Emilio Marcos de Palma Morella (born 7 January 1978) is an Argentine man who was the first 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 (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
.
Biography
Palma was born in
Fortín Sargento Cabral at the
Esperanza Base, near the tip of the
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin 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 Antarctica.
...
, and weighed . His father, Captain Jorge Emilio Palma, was head of the
Argentine Army
The Argentine Army () is the Army, 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-in-chief of the Armed For ...
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, 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
Argentine Antarctica ( or ) is an area on Antarctica claimed by Argentina as part of its national territory. It consists of the Antarctic Peninsula and a triangular section extending to the South Pole, delimited by the 25th meridian west, 25 ...
. This is a sector of Antarctica claimed by Argentina as part of its
national territory.
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 British reference book published annually, listi ...
'' as the first person born on the continent.
See also
*
Demographics of Antarctica
*
Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen
Notes
References
1978 births
Living people
People from Argentine Antarctica
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