16 (28 NS) January 1820 the sailboats "Vostok" and "Mirny" approached the "covered with hilly ice," as Bellingshausen pointed out in his diary, the coast of Antarctica. So the last continent on Earth was discovered - the era of great geographical discoveries ended successfully.

O. Tikhomirov

Even in ancient times, people believed that in the southern polar region lies a large, unexplored land. There were legends about her. They talked about everything, but most often - about gold and diamonds, with which she is so rich. Brave sailors set off on their journey to the South Pole. In search of a mysterious land, they discovered many islands, but no one managed to see the mysterious mainland.
The famous English navigator James Cook in 1775 made a special trip to "find the mainland in the Southern Arctic Ocean", but he also retreated before the cold, squally wind and ice.
Does it really exist, this unknown land? On July 4, 1819, two Russian ships left the port of Kronstadt. On one of them - on the sloop "Vostok" - the commander was Captain Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen. The second sloop, Mirny, was commanded by Lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. Both officers, experienced and fearless sailors, by that time each had already managed to make a round-the-world trip. Now they were given a task: to get as close as possible to the South Pole, "check all the wrong things" that were indicated on the maps, and "discover unknown lands." Bellingshausen was appointed head of the expedition.
Four months later, both sloops entered the Brazilian port of Rio de Janeiro. The teams got a little respite. After the holds were replenished with water and food supplies, the ships weighed anchor and continued on their way. More and more bad weather played out. It was getting colder. There were squalls with rain. Thick fog enveloped everything around.
In order not to get lost, the ships had to not go far from one another. At night, by order of Bellingshausen, lanterns were lit on the masts. And if it happened that the sloops lost sight of each other, it was ordered to fire from the cannons.
With each passing day, "Vostok" and "Mirny" came closer and closer to the mysterious land. When the wind subsided and the sky cleared, the sailors admired the play of the sun in the blue-green waves of the ocean, watched with interest the whales, sharks and dolphins that appeared nearby and accompanied the ships for a long time. Seals began to come across on the ice floes, and then penguins - large birds that amusingly paced, stretched out in a column. It seemed that over the white robes, the penguins threw black cloaks wide open. Russian people have never seen such amazing birds. Travelers were also struck by the first iceberg - a floating ice mountain.
Having discovered several small islands and marked them on maps, the expedition headed for Sandwich Land, which was first discovered by Cook. The English navigator did not have the opportunity to explore it and believed that a large island lay in front of him. The banks of Sandwich Land were densely covered with snow. Ice floes piled up next to them. Calling these places "terrible south", the Englishman turned back. In the logbook, Cook wrote: "I take the liberty of saying that the lands that may lie in the south will never be explored."
Bellingshausen and Lazarev managed to go 37 versts further than Cook and study Sandwich Land more precisely. They found out that this is not one island, but a whole series of islands. The Englishman was mistaken: what he called headlands turned out to be in fact islands.
Making their way between the heavy ice, "Vostok" and "Mirny" at every opportunity tried to find a passage to the south. Soon, next to the sloops there were already so many icebergs that we had to maneuver every now and then, so as not to be "fragmented by these huge masses, which sometimes stretched up to 100 meters above the sea surface." This entry was made in his diary by midshipman Novosilsky.
On January 15, 1820, a Russian expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. The next day from "Mirny" and "Vostok" they saw a high strip of ice on the horizon. Sailors at first mistook them for clouds. But when the fog cleared, it became clear that the ships were facing a shore consisting of bumpy heaps of ice.
What is it? Has the mysterious Southern Continent opened before the expedition? Bellingshausen did not allow himself to draw such a conclusion. The researchers put everything they saw on the map, but again the approaching fog and snow prevented us from determining what was behind the bumpy ice. Later, many years later, this very day - January 16 - was considered the day of the discovery of Antarctica. This was also confirmed by photographs from the air: "Vostok" and "Mirny" were indeed located 20 kilometers from the sixth continent.
