The first real expeditions to the South Pole didn’t take place until the end of the 19th century and England’s National Antarctic Expedition was first organized in 1900. It was one of these sealing parties that first sighted the actual Antarctic continent in 1820. Hunters continued to venture south, eventually landing on the sub-antarctic islands where they hunted seals for skins and oil. Cook was fated never to see the continent itself, although he reached the Antarctic Circle in 17. So who’s in charge in Antarctica? And why does it matter?įrom the time James Cook left Plymouth, England in 1772 with secret orders from the British Admiralty to find the Southern Continent, people have been fascinated with Antarctica. In sum, it’s the highest, driest, windiest, coldest continent on the face of the Earth. For six months of the year, the sun doesn’t even rise above the horizon. It’s technically owned by no one and is not open to mineral or oil exploration-at least not yet. The land mass is covered with a sheet of ice more than a mile deep. Antarctica is 5.5 million square miles of frozen, inhospitable, uninhabited wasteland.
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