Adélie Land ( ) or Adélie Coast is a claimed territory of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

located 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 (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. 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 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

coastline all the way inland to the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

. France has administered it as one of five districts of the

French Southern and Antarctic Lands The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (, TAAF) is an overseas territory ( or ) of France. It consists of: * Adélie Land (), the French claim on the continent of Antarctica. * Crozet Islands (), a group in the southern Indian Ocean, south ...

since 1955 and applied the

Antarctic Treaty System The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. It was the first arms ...

rules since 1961. Article 4 of the Antarctic Treaty 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 9 April 1950.

Geography

Adélie Land lies between 136° E (near Pourquoi Pas Point at ) and 142° E (near Point Alden at ), with a shore length of about and with its inland part extending as a sector of a circle about toward the

. Adélie Land has borders with the Australian Antarctic Territory both on the east and on the west, namely on Clarie Land (part of Wilkes Land) in the west, and George V Land in the east. Additionally, it is the only territory claimed within

that is not an island. Its total land area, mostly covered with

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s, is estimated to be . The coast of Adélie Land is known for its katabatic winds which push snow and sea ice away from the coast. In a 1915 Science Magazine volume, it was named the "stormiest spot on the face of earth".

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 List of explorers, explorer and French Navy, naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist an ...

(1790–1842) who named it after his wife, Adèle. This is the basis of the French claim to this Antarctic land. The first French research station, Port Martin, was built in 1950. It was destroyed by a fire in 1952, and replaced by Dumont d'Urville Station in 1956. Charcot Station was a French inland base built which was occupied from 1957 to 1960. Cap Prud'Homme Camp, an Italian-French base, opened in 1994. Prud'Homme and Dumont d'Urville are the only currently remaining active stations. Reconnaissance de la Terre Adelie, le 20 Janvier 1840.jpg, Discovery by

, 1840 Roquemaurel Roches Terre Adélie MHNT MIN 2013 0 1-5.jpg, Rocks brought back by the expedition in January 1840

Research stations

Port Martin and Base Marret (1950–52)

The site of Port Martin was discovered during a French Antarctic Expedition under on 18 January 1950. Liotard, along with 11 men, established the station on 9 April 1950 at . Port Martin housed a winter population of 11 in 1950–51 and 17 in 1951–52. A crew under Mario Marret built a temporary secondary base in January 1952: Base Marret on Petrel Island. Port Martin was destroyed by a fire during the night of 23–24 January 1952. All of the inhabitants were safely evacuated, and they overwintered at Base Marret. Only the ancillary buildings of Port Martin were not destroyed by the fire and they have remained mostly untouched since.

Dumont d'Urville Station (1956–present)

The Dumont d'Urville Station is a year-round French research base located at . The station is large and houses a summer population of 120 and a winter population of around 30. It was built on 12 January 1956 for the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...

of 1957–58. Initially intended to be a temporary station, it was expanded and continually occupied. Like Base Marret, the station is located on Petrel Island, which is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the mainland. The station's research includes

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

glaciology Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or, more generally, ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clim ...

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

and more. In the documentary, '' March of the Penguins'' (2005), Dumont d'Urville Station was the main filming location.

Charcot Station (1957–60)

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 (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

of about . The station, built for the

of 1957–58, paid homage to Jean-Baptiste Charcot), and was occupied from January 1957 through 1960 housing solely three men. The base was composed of a main body of (the "barrack") which consisted of semi-cylindrical 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.

Robert Guillard Station (1994–present)

Robert Guillard Station known as Cap Prud'Homme () is an Italian-French camp, opened in 1994, located on the coast of the Antarctic ice sheet, in Adélie Land, about from Petrel Island, where the French Dumont d'Urville Station is. All the supplies and equipment for the Italian-French Concordia Station are transported by a combined convoy of up to seven

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

tractors from Cap Prud'Homme, with Kässbohrer trailblazers and a team of up to nine people; each convoy transports an average of 150 tons of payload.

Wildlife

Part of the Pointe Géologie Archipelago in Adélie Land is protected by the Antarctic Specially Protected Area 120. In 2016, a study predicted that an Adélie penguin colony located in Cape Dennison in Commonwealth Bay might be subject to extinction. In 2010, a fallen glacier blocked the flow of a river and caused sea ice to overflow to the rocky surface that Adélie penguin requires to nest. Before 2017, an estimated 18,000 pairs of Adélie penguin resided in the Adélie Land. However, in 2017, an insurgence of sea ice forced the penguins to travel further to reach the sea. Due to this, nearly all of the newborn penguins had died of starvation and exhaustion. The Dumont d'Urville Station is in proximity to Adélie penguins,

emperor penguin The emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri'') is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is Endemism in birds, endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in length and weighing fr ...

s, and seals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adelie Land France and the Antarctic French Southern and Antarctic Lands Geography of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands Lands of Antarctica Regions of Antarctica Territorial claims in Antarctica