The Russian ships could not move even deeper to the south: solid ice blocked the way. Fog did not stop, wet snow fell continuously. And here is another misfortune: on the Mirny sloop, an ice floe pierced the skin, and a leak formed in the hold. Captain Bellingshausen decided to head to the coast of Australia and there, in Port Jackson (now Sydney), to repair the Mirny.
The repair was not easy. Because of him, the sloops stood in the Australian port for almost a month. But then the Russian ships raised their sails and saluted from their cannons and left for New Zealand to explore the tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean while winter lasted in the Southern Hemisphere.
Now the sailors were pursued not by an icy wind and a blizzard, but by the scorching rays of the sun and sweltering heat. The expedition discovered a chain of coral islands, which were named after the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812. During this voyage, the Vostok almost ran into a dangerous reef - it was immediately given the name stranded Beware.
When the ships anchored near the inhabited islands, many boats with natives rushed to the sloops. The sailors were showered with pineapples, oranges, coconuts and bananas. In exchange, the islanders received useful items for them: saws, nails, needles, dishes, fabrics, fishing tackle, in a word, everything that was necessary in the economy.
July 21 "Vostok" and "Mirny" stood off the coast of the island of Tahiti. It seemed to Russian sailors that they were in a fairy-tale world - this piece of land was so beautiful. Dark high mountains pierced their peaks into the bright blue sky. The lush coastal greenery glowed emerald against the backdrop of azure waves and golden sand. On board the "Vostok" wished to visit the king of the Tahitians Pomare. Bellingshausen graciously received him, treated him to dinner and even ordered him to fire several shots in honor of the king. Pomare was very pleased. True, with each shot he hid behind Bellingshausen's back.
Returning to Port Jackson, the sloops began to prepare for a new difficult campaign in the country of eternal cold. On October 31, they weighed anchor, heading south. Three weeks later, the ships entered the ice zone. Now Russian ships bypassed the southern polar circle from the opposite side.
"I see land!" - such a signal was received from the Mirny to the flagship on January 10, 1821. All members of the expedition poured aboard in excitement. And at this time the sun, as if wishing to congratulate the sailors, looked out for a short moment from the torn clouds. Ahead, about forty miles away, was a rocky island. The next day they approached him closer. The mountainous island rose 1300 meters above the ocean. Bellingshausen, having assembled a team, solemnly announced: "The open island will bear the name of the founder of the Russian fleet, Peter the Great." Three times "Hurrah!" rolled over the rough waves.
A week later, the expedition discovered a coast with a high mountain. Bellingshausen tried to bring the sloops to him, but an impenetrable ice field appeared in front of them. The land was called the Alexander I Coast. The waters themselves, washing this land and the island of Peter I, were later called the Bellingshausen Sea.
For more than two years, the journey of Vostok and Mirny continued. It ended in his native Kronstadt on July 24, 1821. Russian navigators traveled eighty-four thousand miles on sloops - this is more than a double journey around the globe along the equator.
The Norwegian Raoul Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole at the end of 1911. He and his expedition of several people traveled to the pole on skis and dog sleds. A month later, another expedition approached the pole. It was led by the Englishman Robert Scott. This, of course, was also a very courageous and strong-willed person. But when he saw the Norwegian flag left by Amundsen, Scott experienced a terrible shock: he was only the second! Been here before! The Englishman no longer had the strength to go back. "God Almighty, what a terrible place!"... - he wrote in his diary with a weakening hand.
But who owns the sixth continent, where valuable minerals and minerals have been found deep under the ice? Many countries claimed different parts of the mainland. The development of minerals, of course, would lead to the death of this cleanest continent on Earth. And the human mind won. Antarctica has become a world nature reserve - the "Land of Science". Now only scientists and researchers from 67 countries work here at 40 scientific stations. Their work will help to better know and understand our planet. In honor of the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev, the Russian stations in Antarctica bear the names "Vostok" and "Mirny".

