antarctica. But Gerritz hardly wanted this. In 1559, during a storm, the ship was carried beyond the Antarctic Circle. When the ship reached 64 degrees south latitude, the crew observed "high" land. The captain put the lives of people above the possible laurels of a researcher. So as soon as the weather allowed, he left the dangerous waters.

Captain James Cook made the following important discoveries in Antarctic exploration. In the period 1768–1775. famous navigator and the cartographer has repeatedly been beyond the Arctic Circle. James Cook explored the coast of Australia, proved that New Zealand has nothing to do with Antarctica, but is an archipelago.

Once the ship "Endeavour" was caught in ice beyond 71 degrees south latitude. Then the ship was only 75 miles from the sixth continent. However, due to the brutal cold and impassability of the ice, Cook considered that it was pointless to continue the expedition.

Who first discovered Antarctica

For almost 50 years, people have not crossed the Antarctic Circle. Many scientists agreed with James Cook that there was little point in discovering Antarctica, because nothing would have changed for science.

However, interest in the icy land returned in 1819. The Russian Empire equipped an expedition consisting of two sloops:

• "Vostok" - the captain and commander of the expedition Thaddeus Bellingshausen (pictured left).
• Mirny - Captain Mikhail Lazarev.

On July 4, the team left Kronstadt for Rio de Janeiro, where they moored at the end of autumn. From there, the explorers headed south. Rounding the island of South Georgia, headed east past the archipelago South Sandwich islands.

Discovering several islands Russian expedition crossed 69 south latitude, where one of the major discoveries geography. On January 28, 1820, the sailors were 20 miles from Antarctica. For several days, the team observed rocky shores and impressive ice shelves.

The Antarctic winter has come, and the discoverers of Antarctica have turned north. Waiting for the ice to melt, the expedition discovered several islands in pacific ocean. A year later, the Bellingshausen team returned to the same place and continued the mission. Rounding Antarctica coastline, having traveled 50 thousand miles and discovered 29 islands, the expedition returned home.

Controversial discoverers - whalers bransfield and Palmer

In November 1820, a whaling ship passed near the icy land. Sailors and Captain Nathaniel Palmer claimed to have seen the Southern Continent. Also on January 31, that is, three days after official opening, the coast of Antarctica was allegedly seen by the team of an English sailing ship under the command of Edward Bransfield. One way or another, they cannot claim to have discovered an uncharted land, since this happened later. In addition, it is not known whether they saw Antarctica or just glaciers.

The question of the discovery of Antarctica still pops up. Bellingshausen and Lazarev are officially considered the discoverers. However, in our time, scientists find shipwrecks and household items of the 16th-17th centuries in the South. Some of them are stored in the Chilean Museum of the city of Valparaiso. There are two opinions about how they got there: it was brought by the current, or the hunting ships were nailed to the icy shores even before the official opening.

How it really happened and which of the travelers discovered Antarctica, we most likely will not know.

Antarctica is a mysterious and cold land that has haunted explorers and travelers from all over the world for several centuries. So who discovered Antarctica, and in what year did it happen?

History of Antarctic exploration

Antarctica was discovered by two Russian navigators F. Bellingshausen and M. Lazarev in 1820. However, even before this great discovery, other sea ​​vessels with no less famous scientists approached its shores, or knew about the existence of the mainland.

Rice. 1. Fadey Bellingshausen and M. Lazarev.

At the beginning of the 16th century, in 1501-1502, the Portuguese discoverer Amerigo Vespucci put forward a conjecture about the existence of the mainland. By chance, he was lucky enough to give the name of North and South America, but failed to get closer to Antarctica. He reached the island of South Georgia, which is located quite far from Antarctica, but did not dare to move further because of the severe cold that fettered all members of the team. Frightened for his men, Vespucci retreated.

Rice. 2. Amerigo Vespucci.

In the second half of the 18th century, the English traveler James Cook became interested in Antarctica. He came closer to his predecessors South Pole, practically confirming his guesses about the existence of a southern land bound by ice. Cook returned to his homeland, confident that no one would advance further to the South Pole due to severe weather conditions.

When was Antarctica discovered?

So what year was Antarctica discovered? In 1819, by order of Tsar Alexander I, the round the world expedition under the leadership of Fadey Bellingshausen and his deputy M. Lazarev. They were faced with the task of confirming or disproving the existence of the sixth continent. The expedition was carried out on two ships - Vostok and Mirny.

On January 16, 1820, the crew of Bellingshausen and Lazarev were the first to reach the coast of Antarctica. In honor of his king, Thaddeus Bellingshausen called these lands the lands of Alexander I. Also as a result of this sea ​​travel other discoveries were made. For example, the Antarctic Peninsula was discovered, on which the northernmost and only extreme point mainland - Cape Sifre (Cape Prime Head).

