Antarctica, the land of snow and ice, is just that. The Continent is covered with a thick ice sheet that reaches up to an average of 2,450m. The average altitude of the Continent is 2,300m, which is remarkably high compared to other continents. The average temperature is -10 degrees centigrade along the coast, but it decreases to -60 degrees centigrade inland and the lowest inland temperature is lower than -80 degrees centigrade. The extreme cold, strong winds and dryness in Antarctica have created one of the most severe natural environments on Earth. The areas south of 66.5° South Latitude have days without the sun in winter and days with sun light for 24 hours in summer. The higher the latitude is, the longer the duration of midnight sun and polar nights become. Originally, the land was going to be called Terra Australis, The Land of The South. This Terra Australis was the hypothesized landmass south of Asia and Africa. The first sightings took place in January 30th 1820, by Edward Bransfield, who had sighted Trinity Peninsula, the northernmost point of Antarctic mainland. After sightings were made exploration began to take place¬. The first claims to have landed on Antartica came from sealers looking for seals. The first claim was by a sealer named John Davis, who had said to have stepped foot on the mainland on 7th February 1821, looking for seals. On December of 1821, Nathaniel Palmer, looking for seal breeding grounds sighted the Antarctic Peninsula. These sealers, after hearing of Antarctica went out looking to find more seals to become richer. This leads to Scott’s first journey, Dicovery, and then his next one. However, during his second journey Scott made many mistakes that proved fatal to him and his party, because of t...
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...al examinations. In 1894, while serving as a torpedo officer aboard the HMS Vulcan, Scott learned of the financial crisis which has come upon his family. His father, who was 63 at the time, had to take up the position as a brewery manager. Three years later John Scott died, plunging the family into another crisis. Now, Hannah Scott had no way to sustain her family and relied solely on the service pay of Robert and Archibald Scott. In 1898, Archibald died from typhoid fever, leaving Robert Scott the only financial provider for the family . This led Robert to pursue a promotion, which would be very important for his family. In the June of 1899, while he was home, he met Clements Markham on a street in London. This was where he learned of the impending Antarctic expedition. A few days later Robert Scott paid a visit to Markham to volunteer himself for the expedition.
As they closer and closer to the North Pole the men we getting tired but something in Plaisted made every man want to keep going. On there trip the men had to overcome wind speeds up to 60 mph and cracks in the ice up to 4 ft wide. Then one day in may of 1967 the wind and cracked ice was just to much to overcome and the men had to turn back, Although the next year with careful planning and no fear Plaisted took off on this expedition again. As Kuralt stayed back in Cedar Rapids, IA over the radio to Plaisted he asked. “ Where is you location?” and Plaisted reported back, “ Ninety degrees north!”
The Endurance, the vessel carrying the men and the title of the expedition, was named by Shackleton after his family motto?Fortitudine Vincimus (By endurance we conquer) (Perkins 41). To relate the significant factors of Shackleton?s leadership during the Endurance expedition, it is necessary to summarize the timeline of the events. A chronological timeline of the expedition is included at the end of this paper.
One reason why Douglas Mawson faced the most adversity is because he lost a lot on his journey (as seen in “Into the Unknown”). He and a few others went on an expedition in Antarctica. While he was on his expedition, he had to kill the huskies that that they brought with them because they became weak. Some of his sledding partners fell into a crevasse in the ice; they had to walk
The Maltese Falcon, was not only a detective film, but a film that displayed many different aspects of the female and the male character in the movie. The film was more than a story, but a story that explored the ideas of the detective genre and the different characteristics of femininity and masculinity. It also brought forth subjects of sexual desires and the greediness of money. The characters and the visual motifs in the film contributed to the developing of the plot and assisted in creating a more detective and gender oriented film. In the film, The Maltese Falcon, the role of men and women are portrayed in different ways in the film to show the distinct functions of masculinity and femininity between the characters.
“Three explorers from the Age of Exploration” Age of Explorations was a time of discovery of the new world during the 15th through 17th century. Many Explorers were in search for new passage ways, new trading ports, new land, new spices, and riches. The three explorers discussed in this paper is Henry Hudson, Jacques Cartier, and Francisco Pizarro. Henry Hudson was an explorer whose main purpose was to find a route to Asia from Europe, he had a series of three voyages trying to achieve this. Jacques Cartier was sent to find riches and a route to Asia as well.
The climates on earth are very unique depending on their placement on the planet's axis. No one really realizes how different they can be or how similar they really are. The ice caps and the arid climates are two examples of unique climates. Arid is another word for dry land, the ice caps are the cold climates. The Arid climates are covering nearly 33% of the earth’s land. The ice caps are only at the poles directly north and south of the equator, but this climate covers nearly 20% of the earth. These two climates sound very different, but no one would ever know the similarities of them until they really looked into the facts.
