Territorial division of Antarctica

Quadrants

98% of the surface of Antarctica ^[7] is covered by an ice sheet visually hiding the features of the relief, to which it would be possible to “tie” the division of the territory into sections, so from the beginning of the last century, cartographers took the south pole , located approximately in the center of the continent, as the “starting point” and divided its entire surface into four quarters - a quadrant ^{[8] [9]} :

• Enderby Quadrant ( Gauss ), or African Quadrant - from 0 ° to 90 ° in. d.
• Victoria Quadrant, or Australian Quadrant - 90 ° to 180 ° in. d.
• The Ross Quadrant, or Pacific Quadrant - from 180 ° in. d. up to 90 ° C. d.
• Weddell Quadrant, or American Quadrant - from 90 ° to 0 ° C. d.

They were called either by the large, most significant object inside each ( Enderby Land , Victoria Land , Ross Sea, Weddell Sea ), or by the object that each of the quadrants “looks at” (that is, for example, the African quadrant lies opposite to Africa and t . d.).

Later, when the inner parts of the mainland were sufficiently investigated, it turned out that the two most protruding deep into the Antarctic seas - Weddell and Ross - connect the Transantarctic mountains . This mountain system , therefore, divides its surface in two into vast East Antarctica and a smaller West Antarctica .

The eastern part occupies about half the Weddell quadrant, as well as the Enderby and Victoria quadrants in full. The western one is the Ross quadrant and the remaining half of the Weddell quadrant.

Land and Coast

At the same time, as more and more sections of the Antarctic land were discovered, a system was formed for the geographical division of the continent into “Zemlya”, their coastal parts into “Shores,” and the waters of the Southern Ocean washing these shores into seas. As a rule, these objects were named on the initiative of the expeditions that investigated them in honor of someone.

The terms "Earth" and "Beach" have taken root and continue to be applied even after the idea of ​​the mainland has already developed. True, if the longitude boundaries of the Shores are clearly defined, the boundaries of the Earths do not have such quality and are still not given on geographical maps ^[10] . Thus, the size of a given Earth can only be guessed by the location and size of the size of the font of the letters of the corresponding inscription of its name on the map, and in different sources, even issued by the same country and / or at the same time, this can be given in different ways ^{[11 ]} .

The names of the Lands and Shores are divided into four main groups ^[12] . First of all, these are the names of discoverers, polar explorers. The second group is the names in honor of the heads of companies, industrialists and philanthropists who financed their expeditions . The third group is the names in honor of the rulers and senior officials of countries whose citizens were researchers. The fourth group combines the names given by the discoverers in honor of their near and dear ones. There are also names assigned for various other reasons ^[12] .

Most of the toponyms were assigned to the corresponding objects at the time of their discovery, the peak of the latter occurred in the first decades of the 20th century . However, there are also those for which the place was cut out on the map by the specialized structures of various states later, retroactively, and which got their names sometimes many years later as a tribute to one or another significant personalities and events of the past. By the names it is often possible to determine the representatives of which country investigated a particular area ^[12] . Here is a complete hierarchical list of Lands and Shores indicating the years the names appeared on the map:

Glaciers

Since the relief of Antarctica, unlike other continents, has two “floors” located one above the other, layer ^[12] - an ice dome and an ice bed of volcanic and sedimentary rocks - when drawing on maps, you have to make a choice between them. On the one hand, it’s more logical to base territorial division on what can be observed visually on the surface, on the other hand, ice is much more plastic than stone, it moves non-uniformly, only partially conforming to the topography of the bed, and with different speed: if the speed of movement in the region of the pole ice is approximately 20 m / year; as it approaches the coast, it increases to 1.5 km / year or more ^[12] . By its properties, the Antarctic desert , thus, resembles an ordinary desert with sand dunes .

In addition, ice shelves are melting. So, in 1995, the Larsen A glacier broke away from the main massif of the Larsen glacier, and in 2002 an iceberg with an area of ​​over 3250 km² and a thickness of 220 m, which actually means the destruction of the glacier. The latter took only 35 days, before this ice shelf (now only a third of Larsen S has remained from it) has been stable since the end of the ice age ^[14] . As a result: maps of the surface of Antarctica, especially its coastline, should be reissued annually - and they would be different.