TOP 4 articleswho read along with this

On June 24, 1821, having spent 751 days on the expedition, the Vostok and Mirny ships returned to their homeland in Kronstadt. Their mission was completed and satisfied the most daring wishes of the sailors.

However, Mikhail Lazarev and Thaddeus Bellingshausen only reached the coast of Antarctica and described them. For the first time, the American crew of the ship "Cecilia" entered the mainland. This happened in 1821.

Already after the discovery of Antarctica by Russian navigators, at the end of January and November 1820, the whaling ships of Bransfield and Palmer reported that they had seen the Southern Continent. Did they really see southern lands or just glaciers, and remained unknown. In other matters, it was no longer important, since these events occurred later than the discovery of Russian travelers.

Currently, there are no states on the territory of Antarctica, and the number of people on the mainland does not exceed 4 thousand. In 1959, the Antarctic Law was signed, which allows the use of the continent's lands only for peaceful purposes. Representatives of 145 countries monitor the implementation of the law.

What have we learned?

Antarctica is the coldest continent on earth. That is why, because of the difficult conditions, it was the most difficult to open. It happened only in the 19th century. Amerigo Vespucci and James Cook thought about the existence of Antarctica. They tried to make their way to the shores of Antarctica, but they failed to do so. Only in 1820, the Russian travelers Bellingshausen and Lazarev were able to reach the shores of the mainland. From that moment, a new era of exploration and development of a previously unknown continent began.

Topic quiz

Report Evaluation

Average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 208.

I have known since childhood about who discovered America. Certainly! It tells the same everywhere and everywhere. :) I think that even a five-year-old child has a rough idea of ​​who Columbus is and what he discovered. But Antarctica is another matter. Frankly, I may seem uneducated, but not so long ago I had no idea who discovered this continent.

Here I would like to talk about who discovered Antarctica and how it happened. :)

basic information

First, I will say a few words about where this continent is located. In fact, I have met people who confuse Antarctica and the Arctic. Do not do it this way. :) Antarctica is in the very south our planet. Approximately in the center of this continent and is indicated South Pole of the Earth.

Off the coast of Antarctica is South ocean . It was not so long ago classified as a separate ocean, only in the 21st century. It used to be possible to say that Antarctica is washed by the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

95% of the area of ​​this continent is completely covered Tthick layer of ice. Although, since global warming has been observed in recent decades, the ice cover is gradually decreasing.

Who discovered Antarctica

Before the real official discovery of Antarctica, people understood that somewhere in the south there must have been another continent. So:

• More Amerigo Vespucci, after which America was named, moved quite deeply towards the Southern Ocean. However, at some point, he and his team had to turn back because of the extreme cold, which did not allow the sailors to do their job.
• Besides, James Cook visited Antarctic waters before the discovery of this continent. In his notes, he indicated that the probability of having a separate continent in the south is very high. So he thought because a large number glaciers he met along the way.

• And now a moment of pride - Antarctica was discovered by Russian navigators F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev in 1820. The expedition itself began in 1819 and took place on ships "Vostok" and "Mirny". It is interesting that the next time a person visited this continent only after a hundred years!

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. The 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.

The existence of Antarctica was predicted long before its actual discovery - however, not scientifically (it was impossible), but mythologically: just as Jonathan Swift in his Gulliver's Travels predicted the existence of two satellites of Mars, which are still impossible to see in any telescope. The first, back in the 16th century, suggested the existence of a whole continent in the extreme south of the Earth by the Portuguese expedition of Amerigo Vespucci. And two centuries later, James Cook wrote: "The great cold, the huge number of ice islands and floating ice - all this proves that the land in the south must be ...". Before the outline of Australia and Tierra del Fuego, some travelers assumed that there was a huge supercontinent in the Southern Hemisphere, including Australia and South America. But who actually discovered Antarctica?

This honor belongs to Russian sailors - on January 28, 1820, the sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" for the first time approached the coast of Antarctica covered with a thick layer of ice. The expedition was led by Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev.

Thaddeus Bellingshausen. Image: wikipedia.org

Despite the difference in biographies, both great sailors had a lot in common - for example, from childhood, as they say, they "sick at the sea." Bellingshausen came from the Baltic Germans, his childhood passed to Kronstadt, where from the age of 10 he studied at the Naval Cadet Corps. Lazarev, who came from the family of a brilliant nobleman and a very enlightened person, Senator Pyotr Gavrilovich Lazarev, also entered here. In 1803–1806, Bellingshausen took part in the first circumnavigation- was on the ship "Hope". The voyage was not easy, including due to a sharp conflict between the nominal head of the expedition, Nikolai Rezanov (well known to our contemporary thanks to the rock opera Juno and Avos) and the actual leader, Ivan Kruzenshtern. At this time, Lazarev studied maritime affairs on British ships - he spent about 5 years in almost non-stop voyages across the Atlantic and mediterranean sea. Both navigators took part in wars with foreign powers.

