Adélie Land (french: Terre Adélie, ) is a
claimed territory on the continent of
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
. It stretches from a portion of the
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
coastline all the way inland to the
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...
.
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
has administered it as one of five districts of the
French Southern and Antarctic Lands since 1955 and applied the
Antarctic Treaty System rules since 1961. Article 4 deals with territorial claims, and although it does not renounce or diminish any preexisting claims to sovereignty, it also does not prejudice the position of Contracting Parties in their recognition or non-recognition of territorial sovereignty. France has had a permanent station in Adélie Land since April 9, 1950. The current
Dumont d'Urville Station
The Dumont d'Urville Station (french: Base antarctique Dumont-d'Urville) is a French scientific station in Antarctica on Île des Pétrels, archipelago of Pointe-Géologie in Adélie Land. It is named after explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, wh ...
has a winter population around 25, but this goes up to about 78 during the Antarctic summer. A species of penguin, the
Adélie penguin, is named after it.
Geography
Adélie Land lies between
136° E (near
Pourquoi Pas Point at ) and
142° E (near
Point Alden
Point Alden is an ice-covered point in Antarctica with rock exposures along the seaward side. The point marks the western side of the entrance to Commonwealth Bay and the division between Adélie Land, Adélie Coast and George V Coast in Antarctic ...
at ), with a shore length of about and with its inland part extending as a
sector of a circle about toward the
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...
. Adélie Land has borders with the
Australian Antarctic Territory
The Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) is a part of East Antarctica claimed by Australia as an external territory. It is administered by the Australian Antarctic Division, an agency of the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the En ...
both on the east and on the west, namely on
Clarie Land (part of
Wilkes Land
Wilkes Land is a large district of land in eastern Antarctica, formally claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, though the validity of this claim has been placed for the period of the operation of the Antarctic Treaty ...
) in the west, and
George V Land in the east. Its total land area, mostly covered with
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
s, is estimated to be .
History
The coast of Adélie Land was discovered in January 1840 by the French explorer
Jules Dumont d'Urville
Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842) was a French explorer and naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. As a botanist and cartographer, he gave his nam ...
(1790–1842) who named it after his wife,
Adèle. This is the basis of the French claim to this Antarctic land.
Image Gallery
Atlas pittoresque pl 169.jpg, Discovery by Jules Dumont d'Urville
Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (; 23 May 1790 – 8 May 1842) was a French explorer and naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. As a botanist and cartographer, he gave his nam ...
, 1840
Roquemaurel Roches Terre Adélie MHNT MIN 2013 0 1-5.jpg, Rocks brought back by the expedition in January 1840)
Research stations
Dumont d'Urville Station
Since January 12, 1956, a staffed French research base has been located year-round at , the
Dumont d'Urville Station
The Dumont d'Urville Station (french: Base antarctique Dumont-d'Urville) is a French scientific station in Antarctica on Île des Pétrels, archipelago of Pointe-Géologie in Adélie Land. It is named after explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, wh ...
, with a winter population around 25, but this goes up to about 78 during the Antarctic summer.
Port Martin
The first French station,
Port Martin
Port Martin, or Port-Martin, is an abandoned French research base at Cape Margerie on the coast of Adélie Land, Antarctica, as well as the name of the adjacent anchorage.
History
The site was discovered in 1950 by the French Antarctic Expeditio ...
, was built April 9, 1950, at , but it was destroyed by a fire during the night of January 22–23, 1952. Port Martin housed a winter population of 11 in 1950–51 and 17 in 1951–52.
Charcot Station
Charcot Station () was a French inland base located on the
Antarctic ice sheet at from the coast and from Dumont d'Urville Station, at an
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...
of about . The station, built for the
International Geophysical Year of 1957–58, paid homage to
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
Jean-Baptiste-Étienne-Auguste Charcot (15 July 1867 – 16 September 1936), born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a French scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. His father was the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893).
Life
Jean- ...
), and was occupied from January 1957 through 1960 housing alone three men.
The base was composed of a main body of 24
square metres (the "barrack") which consisted of semicylindrical sections of sheet metal assembled end to end. This form was planned to best withstand the snow pressure accumulated on it. Horizontal galleries were connected to house scientific measurement devices, while a vertical air conduit opened a few metres above the snow level provided ventilation.
Cap Prud'Homme Camp
Cap Prud'Homme () is an Italian-French camp, opened in 1994, located on the coast of the
Antarctic ice sheet, in Adélie Land, about 5 km from
Petrel Island, where the French Dumont d'Urville Station is. All the supplies and equipment for the Italian-French
Concordia Station
Concordia Research Station, which opened in 2005, is a French–Italian research facility that was built above sea level at a location called Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica. It is located inland from the French research station a ...
are transported by a combined convoy of up to 7
Caterpillar tractors from Cap Prud'Homme, with
Kässbohrer trailblazers and a team of up to 9 people; each convoy transports an average of 150 tons of payload.
In popular culture
* The Dumont d'Urville research station was the filming location of the documentary ''
March of the Penguins
''March of the Penguins'' (French ''La Marche de l'empereur'' ; ) is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The documentary dep ...
'' (2005).
See also
*
Adelie Land Meteorite
Adelie Land is a meteorite discovered on December 5, 1912, in Antarctica by Francis Howard Bickerton (1889-1954), a member of Sir Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition. It was named after Adélie Land and it was the first meteorite ...
*
Adélie Valley
*
Research stations in Antarctica
Multiple governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rock ...
*
Antarctic field camps
Many Antarctic research stations support satellite field camps which are, in general, seasonal camps. The type of field camp can vary – some are permanent structures used during the annual Antarctic summer, whereas others are little more than te ...
References
External links
Discover France - French Colonies - TERRE ADÉLIE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adelie Land
France and the Antarctic
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Regions of Antarctica
Lands of Antarctica
Territorial claims in Antarctica
Geography of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands