Arctic exploration is the physicalexploration of theArctic region of theEarth. It refers to the historical period during which mankind has explored the region north of theArctic Circle. Historical records suggest that humankind have explored the northern extremes since 325 BC, when theancient Greek sailorPytheas reached a frozen sea while attempting to find a source of the metal tin.[1] Dangerous oceans and poor weather conditions often fetter explorers attempting to reachpolar regions, and journeying through these perils by sight, boat, and foot has proven difficult.[1]
A controversial hypothesis, often regarded aspseudohistory, sets the home of the mythical peopleHyperboreans in the Arctic. The scientist and authorJohn G. Bennett talked about it in his research paper "The Hyperborean Origin of the Indo-European Culture" (1963).[2] The theory was originally put forth byWilliam F. Warren, the first President ofBoston University, in hisParadise Found or the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole. Later, Indian independence activistBal Gangadhar Tilak resurrected Warren's theory in hisThe Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903), which was dedicated to philologist and indologistMax Müller, with whom Tilak had shared ideas before the book was completed.[3] Austro-Hungarian ethnologistKarl Penka also discussed the same idea in hisOrigins of the Aryans (1883).[3] Tilak's theory was popularized by Russian nationalists, due to the work of Soviet historian and ethnographerNatalya Romanovna Guseva[4] and Soviet ethnographer S.V Zharnikova,[5] who argued for a northernUrals Arctic homeland of the Indo-Aryan and Slavic people.[6]
Hindu nationalistMadhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar also supported and was inspired by Tilak's idea.[7] In his famous 1939 publicationWe or Our Nationhood Defined, he stated that "Undoubtedly [...] we – Hindus – have been in undisputed and undisturbed possession of this land for over eight or even ten thousand years before the land was invaded by any foreign race."[8]
Ancient Greek historian and geographerHerodotus said that the Hyperboreans lived beyond theMassagetae andIssedones. Since these are bothCentral Asian peoples, one could speculate that his Hyperboreans lived inSiberia. In histwelve labours,Heracles sought thegolden-antlered hind ofArtemis in Hyperborea. Since thereindeer is the only deer species of which females bear antlers, this would suggest anarctic orsubarctic region. ScholarJames D. P. Bolton instead located theIssedones people on the south-western slopes of theAltay mountains, which led his colleagueCarl P. Ruck to place Hyperborea beyond theDzungarian Gate into the northern part of theXinjiang region, adding that the Hyperboreans were probably Chinese.[9]
Some scholars believe that the first attempts to penetrate the Arctic Circle can be traced to ancient Greece and the sailorPytheas, a contemporary ofAristotle andAlexander the Great, who, in 325 BC, attempted to find the source of the tin that would sporadically reach the Greek colony of Massilia (nowMarseille) on theMediterranean coast.[1] Sailing past thePillars of Hercules, he reachedBrittany and thenCornwall, eventually circumnavigating theBritish Isles. From the local population, he heard news of the mysterious land ofThule, even farther to the north. After six days of sailing, he reached land at the edge of a frozen sea (described by him as "curdled"), and described what is believed to be theaurora and themidnight sun. Some historians claim that this new land of Thule was either theNorwegian coast or theShetland Islands based on his descriptions and the trade routes of early British sailors. While no one knows exactly how far Pytheas sailed, he may have crossed the Arctic Circle. Nevertheless, his tales were regarded as fantasy by later Greek andRoman authorities, such as the geographerStrabo.[10]
Naddodd is said to have encountered Iceland when he lost his route due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to theFaroe Islands in the 860s.[11] In the 10th century,Gunnbjörn Ulfsson got lost in a storm and ended up within sight of theGreenland coast. His report spurredErik the Red, an outlawed chieftain, to establish a settlement there in 985. While they flourished initially, these settlements eventually petered out until about 1450. Initially this abandonment of the colony was credited to theLittle Ice Age but that has been disputed by recent studies which suggest there were more complex factors at play.[12]
Greenland's early settlers sailed westward, in search of betterpasturage and hunting grounds. Modern scholars debate the precise location of the new lands ofVinland,Markland, andHelluland that they discovered.[13]
TheScandinavian peoples also pushed farther north into their own peninsula by land and by sea. As early as 880, the VikingOhthere of Hålogaland rounded theScandinavian Peninsula and sailed to theKola Peninsula and theWhite Sea. ThePechenga Monastery on the north of Kola Peninsula was founded by Russian monks in 1533; from their base atKola, thePomors explored theBarents Region,Spitsbergen, andNovaya Zemlya – all of which are in the Arctic Circle. They also explored north by boat, discovering theNorthern Sea Route, as well as penetrating to the trans-Ural areas of northernSiberia. Pomors founded the settlement ofMangazeya east of theYamal Peninsula in the early 16th century.[14] In 1648 theCossackSemyon Dezhnyov opened the now famousBering Strait between America and Asia.
Russiansettlers and traders on the coasts of the White Sea, the Pomors, had been exploring parts of the northeast passage as early as the 11th century. By the 17th century they established a continuoussea route fromArkhangelsk as far east as the mouth ofYenisey. This route, known asMangazeya seaway, after its eastern terminus, the trade depot of Mangazeya, was an early precursor to the Northern Sea Route.
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Exploration to the north of the Arctic Circle in theRenaissance was both driven by the rediscovery of theClassics and the national quests for commercial expansion, and hampered by limits inmaritime technology, lack ofstable food supplies, and insufficient insulation for the crew against extreme cold.
