 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Polar exploration" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
_-_Nelson_and_the_Bear_-_BHC2907_-_Royal_Museums_Greenwich.jpg)
Polar exploration is the process ofexploration of thepolar regions of Earth – theArctic region andAntarctica – particularly with the goal of reaching theNorth Pole andSouth Pole, respectively. Historically, this was accomplished by explorers making often arduous travels on foot or by sled in these regions, known as a polar expedition. More recently, exploration has been accomplished with technology, particularly withsatellite imagery.
From 600 BC to 300 BC,Greek philosophers theorized that the planet was aSpherical Earth with North and Southpolar regions. By 150 AD,Ptolemy publishedGeographia, which notes a hypotheticalTerra Australis Incognita. However, due to harsh weather conditions, the poles themselves would not be reached for centuries after that. When they finally were reached, the achievement was realized only a few years apart.
There are two claims, both disputed, about who were the first persons to reach thegeographic North Pole.Frederick Cook, accompanied by twoInuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, claimed to have reached the Pole on April 21, 1908, although this claim is generally doubted. On April 6, 1909,Robert Peary claimed to be the first person inrecorded history to reach the North Pole,[1] accompanied by his employeeMatthew Henson and four Inuit men Ootah,Seegloo, Egingway, and Ooqueah.[2][3]
Norwegian explorerRoald Amundsen had planned to reach the North Pole by means of an extended drift in an icebound ship. He obtained the use ofFridtjof Nansen's polar exploration shipFram, and undertook extensive fundraising. Preparations for this expedition were disrupted when Cook and Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole. Amundsen then changed his plan and began to prepare for a conquest of thegeographic South Pole; uncertain of the extent to which the public and his backers would support him, he kept this revised objective secret. When he set out in June 1910, he led even his crew to believe they were embarking on an Arctic drift, and revealed their true Antarctic destination only whenFram was leaving their last port of call, Madeira.
Amundsen's South Pole expedition, with Amundsen and four others, arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911,[4] five weeks ahead of a British party led byRobert Falcon Scott as part of theTerra Nova expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return journey.
Australians have also been prominent in polar exploration.Sir Douglas Mawson,John Riddoch Rymill, andGeorge Hubert Wilkins were three three South Australian explorers who led all of the Australian expeditions undertaken before the government started taking a hand in polar exploration in the late 1940s. Mawson undertook several Antarctic expeditions, while the other two went to the Arctic as well.[5][6]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
 | This article about an explorer is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
