![Cape adere](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Cape_adere.JPG)
Cape Adare is a prominent
cape
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck.
History
Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
of black
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
forming the northern tip of the
Adare Peninsula and the north-easternmost extremity of
Victoria Land
Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Antarctic Plateau. I ...
,
East Antarctica.
Description
Marking the north end of
Borchgrevink Coast
The Borchgrevink Coast is that portion of the coast of Victoria Land between Cape Adare and Cape Washington. The name was recommended by New Zealand Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1961 after Carsten Borchgrevink, a member of Henrik Johan Bull' ...
and the west end of
Pennell Coast
Pennell Coast is that portion of the coast of Antarctica between Cape Williams and Cape Adare. To the west of Cape Williams lies Oates Coast, and to the east and south of Cape Adare lies Borchgrevink Coast. Named by New Zealand Antarctic Place- ...
, the cape separates the
Ross Sea
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who ...
to the east from 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 ...
to the west, and is backed by the high
Admiralty Mountains
The Admiralty Mountains (alternatively Admiralty Range) is a large group of high mountains and individually named ranges and ridges in northeastern Victoria Land, Antarctica. This mountain group is bounded by the Ross Sea, the Southern Ocean, a ...
. Cape Adare was an important landing site and base camp during early
Antarctic exploration
The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term ''Antarctic'', referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Ma ...
. Off the coast to the northeast are the
Adare Seamounts and the
Adare Trough
The Adare Trough is an undersea trough name proposed by Steven C. Cande at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was named in association with the Adare Peninsula and Cape Adare
Cape Adare is a prominent cape of black basalt for ...
.
History
Captain
James Ross discovered Cape Adare in January 1841 and named it after his friend the
Viscount Adare (the title is derived from
Adare,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
).
In January 1895,
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
explorers
Henrik Bull and
Carsten Borchgrevink
Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (1 December 186421 April 1934) was an Anglo-Norwegian polar explorer and a pioneer of Antarctic travel. He inspired Sir Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and others associated with the Hero ...
from the ship ''
Antarctic'' landed at Cape Adare as the first documented landing on Antarctica, collecting
geological
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other E ...
specimens. Borchgrevink returned to the cape leading his own expedition in 1899 and erected two huts, the first human structures built in Antarctica. The expedition members overwintered and the survivors were picked up in January 1900. This was the first expedition party ever to winter over on the Antarctic continent.
Zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
Nicolai Hanson
Nicolai Hanson (24 August 1870 – 14 October 1899) was a Norwegian zoologist and Antarctic explorer. Nicolai Hanson was a member of the Southern Cross Expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink to Antarctica and he became the first person to be bur ...
died during the winter and was buried at Cape Adare.
The closest research station in modern times was
Hallett Station
Cape Hallett is a snow-free area ( Antarctic oasis) on the northern tip of the Hallett Peninsula on the Ross Sea coast of Victoria Land, East Antarctica. Cape Adare lies to the north.
History
In 1956, during Operation Deep Freeze II, was dama ...
, the joint
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
/
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
station at
Cape Hallett
Cape Hallett is a snow-free area ( Antarctic oasis) on the northern tip of the Hallett Peninsula on the Ross Sea coast of Victoria Land, East Antarctica. Cape Adare lies to the north.
History
In 1956, during Operation Deep Freeze II, was dama ...
, 63 miles (101 km) to the south. This base was in use from 1957 to 1973.
The Australian Bicentennial Antarctic Expedition set out from Cape Adare for their successful assault on
Mount Minto in 1988. The expedition's support vessel was moored to the ice shelf in the bay and maintained radio contact with the climbers during their ascent.
In February 2007, the
Japanese
whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industr ...
ship ''
Nisshin Maru
The is the primary vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet and is the world's only whaler factory ship. It was the research base ship for the Institute of Cetacean Research for 2002 to 2007. It has a tonnage of and is the largest member and flagshi ...
'' experienced a fire below decks while in the Ross Sea. The vessel drifted without power for days until its engines were repaired, raising concern due to its proximity to Cape Adare.
Historic sites and monuments
The first buildings erected by Carsten Borchgrevink at Cape Adare were prefabricated of pine by the Norwegian factory Strømmen Trævarefabrikk. These huts are still standing, and the site is recognized internationally as a significant historic site. Members of the Northern Party of
Scott's
Terra Nova Expedition
The ''Terra Nova'' Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objec ...
over-wintered at Cape Adare in 1911 and 1912. They erected one hut, which has fallen into ruin today.
As a result of initiatives by the Antarctic Heritage Trust the site (with the buildings) is registered in the Antarctic Treaty System as an
Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA 159) the highest level of protection available under the terms of the Treaty.
The remains of two Borchgrevink's Hut, as well as those of the Terra Nova Expedition's hut, have also been designated a
Historic Site or Monument (HSM 22), following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. The grave of Nicolai Hanson has been similarly but separately designated (HSM 23).
