Emilio Marcos Des Palma Morella (born 7 January 1978) is an Argentine man who was the first documented person born 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 contine ...
.
Biography
Palma was born in FortÃn Sargento Cabral at the
Esperanza Base
("Permanence, an act of sacrifice")
, pushpin_map = Antarctica
, pushpin_map_alt = Location of Esperanza Base in Antarctica
, pushpin_map_caption = Location of Esperanza Base in Antarctica
, pushpin_mapsize ...
, near the tip of the
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San MartÃn in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...
, and weighed . His father, Captain Jorge Emilio Palma, was head of the
Argentine Army
The Argentine Army ( es, Ejército Argentino, EA) is the land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander- ...
detachment at the base. While ten people have been born in Antarctica since, Palma's birthplace remains the southernmost.
In late 1977, Silvia Morella de Palma, who was then seven months pregnant, was airlifted to
Esperanza Base
("Permanence, an act of sacrifice")
, pushpin_map = Antarctica
, pushpin_map_alt = Location of Esperanza Base in Antarctica
, pushpin_map_caption = Location of Esperanza Base in Antarctica
, pushpin_mapsize ...
, in order to complete her pregnancy in the base. The airlift was a part of the Argentine solutions to the sovereignty dispute over territory in Antarctica. Emilio was automatically granted Argentine citizenship by the government since his parents were both Argentine citizens, and he was born in the claimed
Argentine Antarctica. This is a sector of Antarctica claimed by Argentina as part of its
national territory
A federal territory is an administrative division under the direct and usually exclusive jurisdiction of a federation's national government. A federal territory is a part of a federation, but not a part of any federated state. The states constit ...
, although
this claim is not internationally recognised and overlaps with
British and
Chilean claims.
He is featured in the ''
Guinness Book of Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' as the first person known to have been born on the continent.
Other births in Antarctica
of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, born in the island territory of
South Georgia
South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east†...
on 8 October 1913, was the first person born and raised in the
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
(the world region south of the
Antarctic Convergence).
[Gravminner i Norge](_blank)
DISNorge.no; retrieved 14 June 2012. The first human born in the wider Antarctic region was the
Australian James Kerguelen Robinson
James Kerguelen Robinson (11 March 1859 – 1914) was an Australian prospector who was the first person born south of the Antarctic Convergence. Robinson Pass was named after him.
Life
Robinson was born in March 1859 on the Kerguelen Islands ...
, born in the
Kerguelen Islands
The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...
on 11 March 1859.
[J. Robinson]
Appendix B: Log of the Offley.
In: ''Reminiscences''. Hobart: Archives Office of Tasmania, 1906. pp. 98-99. (Transcribed and edited by D. Cerchi.)
See also
*
Demographics of Antarctica
*
Notes
References
1978 births
Living people
People from Argentine Antarctica
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