Therefore, cartographers are usually based on a more stable ice box. Out of ≈14.1 million km² ^{[3] of the} surface of Antarctica, its ice shelves occupy a total of about 1.5 million km² ^[12] . At present, there is no expert consensus whether to include the areas occupied by these glaciers in the composition of the Lands and Shores ^[10] , or to consider them from the point of view of the territorial division of the continent as separate, special entities ^[12] - cartographers act differently. Because of this, on the part of the geographical maps of the continent, for example, the shores of the Ross Sea coast are hidden, since their place is occupied by the Ross ice shelf .

An additional complication of the classification of ice shelves is the fact that 55% of the coastline of Antarctica ends in a glacier, the front of which is afloat, which is approximately 16 thousand km. On the remaining 11 thousand km, the glacial cliff lies on the ground ^[12] . That is, it is not entirely clear whether the ice shelf can be considered just part of the land.

Seas

All the seas of the Southern Ocean washing Antarctica, except for the Skosha and Weddell seas, are marginal . In the tradition accepted in most countries, they divide its coast into sectors as follows ^[12] :

Upon returning to St. Petersburg of the Russian navigator Otto Kotzebue from circumnavigation in 1818, Count Nikolai Rumyantsev , who sponsored this expedition, stated ^[1] in an interview with Emperor Alexander I :

Now the geographic world is preoccupied with two questions: is there a strait in the north between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic and is there a mainland at the south pole.

Recognition

But even after the discovery of Antarctica, the realization that it was the mainland was far from immediately. Characteristically, even 50 years after this, Jules Verne wrote the novel “ Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, ” where the heroes reach the South Pole in a submarine , and the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary stated in volume 1904 of XXIVa:

The very existence of such a vast continent has not yet been proved ... The southern P [polar] continent and its neighboring islands have so far been studied in only a few places. [...] All this together indicates the existence of the sixth continent near the south pole, and not several oceanic islands connected by ice, as others still think.

An additional difficulty for geographers in recognizing the presence of the sixth continent was the fact that for this it was necessary to put their authority in contrast to the authority of one of the recognized world-class experts - the British navigator James Cook , who devoted a significant part of his life to the stubborn searches of an unknown land ^[15] . On January 30, 1774, he crossed the Southern Arctic Circle , for the first time reaching as much as 71 ° 10 'S. sh., that is, almost coming very close to Antarctica (but not knowing about it), however, even this time the difficult conditions forced him to turn north. On his return from sailing, he bitterly stated ^[15] :

I went around the ocean of the southern hemisphere at high latitudes and did it in such a way that I undeniably rejected the possibility of the continent, which, if it can be detected, is only near the pole, in places inaccessible to swimming ... The risk associated with swimming in these unexplored and covered the ice of the seas in search of the southern mainland, is so great that I can safely say that no man ever dares to penetrate south further than I managed. Lands that may be in the south will never be explored.

Thus, if on the ancient and medieval geographic maps the Unknown South Land looked like a vast flowering continent, occupying almost a quarter of the world, then after Cook's statement the polar continent was completely deprived of drawing ocean waters to the very pole ^[15] . Here is one of these 1818 maps. Much later, evaluating the contribution of the discoverer of Antarctica, the head of the First Russian Antarctic expedition, Admiral Thaddeus Bellingshausen , the famous German cartographer August Peterman noted ^[15] :

Most importantly, he [Bellingshausen] fearlessly went against the above decision Cook, who reigned in all his strength for 50 years and managed to firmly take root.

Mastering

The process of detecting and naming various Antarctic territories was gradual and fragmented ^[16] ; it can be tracked by the corresponding geographical maps. So, already by 1872 it was possible to find Graham Land, Victoria Land, Enderby Land on them. Two decades later, the Land of Alexander I, the Kemp Coast, the shores of the current Wilkes Land were added to them. After another 20 years - the Land of Cotes, the Land of William II, the Land of Edward VII. By 1938, only future Mary Baird Land and Elsuert Land, as well as the interior of Antarctica, remained white spots.

