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190 MYA
Gondwanaland breaks from Global Supercontinent Pangea and is made up of Antarctica, South America, Australia, India and Africa. |
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120 MYA
Gondwanaland breaks up into composite parts. |
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60 MYA
Antarctic Continent assumes South Polar orientation and is isolated by Southern Ocean. |
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600 BC
Ancient Greeks determine spherical shape of Earth and propose a southern landmass that would balance known landmass in Northern Hemisphere. They named this supposed continent Antarctos (meaning opposite the bear). |
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ca. 650 AD
Polynesian legend states that a Raratongan named Ui-Te-Rangiora sailed the Te-Ivi-O-Atea south to "a place of bitter cold where rock-like structures rose from a solid sea". Quite reasonably this would refer to Antarctica. |
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Dates Unknown
Legends and possible evidence of voyages by the peoples of the Fuegian Islands to the Peninsula or Peninsular Islands. |
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1603 AD
The Blijde Bootschap (Good News) a Dutch ship is taken by pirates and blown south. One captive tells of being at 64'S and seeing a bleak island. This could be a sighting of one of the South Shetland Island (unverifiable). |
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1772-1775
Captain Cook with two ships Resolution and Adventure smash the ceiling of the High Southern latitudes. On this, his second circumnavigation of the world, he becomes the first confirmed human to cross the Antarctic Circle on January 17, 1773. He repeats this accomplishment a number more times including a Southing record of 71'10''S on January 30, 1774 ( 1,130 miles from South Pole). During this three-year voyage he may have sighted the continent and does not recognizes it as such. At the end of the voyage he states, "I can be bold enough to say that no man will venture further than I have done; and that the lands which may be to the South will never be explored. A country doomed by nature never once to feel the warmth of the suns' rays, but to be buried in everlasting snow and ice." |
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1819-1821
Thaddeus von Bellingshausen sails from Russia with the Vostock and Mirnye. He completes Cooks's survey of South Georgia Island and describes what was probably the coast of Queen Maud's Land. |
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1819
On January 30, the story goes that a sealing captain, William Smith, as pilot for Edward Bransfield, a British Naval Captain, sited the peninsula from the deck of the William. |
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1822-1824
Sealing Captain James Weddell discovers the Weddell Sea and on February 20, 1823 sets an astounding record of 74'15"S with his ship the Jane. |
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1830-1832
Sealer John Biscoe goes on an harrowing and disastrous voyage for Enderby Bros. Co. of England and sights, names and roughly charts parts of "Enderbyland", named for his employer. |
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1837-1840
Dumont D'Urville sails for France with two ships the Astrolabe and Zelee. He sights and names Adelie Terre for his wife. |
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1838-1842
Charles Wilkes, an American Naval Lieutenant, heads the United States Exploring Expedition with five vessels. Despite enormous problems and setbacks he was able to accomplish the largest survey of Antarctic coastline to that time. Wilkes Land is named for him. |
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1839-1843
James Clark Ross R.N., takes two ships the Erebus and Terror and discovers the Ross Sea, the Ross Ice Barrier, Victorialand and names the volcanoes Mounts Erebus and Terror for his ships. |
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1840s
The wife of the Captain of the clipper Fleetwood is likely the first woman to pass the 60th parallel south. She was lost with all hands on this voyage. |
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1897-1899
The Belgian Antarctic Expedition led by Adrienne de Gerlache aboard the ship Belgica becomes beset in the Admundsen Sea and is the first expedition to winter over in Antarctica. |
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1897-1899
Carston Borschgrevink lands at Cape Adair in the Ross Sea. He brings ashore dogs, sleds and a hut. Although he was unable to accomplish any significant exploration, he did set up the first land base on the continent. |
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1901-1904
Robert Falcon Scott leads the British National Antarctic Expedition on the ship Discovery. After settting up a base at Hut Point in McMurdo Sound, he, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson sledged south to a record of 82'16"S. All nearly succumbed to starvation and scurvy on the return trip to base and Shackleton was invalided home on the relief ship the Morning. |
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1907-1909
Sir Ernest Shackleton leads the British Antarctic Expedition aboard the Nimrod. Over the course of two years the expedition was able to summit Mt.Erebus, reach the South Magnetic Pole (January 12, 1909) and in one of Antarctica's greatest shows of heroism, achieve a Southing record of 88'23" before turning back only 97 miles from the South Pole. Shackleton wrote,
"whatever regrets may be we have done our best." |
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1911-1912
Roald Amundsen captains the Norwegian Antarctic Expediton onboard Nansen's famous ship Fram. He leads a competing bid for the South Pole simultaneously with Robert Scott and with efficency and precision, becomes the first man to the South Pole on December 16, 1911. |
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1911-1912
Robert Falcon Scott leads his 2nd expedition to the Ross Sea on the Terra Nova. Scott and four companions reach the South Pole on January 17, 1912, about one month after Roald Admundsen. The tragic story of their return trip during which all five perished remains one of the great tales of the Heroic Age of Exploration. |
