Palmer Archipelago , also known as Antarctic Archipelago , Archipiélago Palmer , Antarktiske Arkipel or Palmer Inseln , is a group of islands off the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula . It extends from Tower Island in the north to Anvers Island in the south. It is separated by the Gerlache and Bismarck straits from the Antarctic Peninsula and Wilhelm Archipelago , respectively. The archipelago is in the British , Chilean , and Argentine Claims .
18-973: Palmer Archipelago is located at 64°15′S 62°50′W / 64.250°S 62.833°W / -64.250; -62.833 . Adrien de Gerlache , leader of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–1899), discovered the archipelago in 1898. He named it Archipelago Palmer for American Captain Nathaniel Palmer , who navigated these waters in 1820. Both Argentina and the United Kingdom have operated research stations there. The archipelago includes: [REDACTED] Media related to Palmer Archipelago at Wikimedia Commons Adrien de Gerlache Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery FRSGS ( French pronunciation: [adʁijɛ̃ viktɔʁ ʒozɛf də ʒɛʁlaʃ də ɡɔmʁi] ; 2 August 1866 – 4 December 1934)
36-537: A seasonal basis. In previous centuries some semi-permanent whaling stations were established on the continent, and some whalers would live there for a year or more. At least eleven children have been born in Antarctica, albeit in stations north of the Antarctic Circle. Download coordinates as: The circumference of the Antarctic Circle is roughly 16,000 kilometres (9,900 mi). The area south of
54-756: A trip to Constantinople and the Black Sea , he worked for the Holland-America Line as fourth officer, before obtaining an appointment as lieutenant in the Belgian Navy. Until July 1894 he was an officer on Ostend-Dover ferries, meanwhile taking courses and becoming a captain on 22 August 1894. Frustrated by the monotonous work aboard the Ostend-Dover ferries, de Gerlache offered his services to Belgian King Leopold II and Welsh-American adventurer Henry Morton Stanley , for an expedition to
72-575: Is often no direct view of the true horizon. Mirages on the Antarctic continent tend to be even more spectacular than in Arctic regions, creating, for example, a series of apparent sunsets and sunrises while in reality the sun remains below the horizon. There is no permanent human population south of the Antarctic Circle, but there are several research stations in Antarctica operated by various nations that are inhabited by teams of scientists who rotate on
90-797: The Congo , but the offer was turned down. A letter to polar explorer Otto Nordenskiöld went unanswered. Finally he started planning and promoting his own Antarctic expedition, proposing his plan in 1894 to the Belgian Royal Geographical Society . In 1896, de Gerlache purchased the Norwegian -built whaling ship Patria , which he extensively refitted and renamed Belgica . With a multinational crew including Roald Amundsen , Frederick Cook , Antoni Bolesław Dobrowolski , Henryk Arctowski and Emil Racoviță , he set sail from Antwerp on 16 August 1897. The Belgica reached
108-689: The Northern Hemisphere , the Arctic Circle . The position of the Antarctic Circle is not fixed and currently runs 66°33′50.2″ south of the Equator . This figure may be slightly inaccurate because it does not allow for the effects of astronomical nutation , which can be up to 10″. Its latitude depends on the Earth's axial tilt , which fluctuates within a margin of more than 2° over a 41,000-year period, due to tidal forces resulting from
126-519: The de Gerlache seamounts , as well as Pic de Gerlache in Greenland and de Gerlache crater , near the lunar south pole . One of Antwerp 's quays is named De Gerlachekaai. Antarctic Circle The Antarctic Circle is the most southerly of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of Earth . The region south of this circle is known as the Antarctic , and the zone immediately to
144-529: The orbit of the Moon . Consequently, the Antarctic Circle is currently drifting southwards at a speed of about 14.5 m (48 ft) per year. The Antarctic Circle is the northernmost latitude in the Southern Hemisphere at which the centre of the sun can remain continuously above the horizon for twenty-four hours; as a result, at least once each year at any location within the Antarctic Circle
162-457: The centre of the sun is visible at local midnight , and at least once the centre of the sun is below the horizon at local noon. Directly on the Antarctic Circle these events occur, in principle, exactly once per year: at the December and June solstices , respectively. However, because of atmospheric refraction and mirages , and because the sun appears as a disk and not a point, part of
180-708: The coast of Graham Land on the Antarctic Peninsula in January 1898. Sailing between the Graham Land coast and a string of islands to the west, de Gerlache named the passage Belgica Strait. This strait was later renamed Gerlache Strait in his honour. After charting and naming several islands during some 20 separate landings, they crossed the Antarctic Circle on 15 February 1898. On 28 February 1898, de Gerlache's expedition became trapped in
198-550: The explorer Gaston de Gerlache in 1919. In the 1950s, Gaston followed in his father's footsteps, participating in a Belgian research station in Antarctica. Adrien de Gerlache died in Brussels in 1934, aged 68, from paratyphoid fever . Several geographical features were named in his honour, mostly in Antarctica: Cape Gerlache , Mount Gerlache , Gerlache Inlet , Gerlache Island , Gerlache Strait and
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#1732765405605216-478: The ice of the Bellinghausen Sea , near Peter I Island . Despite their efforts, they quickly realised that they would be forced to spend the winter in Antarctica. Total darkness set in on 17 May, lasting until 23 July. Another seven months of hardship followed as the crew laboured to free the vessel from the ice. Several men lost their sanity, including one Belgian sailor who left the ship "announcing he
234-412: The midnight sun may be seen on the night of the southern summer solstice up to about 50 minutes (′) (90 km (56 mi)) north of the Antarctic Circle; similarly, on the day of the southern winter solstice , part of the sun may be seen up to about 50′ south of the Antarctic Circle. That is true at sea level; those limits increase with elevation above sea level, although in mountainous regions there
252-580: The north is called the Southern Temperate Zone . South of the Antarctic Circle, the Sun is above the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year (and therefore visible at midnight) and the centre of the Sun (ignoring refraction) is below the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year (and therefore not visible at noon); this is also true within the equivalent polar circle in
270-636: The university and joined the Belgian Navy on 19 January 1886. After graduating from the nautical college of Ostend he worked on fishery protection vessels as second and third lieutenant. In October 1887 he signed on as a seaman on the Craigie Burn , an English ship, for a voyage to San Francisco , but the ship failed to round Cape Horn and was sold for scrap in Montevideo . He returned to Europe after spending time in Uruguay and Argentina . After
288-721: Was a Belgian officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99. Born in Hasselt in eastern Belgium as the son of an army officer, de Gerlache was educated in Brussels . From a young age, he was deeply attracted by the sea, and made three voyages in 1883 and 1884 to the United States as a cabin boy on an ocean liner. He studied engineering at the Free University of Brussels . After finishing his third year in 1885, he quit
306-571: Was awarded a prize by the Académie française . The fungi collected during the expedition were described in a paper published in 1905 by Marietta Hanson Rousseau and Elisa Caroline Bommer . de Gerlache participated in several other expeditions, including: He had two children with his first wife, Suzanne Poulet, whom he married in 1904: Philippe (born 1906) and Marie-Louise (born 1908). After this marriage ended in 1913, de Gerlache married Elisabeth Höjer from Sweden . With her, he had another son,
324-427: Was going back to Belgium" . The party also suffered from scurvy . On 15 February 1899, the vessel was able to begin moving through the channel that the crew had cleared. It took them nearly a month to cover 7 miles, and on 14 March they cleared the ice. The expedition returned to Antwerp on 5 November 1899. In 1902, de Gerlache's book Quinze Mois dans l'Antarctique ('Fifteen Months in Antarctica'), published in 1901,
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