Antarctica (Greek ἀνταρκτικός - the opposite of the Arctic) is the sixth, last discovered, mainland in the very south of the Earth, the center of Antarctica approximately coincides with the geographic south pole. Antarctica, together with the Antarctica region that stretches around it, is a world natural reserve.

The other day marks 190 years since the discovery of Antarctica, so we have prepared this publication so that each of us can discover a little interesting and informative about Antarctica and Antarctica.

Satellite view of Antarctica

Treaty, Protocol and Claims

According to the Antarctic Treaty of December 1, 1959, both Antarctica as a whole and the Antarctic continent itself cannot belong to any state, are used only for peaceful purposes, researchers have access to any point in Antarctica and the right to access information obtained by researchers of other countries; The "Madrid Protocol of 1991" prohibits any industrial activity and mining in Antarctica. Compliance with the provisions of the treaty and protocol is monitored by a special Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, which includes representatives of 45 states.

International Antarctic Post

True, the existence of a treaty does not mean that even the states that acceded to it have renounced their territorial claims to the continent and the adjacent space. On the contrary, the territorial claims of some countries are formidable. For example, Norway claims territory ten times its own. Great territories "declared" their Great Britain. Australia considers almost half of Antarctica to be its own, into which, however, the "French" Adélie Land is wedged. Presented territorial claims and New Zealand. Great Britain, Chile and Argentina claim practically the same territory, including the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands.

Territorial claims to Antarctica

The United States and Russia took a special position, declaring that, in principle, they could put forward their territorial claims in Antarctica, but so far they have not done so. Moreover, both states do not recognize the claims of other countries, as well as the claims of each other. Moreover, several obscure virtual states have also "registered" on the territory of Antarctica.

Russian research station "Vostok", south geomagnetic pole

Discovery of Antarctica

The shores of Antarctica without eternal ice were the first to be seen by Russian navigators, members of the expedition of F.F. Bellingshausen on January 29, 1821. Bellingshausen's travel diary for January 17 says: "At 11 o'clock in the morning we saw the coast; its cape, extending to the north, ended in a high mountain, which was separated by an isthmus from other mountains ... I call this finding the coast because the remoteness of the other end to south has disappeared beyond our sight ... A sudden change in 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. Bellingshausen gave this coast the name of the Russian emperor Alexander I. The land of Alexander I turned out to be part of the mainland Antarctica.

Land of Alexander I. Drawing from life, made by a member of the Bellingshausen expedition, artist Pavel Nikolaevich Mikhailov in January 1821.

Antarctica is the highest continent of the Earth, the average height of the surface of the continent above sea level is more than 2000 m, and in the center it reaches 4000 meters. Most of this height is the permanent ice sheet of the continent, and only 0.3% of its area is ice-free.

Ice of Antarctica

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest on our planet and exceeds the Greenland one in area by about 10 times. It contains ~30,000,000 km³ of ice, and the thickness of the ice layer reaches almost 5 kilometers in some areas of Antarctica. A feature of Antarctica is also a large area of ​​ice shelves (~10% of the area rising above sea level); these glaciers are the source of icebergs of record size. For example, in 2000, the largest iceberg to date, which was given the name B-15, broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf, with an area of ​​​​over 10 thousand km². In winter (we have summer in the Northern Hemisphere), the area of ​​sea ice around Antarctica increases to 18 million km².

Map of Antarctica

Weather in Antarctica

Antarctica has an extremely harsh cold climate. Colder - there is no place on Earth. In East Antarctica, at the Russian, then still Soviet Antarctic station Vostok - on July 21, 1983, the lowest air temperature on Earth in the entire history of meteorological measurements was recorded: 89.2 degrees below zero.

In addition to the cold pole, in Antarctica there are points of the lowest relative humidity of the air, the strongest and most prolonged wind, and the most intense solar radiation.

Another feature of Antarctica is the winds that blow only near the surface. Due to the large amount of ice dust they carry, visibility is almost zero. The strength of the wind is proportional to the steepness of the slopes of the continent and in coastal areas with a high slope towards the sea reaches hurricane values. The maximum wind strength is reached in the Antarctic winter. In addition, they blow almost continuously around the clock, and from November to March - throughout the night. Only in summer, during the daytime, due to the slight heating of the near-surface layer of air by the sun, the winds stop.

