Antarctica

Speculation over the existence of a “southern land” was not confirmed until the early 1820s when British and American commercial operators and British and Russian national expeditions began exploring the Antarctic Peninsula region and other areas south of the Antarctic Circle. Not until 1840 was it established that Antarctica was indeed a continent and not just a group of islands. Several exploration “firsts” were achieved in the early 20th century. Following World War II, there was an upsurge in scientific research on the continent. A number of countries have set up a range of year-round and seasonal stations, camps, and refuges to support scientific research in Antarctica. Seven have made territorial claims, but not all countries recognize these claims. In order to form a legal framework for the activities of nations on the continent, an Antarctic Treaty was negotiated that neither denies nor gives recognition to existing territorial claims; signed in 1959, it entered into force in 1961.

If I can find the time, I will research and write an article about Antarctica, focusing on it from this website’s perspective. With nearly two dozen websites to develop, I’m simply overwhelmed. But now that I’ve completed a major upgrade (May 2009) of most of my websites, I’m once again focusing on content, attacking it witih a combination of articles, databases and blogs.

In the meantime, if you can’t find whatever you’re looking for here, you might click the Regions and/or Children tabs above (if any) and explore some of those links. Note, also, the WebRing links near the bottom of the page.

Finally, you can try my new, improved and expanded search pages, where you can search this website, a combination of sites or the entire web. (See the Search link at the top of the page.)

Good general references include Wikipedia > Antarctica. For current events, try Google News > Antarctica. (However, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the corporate media, particularly on socio-political issues.)

Thanks for bearing with me, and please check back now and then. :)

David Blomstrom -- May 7, 2009

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