«The Discovery Of Antarctica»

Terra Australis IncognitaAntarctica was discovered much later than other continents , but interest in Tatty Australis ( southern Earth) arose before our era. It is known that a certain “Antarctic region” in his writings was already mentioned by the great Aristotle, guided by the fact that the Northern Arctic lands must necessarily be balanced by the lands in the South. However, this assumption was destined to remain only an unproven theory for many centuries .

Ancient sourceWith varying accuracy, the outlines of Antarctica began to appear on maps Dating back to the 16th century ad. One of the most interesting and at the same time controversial sources is the Piri Reis map, collected by the Byzantine Admiral in pieces from maps of different eras. The map shows with high accuracy some real- life, but at that time unknown lands. For example, the discovery of the South pole depicted on the map was almost 300 years away.

Expedition Of James Cook

The expeditions of James cook, who courageously and tirelessly searched for an Unknown southern land for 7 years, showed that where the ancient maps depicted the shores of a certain Terra Australis, there is actually nothing suitable for development - only a clean ocean, ice fields and randomly scattered Islands.“The risk involved in navigating these uncharted and ice-covered seas in search of the mainland is so great that I can safely say that no man will ever venture further South than I did. Lands that may be in the South will never be explored ." (C) James Cook
The findings erased Antarctica from all maps for many years and extinguished the interest of researchers in the discovery of the sixth continent.

Lomonosov's scientific forecastHowever, even before James cook went on the first expedition to search for Antarctica, in 1763, Lomonosov's monograph "On the layers of the earth"was published . Based on the theory of the origin of icebergs , the Russian scientist claimed that the southern continent exists, and this is a very extensive territory. In modern terminology, this is called the method of scientific prediction.

The triumph of the Bellingshausen and LazarevIt is very symbolic that it was Lomonosov's compatriots who managed to prove his theory of " floating ice” and reveal to the whole world the secret called Terra Australis Incognita. On July 16, 1819, the first Russian Antarctic expedition under the command of Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev left Kronstadt, and on January 26, 1820, their vessels Vostok and Mirny reached the coast of Antarctica. Surprisingly, during the entire expedition, which lasted 751 days, the ships never lost sight of each other, which was considered a colossal achievement for that time.
It is incredible how time-consuming the task of finding the last continent was. But it is even more surprising that for the exploration and development of Antarctica, humanity will need even more time and resources.

Author: Alina Boltyshev