These penguins lived after the Castastrophic event “Cretaceuous” that demolished the dinosaurs and many other species. Based on the DNA analyses and avaiable evidence of modern birds, we think the modern bird- lineages, including penguins, some how managed to survive through the Cretaceuous. Also it’s not shocking these fossils were found in New Zeland. The South Pacific and Southern oceans were free of predatory mammals, had abundant food, and had space for Penguins to breed. But the Southern Pacific is not the only area where Penguins inhabit. Many of modern penguins “Aptrenodytes” are located in the Antarctic. Recenelty it was discovered that there was a over looked feature on the surface of the fossil penguins flipper bone. These grooves were easily missed because the look was similar to tendons and muscles in the same area. It was discovered that these grooves were blood vessels that make up a counter current heat exchanger called “humeral arterial plexus” which allows penguins to limit the heat loss through the flippers. Also it helped Penguins maintain their core body temperature in cold water allowing them to survive long journeys in the cold waters. Although Penguins have luckily been able develop these traits to survive the dramatic shifts in climate, the world population can not mistake their success as resilience towards global warming.
Shackleton expresses his leadership qualities all throughout the narrative as he embarks on one of the most dangerous expeditions known. The well equipped leader and 27 other men undertake their journey called the Imperial Trans-Atlantic Expedition. This journey required a lot of fundraising as well as planning, which Shackleton put all of his life into. He handpicked all the men in the expedition. Shackleton’s leadership skills are revealed and displayed the crew are faced with many challenges. These challenges include the Endurance sank, to floes splitting. Then to try and reach another destination which resulted in spending days on end without sleep, to finding a place to call real land. Once they became ‘safe’ playing the waiting game
In 1913 Ernest Shackleton published in The Times newspaper an announcement in order to recruit fifty-five sailors for the Endurance expedition, which received five thousand nominations. The aim of the expedition was to reach the South Pole with two boats departing from Antarctica with two boats would travel the journey continent. El danger involved, and the ship that ran aground Shackleton was traveling between two ice for two months and ended up crack, leaving twenty crew to their fate in the inhospitable Elephant island, where nobody would save.
The new and fun addition to the genre. Magmus Chase is another great demigod story. Magmus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan is a good reading choice because of its well written story. In this the final and climatic book there is excitement, humor, and a little bit of romance. There is well written character development, and engaging conflict, and interesting dialog. It’s interesting theme, characters, and use of literary tools makes this a great read for all ages.
The going theory of the First Americans is the ever-popular land bridge hypothesis, which connected Siberia and Alaska. This is believed to have happened at least twice during the ice ages between 32,000 and 36,000 years ago and, again between 13,000 and 28,000 years ago. This repeated connection took place where the eastern and western hemispheres come the closest to one another. The best illustration that I found explaining the land bridge was the analogy made to a seesaw. On one side being the glaciers and on the other side is sea level. When the glaciers get bigger or "go up" the sea level withdraws or "goes down". Basically when all the earth's water is in the form of snow or ice sea level is lowered. At least 180 feet lower to form that Siberian land connection. Direct proof of this...
Palaeontologists and Prehistoric botanists have found traces of a leafy type plant fossilized under kilometres of Antarctic ice. Though there are some “leafy” plants that endure and survive in a dry climate as seen in the flora that inhabits the Continent of Australia, any plant cannot thrive let alone survive in an area with minimal sunlight. Scientifically scientist believe that the Antarctic was once attached to the super continent Pangea which was somewhat situated near the equator and as the tectonic plates moved it caused various landmasses to reach colder areas, Antarctica was said to have gone through
Around the time of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Europe was a place in need of inspiration. Marco Polo, a merchant, and still a simple man, was this source of inspiration. He was an ordinary boy during his childhood, living a similar life to the other boys his age. Although his intentions might not have been as significant as his impact, he was very influential. Marco Polo served as an influence to many later explorers. Whether it was through his book, The Travels of Marco Polo, which focused mainly on descriptions of spices and commercial goods and many other interesting trade items he encountered in his travels, he sparked an interest and desire of not only Europe, but later explorers as well . Marco Polo was viewed to have had definite charm and also having much capability. He has also proven that he was a tough man. This is evident because of the many voyages he survived, which included occurrences of bandit ambushes, disease, and not to mention the fatigue of the travel. There have been many who believe that Marco Polo was not intellectually equipped, meaning that he was not a very educated man, as no European probably was at the time . But as always, there is of course some speculation on the many aspects of the life of Marco Polo. Many people have their own beliefs of whom the real Marco Polo was and what he accomplished. There will be mention on some of the alleged negative, yet also positive aspects of his life. Despite all the accusations or assumptions of Marco Polo, history was affected as a result of his existence. He still remains an important figure in history.
In the excerpt “Stickeen”, John Muir describes his experience of exploring the icy region of Alaska terrain in 1880. The author talks about his perils and hardships he encountered while trekking the Alaska region. He also recounts his relationship with the four legged companion named Stickeen, who was brought along by one of the author’s companion, Rev. S.H. Young, to the expedition.
Antarctica is the coldest and remote place on earth also it's very existence was questioned by navigators for centuries even after it was discovered after 1820 , this place was also known as "A land unknown". This analytical essay will talk about the Terra Nova Expedition by Robert falcon Scott and would focus on four points which caused this expedition to fail. 20th century was the race to travel to be the first person to stand on the south pole. Scott was chosen for this task and he wanted to go on this expedition not only because he wanted to be the first but also he was a scientist ahead of his time. His purpose was to do the scintific researches on the pole. On November 19 he board the ship Terranova, he established his base camp in a hut at Cape Evans and on November 1, 1911 after a year of preparation he and his team in total of 5 men started their journey to the south pole.