Winds of Antarctica from the air

Up to 90% of the Earth's fresh water is concentrated in the Antarctic ice. And despite the almost constant strong sub-zero temperatures, there are even lakes in Antarctica, and in the summer, rivers. The food of the rivers is glacial. Due to the intense solar radiation, due to the exceptional transparency of the air, the melting of glaciers occurs even at sub-zero temperatures. With the onset of severe frosts, the melting stops, and the deep channels of the melted streams with steep banks are covered with snow. Sometimes the channels of the streams are blocked even before the current freezes, and then the streams flow in ice tunnels, completely invisible from the surface, gradually forming lakes. They are almost always covered with a thick layer of ice. However, in summer, if the lake is not deep from the surface, along the banks and at the mouths of streams, their banks open.

Blue ice covering Lake Fryxell in the Transantarctic Mountains

In the 1990s, Russian scientists discovered the subglacial non-freezing Lake Vostok, the largest of the Antarctic lakes, having a length of 250 km and a width of 50 km, and in 2006, the second and third largest subglacial lakes were discovered, with an area of ​​2000 km² and 1600 km², respectively located at a depth of about 3 km from the surface of the continent.

In Antarctica there are peculiar glacial "swamps". They form in the summer in the lowlands. The melt water flowing into them forms a snow-water porridge, viscous, like ordinary swamps. The depth of such "bogs" is most often no more than one and a half meters. But from above they are covered with a thin ice crust, and like real swamps, they are sometimes impassable even for caterpillar vehicles: a tractor or all-terrain vehicle that has got into such a place, bogged down in a snow and water porridge, will not get out without outside help.

Dormant volcano Erebus - "Guardian of the gates of the South Pole"

Why is it necessary to study and develop Antarctica

. Antarctica is the last resource reserve of mankind, this is the last place where mankind will be able to extract minerals after its depletion on the five inhabited continents. Geologists have established that the bowels of Antarctica contain a significant amount of minerals - iron ores, coal, traces of ores of copper, nickel, lead, zinc, molybdenum were found, rock crystal, mica, and graphite were found.
. Observations of climatic and meteorological processes on the continent, which, like the Gulf Stream in the Northern Hemisphere, is a climate-forming factor for the entire Earth.
. Antarctica is up to 90% of the world's fresh water reserves.
. In Antarctica, the effects of outer space and the processes occurring in the earth's crust are being studied, which already today brings serious scientific results, informing us about what the Earth was like a hundred, thousand, hundreds of thousands of years ago. In the ice sheet of Antarctica, data on the climate and composition of the atmosphere over the past hundred thousand years were “written on ice”. The chemical composition of the various layers of ice determines the level of solar activity over the past few centuries.
. Antarctic bases, especially Russian bases, located around the entire perimeter of the continent, provide ideal opportunities for tracking seismological activity throughout the planet.
. The Antarctic bases are testing technologies that are planned to be used for the exploration, development and colonization of the Moon and Mars

Wake up anyone in the middle of the night with the question: “Who discovered America first?”, And without hesitation, they will immediately give you the correct answer, calling the name of Christopher Columbus. This is for everyone known fact, which, it would seem, no one disputes. But was Columbus the first European to set foot on a new land? Not at all. Question one: "So who?". But Columbus was called for a reason discoverer.

In contact with

How did Columbus discover

In what century did such significant changes for the world take place? The official date for the discovery of a new continent called the Americas is 1499, 15th century. At that time, speculation began to appear among the inhabitants of Europe that the earth was round. They began to think about the possibility of navigation on the Atlantic Ocean and the opening of the western route straight to the shores of Asia.

The story of how Columbus discovered America is very funny. It so happened that he randomly stumbled upon the New World, holding the way to distant India.

Christopher was an avid sailor, from a young age who managed to visit all known at that time. Carefully studying a huge number of geographical maps, Columbus planned to sail to India through the Atlantic without passing through Africa.

He, like many scientists of that time, naively believed that, having gone straight from Western Europe to the East, he would reach the shores of such Asian countries as China and India. No one could even imagine what was in his way all of a sudden. new lands will appear.

It is the day when Columbus reached the shores of the new mainland and is considered beginning of American history.

Continents discovered by Columbus

Christopher is considered the one who discovered North America. But in parallel with it, after the news of the New World spread to all countries, in the struggle for the development of the northern territories the British entered.