Climate
Studies suggests that Cape Adare was covered in ice during the
Last glacial period, and
deglaciated around 16.2 thousand years ago. And the results suggest that it took several thousand years until penguin colonies formed, after ice free surfaces became available.
Iceberg interactions
Submarine shoals on the narrow continental shelf to the east of Cape Adare are the site of unusually frequent submarine collisions with large current-mobilized icebergs transiting northward out of the Ross Sea. Notably, this process led to the sudden breakup of
Iceberg B15 in October 2007, as well as a number of other large icebergs. These collisions are energetic enough to be recorded by seismographs in Antarctica and the southern Pacific Ocean region.
Adélie penguins
Cape Adare is the site of the largest
Adélie penguin rookery
A rookery is a colony of breeding animals, generally gregarious birds.
Coming from the nesting habits of rooks, the term is used for corvids and the breeding grounds of colony-forming seabirds, marine mammals ( true seals and sea lions), and ...
in the world.
The only study of this particular colony was done by
George Murray Levick
George Murray Levick (3 July 1876 – 30 May 1956) was a British Antarctic explorer, naval surgeon and founder of the Public Schools Exploring Society.
Early life
Levick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the son of civil engineer George L ...
,
who was a member of the 1910–13
Scott Antarctic Expedition and observed it for an entire
breeding cycle in 1911 and 1912.
He was reluctant to publish it due to the unusual mating habits of penguins that he recorded, among them
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
,
sexual
Sex is the biological distinction of an organism between male and female.
Sex or SEX may also refer to:
Biology and behaviour
*Animal sexual behaviour
**Copulation (zoology)
**Human sexual activity
**Non-penetrative sex, or sexual outercourse
** ...
and
physical abuse
Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person or animal by way of bodily contact. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can also be victims, as in cases of domestic violence or wo ...
of chicks, and
mating with dead female penguins, nowadays ascribed to the lack of experience of young penguins.
He described it as "depraved". The report was considered too shocking for public release at the time, and was suppressed. The only copies that were made available privately to researchers were translated into
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, to prevent this knowledge becoming more widely known. After it became lost, it was rediscovered and published in the journal ''
Polar Record
''Polar Record'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of Arctic and Antarctic exploration and research. It is managed by the Scott Polar Research Institute and published by Cambridge University Press. The journal w ...
'' only in 2012. The discovery significantly illuminates the behaviour of the species that some researchers
believe to be an indicator of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
.
Important Bird Area
Over four seasons, sampled between 1981 and 2012, the Adélie colony at Cape Adare had a mean count of 227,000 breeding pairs, making it (along with that at
Cape Crozier
Cape Crozier is the most easterly point of Ross Island in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1841 during James Clark Ross's expedition of 1839 to 1843 with HMS ''Erebus'' and HMS ''Terror'', and was named after Francis Crozier, captain of HMS ' ...
) among the largest in the
Ross Sea
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who ...
. It occupies
Ridley Beach
The Adare Peninsula, sometimes called the Cape Adare Peninsula, is a high ice-covered peninsula, long, in the northeast part of Victoria Land, extending south from Cape Adare to Cape Roget. The peninsula is considered the southernmost point of t ...
and part of the western slopes of the Cape Adare peninsula. A 294 ha site encompassing the colony has been designated an
Important Bird Area by
BirdLife International. A colony of about 300 pairs of
south polar skua
The south polar skua (''Stercorarius maccormicki'') is a large seabird in the skua family, Stercorariidae. An older name for the bird is MacCormick's skua, after explorer and naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who first collected the type specimen. ...
s is also present.
In 1901,
Carsten Borchgrevink
Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink (1 December 186421 April 1934) was an Anglo-Norwegian polar explorer and a pioneer of Antarctic travel. He inspired Sir Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and others associated with the Hero ...
, part of the
British Antarctic Expedition 1898–1900
The ''Southern Cross'' Expedition, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900, was the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and the forerunner of the more celebrated journeys of Robert Falcon Sc ...
, published the book, First on the Antarctic continent. He wrote ca 1900, in the chapter dedicated to Adélie penguins:
Adélie-penguin-Cape-Verde-1899-Carsten-Borchgrevink-groups.jpg,
Adélie-penguin-Cape-Adare-Nests-colony1899-Carsten-Borchgrevink-groups.jpg, Adélie penguin colony, at their nests
See also
*
Gertrude Rock
References
External links
{{Portal bar, Birds, Geography, Earth sciences, Weather
Adare, Cape
Borchgrevink Coast
Pennell Coast
Antarctic Specially Protected Areas
Important Bird Areas of Antarctica
Penguin colonies
Historic Sites and Monuments of Antarctica
Seabird colonies