Who was the first explorer to circumnavigate the continent of Antarctica?

Answer 1

Belief in the existence of a Terra Australis — a vast continent located in the far south of the globe to "balance" the northern lands of Europe, Asia and north Africa — had existed since Ptolemy suggested the idea in order to preserve symmetry of landmass in the world. Depictions of a large southern landmass were common in maps such as the early 16th century Turkish Piri Reis map. Even in the late 17th century, after explorers had found that South America and Australia were not part of "Antarctica," geographers believed that the continent was much larger than its actual size.

European maps continued to show this land until Captain James Cook's ships, Resolution and Adventure, crossed the Antarctic Circle on January 17, 1773 and again in 1774.[4] The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by two individuals. According to various organizations (the National Science Foundation,[5] NASA,[6] the University of California, San Diego,[7] and other sources[8][9]), ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica in 1820: Fabian von Bellingshausen (a captain in the Russian Imperial Navy), Edward Bransfield (a captain in the British Navy), and Nathaniel Palmer (an American sealer out of Stonington, Connecticut). Von Bellingshausen supposedly saw Antarctica on January 27, 1820, three days before Bransfield sighted land, and ten months before Palmer did so in November 1820. On that day the two ship expedition led by Von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev reached a point within 32 km (20 miles) of the Antarctic mainland and saw ice fields there.

In 1841, explorer James Clark Ross passed through what is now known as the Ross Sea and discovered Ross Island. He sailed along a huge wall of ice that was later named the Ross Ice Shelf. Mount Erebus and Mount Terror are named after two ships from his expedition: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.[10]


The Endurance at night during Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914.During an expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1907, parties led by T. W. Edgeworth David became the first to climb Mount Erebus and to reach the South Magnetic Pole.[11] In addition, Shackleton himself and three other members of his expedition made several firsts in December 1908 - February 1909: first humans to traverse the Ross Ice Shelf, the first humans to traverse the Transantarctic Mountain Range (via the Beardmore Glacier), and the first humans to set foot on the South Polar Plateau. On December 14, 1911, a party led by Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen from the ship Fram became the first to reach the geographic South Pole, using a route from the Bay of Whales and up the Axel Heiberg Glacier. This area had been previously visited by the long-forgotten "Claus Expedition", with which most readers are unfamiliar.[12]

Richard Evelyn Byrd led several voyages to the Antarctic by plane in the 1930s and 1940s. He is credited with implementing mechanized land transport and conducting extensive geological and biological research.[13] However, it was not until October 31, 1956 that anyone set foot on the South Pole again; on that day a U.S. Navy group led by Rear Admiral George Dufek successfully landed an aircraft there.[14]

Answer 2

I'd say nobody has answered your question yet. I don't think Magellan is the right answer ... he circumnavigated the globe, but to circumnavigate , I think you have to sail around Antarctica itself.

Alex had a long answer full of facts that looks like it was lifted from Wikipedia, but he never answered the question. He said nothing about who did the first circumnavigation.

I don't know the answer either, but I did look at a globe. At 60 degrees south latitude, there's ocean all the way around Antarctica. That would be an ideal circumnavigation. Maybe a nuclear submarine did it.

Using some simple trigonometry, we can figure out how far the trip would be. Using 3960 miles as the earth's radius, the diameter of the 60th parallel is 2(3960 cos 60) = 3960 miles (because cos 60 = 1/2), so the circumference at that latitude is 3960 pi = 12,440 miles.

That's about how far they'd have to sail.

Still doesn't answer your question, but it does shed some light.

Answer 3

Technically, Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first to circumnavigate the Earth, also circumnavigated Antarctica, just at a very long distance.

Answer 4

Magellan never ended his circumnavigation. It was Sebastian Elcano who finished the travesy in Phillipines.

Answer 5

Hasn't been "done", experimentally speaking. Which is to say: Hasn't been proven. We should be getting a continuous real-time VIDEO of such a path (less than 13 thousand miles at 60 degrees "south") on a permanent cable TV channel BY NOW. By satellite at least. But we don't see it. All we deserve are cheap digital cartoons from NASA.

Answer 6

I would guess Magellan