In total, the navigator made four expeditions. The continents that Columbus discovered: the island of Haiti or, as the traveler himself called it, Lesser Spain, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Antigua and many other territories of North America. From 1498 to 1504, during his last expeditions, the navigator already mastered lands of south america, where he reached the shores of not only Venezuela, but also Brazil. A little later, the expedition reached Central America, where the coastlines of Nicaragua and Honduras were developed, all the way to Panama.

Who else mastered America

Formally, many navigators opened America to the world in different ways. History counts many names associated with the development of the lands of the New World. The Columbus case continued:

• Alexander Mackenzie;
• William Buffin;
• Henry Hudson;
• John Davis.

Thanks to these navigators, the entire continent was explored and mastered, including Pacific coast.

Also, another discoverer of America is considered a no less famous person - Amerigo Vespucci. The Portuguese navigator went on expeditions and explored the coast of Brazil.

It was he who first suggested that Christopher Columbus sailed far not to China and India, but to previously unknown. His conjectures were confirmed by Fernand Magellan, after making the first trip around the world.

It is believed that the mainland was named precisely in honor of Vespucci, contrary to all the logic of what is happening. And today the New World is known to everyone under the name of America, and not in any other way. So who really discovered America?

Pre-Columbian expeditions to the Americas

In the legends and beliefs of the Scandinavian peoples, one can often stumble upon the mention of distant lands called Vinland located near Greenland. Historians believe that it was the Vikings who discovered America and became the first Europeans to set foot on the lands of the New World, and in their legends, Vinland is nothing more than Newfoundland.

Everyone knows how Columbus discovered America, but in fact Christopher was far away not the first navigator who visited this continent. Leif Erickson, who named one of the parts of the new continent as Vinland, cannot be called the discoverer either.

Who is considered first? Historians dare to believe that he was a merchant from distant Scandinavia - Bjarni Herjulfsson, which is mentioned in the Greenlanders' Saga. According to this literary work, in 985. he moved towards Greenland to meet his father, but lost his way due to a strong storm.

Before the discovery of America, the merchant had to sail at random, since he had not seen the lands of Greenland before and did not know a specific course. He soon reached the level shores of an unknown island covered with forests. Such a description did not fit Greenland at all, which surprised him greatly. Bjarni decided not to land and turn back.

Soon he sailed to Greenland, where he told this story to Leif Erickson, the son of the discoverer of Greenland. Exactly he became the first of the vikings who tried their luck to enter to the lands of America before Columbus, which he called Vinland.

Forced search for new lands

Important! Greenland is not the most pleasant country to live in. It is poor in resources, with a harsh climate. The possibility of resettlement at that time seemed like a pipe dream for the Vikings.

Stories about fertile lands covered with dense forests only spurred them on. Erickson gathered a small team for himself and set off on a journey in search of new territories. Leif became the one who discovered North America.

The first uncharted places they stumbled upon were rocky and mountainous. In their description today, historians see nothing more than baffin land. The subsequent coasts turned out to be low-lying, with green forests and long sandy beaches. This historians were very reminded of the description coast of the Labrador Peninsula in Canada.

On the new lands, wood was mined, which is so hard to find in Greenland. Subsequently, the Vikings founded the first two settlements in the New World, and all these territories were called Vinland.

The scientist who was nicknamed the "second Columbus"

The famous German geographer, naturalist and traveler - all this is one great man, whose name is Alexander Humboldt.

This great scientist opened America to others on the scientific side, having spent many years on research, and he was not alone. About what kind of partner he needed, Humbaldt did not hesitate for a long time and immediately made his choice in favor of Bonpland.

Humboldt and French botanist in 1799. went to scientific expedition to South America and Mexico, which lasted for five years. This journey brought scientists worldwide fame, and Humboldt himself was called the "second Columbus".

It is believed that in 1796 The scientist set himself the following tasks:

• explore little-studied areas of the globe;
• systematize all the information received;
• taking into account the results of research by other scientists, a comprehensive description of the structure of the universe.

All tasks, of course, were successfully completed. After the discovery of America as a continent, no one dared to conduct such research. Therefore, he decides to go to the least explored area - the West Indies, which allows him to achieve tremendous results. Humboldt created the first geographical maps discovered America almost simultaneously, but in world history the name of Christopher Columbus will always be the first in the list of those who mastered the territories of the New World.