•  

  1872

•  

  1891

•  

  1912

•  

  1938

Significant adjustments occurred in the future. So, until the 1940s, the world research community did not know that the Land of Alexander I was an island ^[17] , and the Antarctic Peninsula was not a group of islands, but a peninsula ^{[15] [18]} . The final shape of the mainland, its ice shelves and adjacent islands and seas, thanks to aerial photography and information from the first Soviet and American orbiting satellites , became clear only by the end of the 1950s , which was especially promoted by the International Geophysical Year (IGY) ^[16] , which combined in 1957-1958 scientific observations and studies of 67 countries of the world, performed according to a single program and methodology within the framework of the Third International Polar Year

Ghostlands

Often, densely closed ice, thick fogs and snowstorms did not allow the discoverers to approach the first sighted land or to travel a considerable distance along the sea along it to determine its size. What originally seemed a cape or an island could in reality be part of a vast land - or vice versa ^[16] . Therefore, naming the open land “Earth” or “Shore” made practical sense: the discoverer thus signified what he saw.

At the same time, some of the lands observed by sailors later did not find their confirmation at all, sometimes turning out to be trivial clusters of icebergs, or even simply mirages. So, in the future, the existence of the Morell Land discovered by Benjamin Morell , discovered by Roald Amundsen of the Carmen Land ^[16] , as well as several subantarctic and Antarctic archipelagos and islands (see Aurora , Thompson , Dowerty , Emerald, and others) did not find confirmation.

Sometimes it happened that the discovered objects turned out to be really existing, and their names were completely recognized, but in the future the international community refused them for various reasons. So, for example, the 1904 Antarctic map from the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary shows the sea ​​of George IV (named by whaler James Weddell who discovered it, now the sea bears the name of the navigator), and Northern Earth and The land of Louis Philippe , which can not be found on the current maps of the Antarctic. In the Soviet Atlas of the 1938 Red Army commander, publications noted the toponyms that later disappeared from the maps, the names of the Land of Hearst, the Northern Highland, the Land of the Admiralty and the ghostly Land of Carmen. Etc.

Regulation

In 1953, the International Hydrographic Organization adopted the third edition of the resolution “Borders of the Oceans and Seas” ^[19] , where it tried to lead to a common denominator, including marine toponymy of southern latitudes, adopted on maps of various powers. Of course, this document is de facto outdated, although it formally continues to be valid until now, since the adjustments collected from member countries in 2002 ^{[20] are} so far only in the status of wishes.

Despite the impressive international cooperation of the mid-20th century , the peak of which was the signing in 1959 and the subsequent ratification in 1961 of the Antarctic Treaty , which froze ^{[1] the} territorial and political claims ^{[4] of the} countries of the world on any territory of the Antarctic region of the planet south of 60 ° S. sh., to date, a unified algorithm for the approval of toponyms of Antarctica has not been developed.

In February 1958, in order to continue scientific cooperation after the IGY, the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research NKAI) was formed at the International Council for Science , whose field of activity is ^[21] , including the standardization of the toponymy of the region. The activities of the respective national organizations are usually coordinated both within the framework of this committee and among themselves on a bilateral basis - although the final decisions are not binding on the affected countries, because the NCAI is a public and not a state organization. In addition, since 1959, the United Nations Economic and Social Council Statistical Commission has operated the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names , but there is no Antarctic Division in this group.

Since the Antarctic Treaty’s territorial claims were only indefinitely frozen ^[1] and not eliminated as such ^[4] , seven states still believe that they own ^{[7] the} following sectors of Antarctica:

•   Australia - between 45 ° and 136 ° in. d., and also between 142 ° and 160 ° in. d .;
•   Argentina - between 25 ° and 74 ° W. d .;
•   Great Britain - between 20 ° and 80 ° W. d .;
•   New Zealand - between 160 ° in. D. and 150 ° C. d .;
•   Norway - between 20 ° W d. and 45 ° c. d. and also about. Peter I ;
•   France - between 136 ° and 142 ° in. d .;
•   Chile - between 53 ° and 90 ° W. d .

At the same time, the British, Argentinean and Chilean sectors partially overlap ^[22] with each other, Russia and the USA officially reserve the right to put forward their claims ^[22] , and a number of countries claimed ( Third Reich ^[22] , South Africa ^[23] , Japan ^[22] ) or pretend ( Brazil , Ecuador , Peru , etc.) to various sectors unofficially ^[22] - and their sectors also creep into existing official ones.

