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The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic , referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle , was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
A speculative representation of Antarctica labelled as ' Terra Australis Incognita ' on Jan Janssonius's Zeekaart van het Zuidpoolgebied (1657), Het Scheepvaartmuseum The name given to the continent originates from the word antarctic, which comes from Middle French antartique or antarctique (' opposite to the Arctic ') and, in turn, the Latin antarcticus (' opposite to the north ').
Expeditions in Antarctica before the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, 1897. 1780s to 1839 – American and British whalers and sealers make incidental discoveries. 1819 – William Smith discovers South Shetland Islands), the first land discovered south of 60° south latitude
The first recorded sighting of Antarctica is credited to the Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla, who reported seeing distant southern snow-capped mountains in 1603. The first Antarctic land discovered was the island of South Georgia, visited by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675.
This is a list of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands. Antarctic islands are, in the strict sense, the islands around mainland Antarctica, situated on the Antarctic Plate, and south of the Antarctic Convergence. According to the terms of the Antarctic Treaty, claims to sovereignty over lands south of 60° S are not asserted. [1]
Left to right: Roald Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel and Oscar Wisting after first reaching the South Pole on 16 December 1911. The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often cited by historians ...
The islands were discovered by British mariner William Smith, in William, in 1819.Although Dutch mariner Dirck Gerritsz in 1599 or Spanish Admiral Gabriel de Castilla in 1603 might have sighted the South Shetlands, or North or South American sealers might have visited the archipelago before Smith, historical evidence is insufficient to sustain such assertions.
The territory includes the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, and the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands in the southern Indian Ocean near 43°S, 67°E, along with Adélie Land, the sector of Antarctica claimed by France. Adélie Land, named by the French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville after his wife, covers about 432,000 km 2 (167,000 sq mi).