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1914-1917
Sir Ernest Shackleton heads up the British Imperial TransAntarctic Expedition on the aptly named Endurance. The goal of this project was to effect a crossing of the continent via the pole from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. The Endurance was beset in heavy pack ice early in the voyage, was subsequently crushed and sank, leaving Shackleton and his 27 companions stranded on an ice floe in the Weddell Sea. While the Expedition accomplished little in the way of Exploration, Shackleton's successful extrication of all 28 "souls intact" from the ice is a tale that forces one to re-evaluate ones concept of endurance, determination, and the indomitable Human Spirit. |
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1921-1922
The Voyage of the Quest marks the end of Sir Ernest Shackleton's polar antics as he dies on arrival at South Georgia on January 5, 1922. Leadership of the Quest is given to Frank Wild, Shackleton's long time polar companion and second in command. |
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1928
November 16, Wilkins & Eielson open the era of aerial exploration with the first Antarctic plane flight from Deception Island. |
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1928-1930
Richard Evelyn Byrd commands his first Antarctic Expedition flush with his claimed flights over the North Pole in May 1926 and June 1927. He established his base at "Little America" and accomplished his first flight on January 15, 1929 only two months after Wilkins & Eielson. During this expedition he also made the first flight to the South Pole and back in November 1929. |
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1933-1935
Richard Evelyn Byrd leads his second expedition during which he establishes the Bolling Advance Weather Station at 80,08"S and then proceeds to winter over alone at the station. See Byrd's book, "Alone" for all the amazing details. |
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1935
February 20, Caroline Mikkelsen became the first recorded woman to set foot on the continent of Antarctica. |
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1939-1941
Byrd's USAS expedition. This is the first U.S. sponsored Antarctic Expedition since Wilkes in 1839-1842. It marks the start of American Naval interest in Antarctic exploration and science. |
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1943
British Military Expedition operation "Tabarin" is carried out during WWII. This leads to the stablishment of the Falkland Islands Dependecy Survey (F.I.D.S.) |
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1945
Operation Tabarin is organized into F.I.D.S. or Falkland Islands Dependency Survey. The operation was carried out by the British Governments Antarctic Branch until 1962 when it evolved into the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). |
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1957-1958
July 1, 1957 - December 31, 1958. This one and a half year period marks the historical delineation of modern Antarctic scientific co-operation. It was determined that the world should co-operate in its' endeavours for scientific understanding of the seventh continent and put off all grievances over conflicting and ambiguous territorial claims. Sixty-seven countries participated in ambitious scientific projects all over the continent, and twelve major countries set up networks of scientific bases. The International Geophysical Year (IGY) is also notable as the forefather of the Antarctic Treaty Organization, the international governing body of Antarctic Science and Conservation. |
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1957-1958
Sir Vivian Fuchs leads the British Commonwealth TransAntarctic Expedition, the first to cross the continent by land. |
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1958
On May 2, 1958, Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes a treaty under which the co-operative and scientific focus of Antarctic activity would be continued after the IGY, and on December 1, 1959, it is ratified by the 12 nations with active scientific programs and suspended territorial claims (Great Britian, USA, USSR, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Japan, Belgium, and France). On June 23, 1961 it was brought into full force for an agreed 30 years. In 1991 it's spirit was continued in the Madrid Protocol (Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty).
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1968
Lars Eric Lindblad uses the Argentine ship Aquiles and begins Antarctic Tourism. |
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1969-1970
As part of Operation Deep Freeze, Dr. Lois Jones leads the first all female expedition, a geological team investigating the dry valleys. Dr. Lois Jones also became the first woman to stand at the Pole. |
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1978
January 7, Emilio Marcos de Palma born at Esperanza Base Argentina. |
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1981
BAS scientist notices hole in ozone layer in Austral Spring. The hole was confirmed by satellite imagery and has been getting steadily larger with each passing year since. |
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1982
April 2, war comes to the Antarctic in the form of an Argentine Ocuupation force that took the Falkland Islands and South Georgia by force and were expelled by British Forces eleven weeks later at the cost of 910 lives. |
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1991
The Antarctic Treaty is amended by the Madrid Protocol placing a 50-year moratorium on mineral exploration and territorial claims among other things. |
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1991-1999
Antarctic Tourism evolves into a structured and controlled industry with the creation of the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) |
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2000
Fathom Expeditions purifies the Antarctic experience for the modern Polar Explorer.
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