The current situation indirectly affects toponymy: countries claiming any territory of Antarctica are trying to “equip” them, including “their” place names, this is clearly seen from the table above . In fact, names of geographical objects in Antarctica are assigned by authorized national organizations in an explicit order, and the corresponding structures of other states are thus faced with a dilemma whether to agree or not.

As a rule, such agreement is achieved if political propaganda considerations do not interfere, in particular, explicitly affirming the priority of a state on the territory. See also: Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica .

Disagreements

For example, only in 1964 did the British and American geographical names committees agree to name the continent’s largest peninsula the Antarctic Peninsula, its southern part Palmer Land and the northern Graham Land ^[16] . Previously, the British called it all Graham Land, and the Americans called Palmer Land. At the same time, the Spanish-speaking countries of these names still do not recognize in principle, Chile officially calls the peninsula the Land of O'Higgins , and Argentina - the Land of San Martin ^{[24] [25]} .

Until now, on the maps of Antarctica published outside the USSR / Russia, the Coast of Truth has not been marked ^[26] (it was named after the newspaper Pravda ). At the same time, Russian maps do not know Kemp Land - only Kemp Coast as part of the coast of Enderby Land ^[10] . Most of the maps of Antarctica are also unknown to the King Haakon VII Sea , washing ^[26] , according to Norway, its Antarctic sector, in its place usually show the Lazarev and Riser-Larsen seas. Similarly, Argentina considers the northern part of the Scotia Sea to be the waters of the Argentine Sea ^[27] . In the United States (including the Atlas of the World of the National Geographic Society ) and Great Britain (including the Times Atlas of the World ), detailed maps of Antarctica are published, where several “Soviet” seas — Cosmonauts, the Commonwealth, Somov — are ignored at once ^[26] . Etc.

In December 2012, during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to the British Foreign Office, Queen Elizabeth’s Land ^[28] , the interior of British Antarctic Territory, was named to mark her 60-year throne. Thus, in different places of Antarctica now there are two Parallel Lands, named after the same person - the Land of Princess Elizabeth and the Land of Queen Elizabeth. Both of them are indicated on all British maps ^[29] , despite protests from Argentina ^[30] , which also claims, in the second case, the corresponding sector.

However, in most cases, the specialized structures of various states manage to come to a consensus. So, in 1947, an expedition of the Norwegian Finn Ronne to the Weddell Sea discovered the Lessiter ice shelf. The proposed area beyond the glacier (now known as Queen Elizabeth’s Land), at the suggestion of Chile, was named the Land of Edith Ronne in honor of the wife of the expedition leader. Later it turned out that the glacier is much larger than expected, and in 1968, on the initiative of the United States, the aforementioned Earth was renamed the Ronne ice shelf ^[31] .

The resolution of all these problems, the delimitation of geographical areas in the Antarctic, the standardization and mutual recognition by all parties of the Antarctic toponymy are a matter of the future.

• Unknown Southern Land
• Heroic Age of Antarctic Research
• List of Antarctic Islands
• List of Antarctica Rivers
• Ice lakes of Antarctica

• Gusev, A. From Elbrus to Antarctica. - M .: Soviet Russia, 1985 .-- 235 p.
• Dubrovin, L. Man on the icy continent. - L .: Gidrometizdat, 1976 .-- 158 p.
• Markov, K .; Bardin, B .; Lebedev, B .; Orlov, A .; Suetova, I. Geography of Antarctica. - M .: Thought, 1968.
• Ore, A. The phenomenon of Antarctica. - Tomsk: STT, 1999 .-- 128 s.
• Slevich, S. Antarctica in the modern world. - M .: Thought, 1985 .-- 222 p.
• Treshnikov, A. The history of the discovery and exploration of Antarctica . - M .: Geografgiz , 1963 .-- 430 p. Archived February 22, 2014 on Wayback Machine

• Map of Antarctica from the Rubricon Encyclopedia
• Map of Antarctica from the book of L. Dubrovin and M. Preobrazhenskaya “ What the Antarctic Map says ” ( L .: Gidrometeoizdat, 1987)
• Popov, N. The duality of our position in the Arctic is beneficial to the United States . - “ Sight ”, September 28, 2015.