Expedition preparation

Bellingshausen himself admitted in his diary: “It is difficult to say who first thought about this expedition and who initiated it. It is possible that this idea originated almost simultaneously with several of the most prominent and enlightened Russian navigators of that time - Golovnin, Kruzenshtern and Kotzebue. However, it was Kruzenshtern who took the practical step towards preparing an expedition to Antarctica. In 1819, he sent a letter to the Minister of Marine de Traversay, where he justified the need for an expedition to the South Pole. It had little practical meaning. For Russia, all attempts to increase influence in the Southern Hemisphere throughout the entire 19th century remained adventures - this was shown, in particular, by the example of Miklouho-Maclay, who proposed to the empire to establish a protectorate over the Coast he had discovered. However, the expedition was of great scientific interest. The Naval Ministry approved the project and prepared two ships, choosing them as captains of experienced sailors: for example, for the first time, Bellingshausen and Lazarev were on the same voyage together. Bellingshausen commanded the Vostok sloop, Lazarev commanded the Mirny sloop.

The expedition began with the exploration of South Georgia and Sandwich Land - in the course of these studies, discoveries were made that significantly changed geographic Maps. It was determined that Sandwich Land was not an island, but an archipelago, which was renamed the South Sandwich Islands. The expedition was to "continue its explorations to as far a latitude as can be reached." Soon the views of the deserted islands were replaced by paintings dead ice: moving from west to east, the ships crossed the Antarctic Circle and came close to the ice barrier of Antarctica. This day - January 28, 1820 - went down in history as the date of the discovery of the Antarctic continent. Two more times (February 2 and 17) the ships managed to come close to the shores of the mysterious mainland. It is curious that the point from which the Russians first observed new mainland, a man happened to visit again only a hundred years later - Norwegian researchers called it the Princess Martha Coast.

Portrait of Vice Admiral M. P. Lazarev by artist Ivan Aivazovsky, 1839

The weather during the expedition was disgusting. “Although on the deck where the officers and servants lived, the stoves were heated daily and the ceiling (on which drops were made) was wiped three times a day), the damp dress was dried upstairs as much as possible, but the continuous dense fogs, wet snow and slush brought us to the point where that we felt an absolute need for good weather,” wrote Bellingshausen. Because of the fog, the sailors of the Vostok, in fact, could not see much - only continuous fields of ice bumps around. “Mirny” was much more fortunate - Lazarev saw “hardened ice of extreme height”, which stretched “as far as vision could only reach” - that is, the captain had already observed ice sheet Antarctica itself, and not the ice surrounding the mainland.

hello and goodbye antarctica

Due to the approaching winter (which occurs in the Southern Hemisphere in May-June), the ships left coastal zone Antarctica and waited out the season in temperate latitudes, and then again went to the shores of the mainland. On January 22, 1821, their ships were discovered big Island located next to the mainland. "I named this island high name culprit of existence Russian Empire of the navy - the island of Peter I, ”writes Bellingshausen. However, it was not possible to land on the island: “According to solid ice surrounding the island, not foreseeing the possibility of coming close to the shore to send a rowing ship, I decided, without wasting time, to go further east and parallel to the ice. In total, the voyage of Russian ships lasted a little more than 2 years - 751 days, and its length was about 100 thousand kilometers - more than 2 equators of the Earth. The ships that crossed the Antarctic Circle three times discovered not only the mainland itself, but also 29 major islands on which no human foot has ever set foot.

Both discoverers of Antarctica lived a long and glorious life. Bellingshausen commanded the battles during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. Lazarev caught up and overtook his colleague in number around the world travel- not one, but three times circled the Earth across the seas and oceans. For about 20 years he commanded the Black Sea Fleet. Among his students were outstanding naval commanders Vladimir Kornilov, Pavel Nakhimov, Vladimir Istomin.

The Russians discovered Antarctica not to forget about it: in honor of the ships that first reached the shores of the mainland, the first Soviet stations opened here were subsequently named - "Vostok" and "Mirny". And the first Soviet polar station, founded near West Coast Antarctica, was named after Bellingshausen - like a large sea off the coast of the mainland. However, the name of the Russian traveler was immortalized not only in the toponymy of the continent he discovered: it is worn by islands in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean and even an island in the Aral Sea. The sea located near the Atlantic coast of the continent, as well as the mountain range, is named after Lazarev.