A seminal event in Arctic exploration occurred in 1409, whenPtolemy'sGeographia was translated intoLatin, thereby introducing the concepts oflatitude and longitude intoWestern Europe.[15] As a result navigators were better able to chart their positions. TheInventio Fortunata, alost book, describes in a summary written by Jacobus Cnoyen but only found in a letter fromGerardus Mercator, voyages as far as the North Pole.[16] One widely disputed claim is that two brothers fromVenice,Niccolo and Antonio Zeno, allegedly made amap of their journeys to that region, which were published by their descendants in 1558.[17]
TheNorthwest Passage connects theAtlantic andPacific Oceans via the Arctic Ocean. Since the discovery of theAmerican continent was the product of the search for a route to Asia, exploration around the northern edge ofNorth America continued for the Northwest Passage.John Cabot's initial failure in 1497 to find a Northwest Passage across the Atlantic led the British to seek an alternative route to the east.
Interest re-kindled in 1564 afterJacques Cartier's discovery of the mouth of theSaint Lawrence River.Martin Frobisher had formed a resolution to undertake the challenge of forging a trade route from England westward to India. From 1576 to 1578, he took three trips to what is now theCanadian Arctic in order to find the passage.Frobisher Bay is named after him. In July 1583, SirHumphrey Gilbert, who had written a treatise on the discovery of the passage and was a backer of Frobisher's, claimed theterritory of Newfoundland for the English crown.
In 1585, under the employ ofElizabeth I, the English explorerJohn Davis enteredCumberland Sound,Baffin Island. Davis rounded Greenland before dividing his four ships into separate expeditions to search for a passage westward. Though he was unable to pass through the icy Arctic waters, he reported to his sponsors that the passage they sought is "a matter nothing doubtfull [sic],"[18] and secured support for two additional expeditions, reaching as far asHudson Bay.
Though England's efforts were interrupted in 1587 because of theAnglo-Spanish War, Davis's favorable reports on the region and its people would inspire explorers in the coming century.[19] In 1609, while in the service of theDutch East India Company, the English explorerHenry Hudson sailed up what is now called theHudson River in search of the Passage; he reached present-dayAlbany, New York, before giving up. He later explored further north into the Arctic andHudson Bay for the Passage.[20][21]
The Northeast Passage is a broad term for any route lying above the Eurasian continent and stretching between the waters north of the Norwegian Sea to the Bering Strait. The "Northern Sea Route" is defined as a specific portion of such routes. TheNorthern Sea Route (capitalized) as currently officially defined by Russian Federation law includesshipping lanes falling within Russia's EEZ and extending from the Kara Sea to the Bering Strait along theRussian northern coast.
The idea to explore this region was initially economic, and was first put forward by Russian diplomatDmitry Gerasimov in 1525.[22] The entire route laid in Arctic waters and parts and was usually covered in ice, making it a very perilous journey.[23]
In the mid-16th century, John Cabot's sonSebastian helped organize just such an expedition, led by SirHugh Willoughby andRichard Chancellor. Willoughby's crew was shipwrecked off the Kola Peninsula, where they eventually died ofscurvy. Chancellor and his crew made it to the mouth of theDvina River and the town of Arkhangelsk, where they were met by a delegation from theTsar,Ivan the Terrible. Brought back toMoscow, he launched theMuscovy Company, promoting trade between England and Russia. This diplomatic course allowed British Ambassadors such asSir Francis Cherry the opportunity to consolidate geographic information developed by Russian merchants into maps for British exploration of the region. Some years later,Steven Borough, the master of Chancellor's ship, made it as far as theKara Sea, when he was forced to turn back because of icy conditions.[24]
Western parts of the passage were simultaneously being explored by Northern European countries like England, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, looking for an alternative seaway to China and India. Most notable is the 1596 expedition led by Dutch navigatorWillem Barentsz who discovered Spitsbergen andBear Island.
Fearing English and Dutch penetration into Siberia, Russia closed the Mangazeya seaway in 1619. Pomor activity in Northern Asia declined and the bulk of exploration in the 17th century was carried out by Siberian Cossacks, sailing from one river mouth to another in their Arctic-worthykochs. In 1648 the most famous of these expeditions, led by Fedot Alekseev andSemyon Dezhnev, sailed east from the mouth ofKolyma to the Pacific and doubled theChukchi Peninsula, thus proving that there was no land connection between Asia and North America.[25] Eighty years after Dezhnev, in 1728, another Russian explorer, Danish-bornVitus Bering onSviatoy Gavriil made a similar voyage in reverse, starting inKamchatka and going north to the passage that now bears his name (Bering Strait). It was Bering who gave their current names toDiomede Islands, discovered and first described by Dezhnev.[26]
It was not until in 1878 that Finnish-Swedish explorerAdolf Erik Nordenskiöld made the first complete passage of the North East Passage from west to east, in theVega expedition.[27] The ship's captain on this expedition was LieutenantLouis Palander of the Swedish Royal Navy.
In the first half of the 19th century, parts of the Northwest Passage were explored separately by a number of different expeditions, including those byJohn Ross,William Edward Parry,James Clark Ross; and overland expeditions led byJohn Franklin,George Back,Peter Warren Dease,Thomas Simpson, andJohn Rae. SirRobert McClure was credited with thediscovery of the Northwest Passage by sea in 1851[28] when he looked acrossM'Clure Strait fromBanks Island and viewedMelville Island. However, the strait was blocked by young ice at this point in the season, and not navigable to ships.[29] The only usable route, linking the entrances ofLancaster Sound andDolphin and Union Strait was first used by John Rae in 1851. Rae used a pragmatic approach of traveling by land on foot anddog sled, and typically employed less than ten people in his exploration parties.[30]
The Northwest Passage was not completely conquered by sea until 1906, when the Norwegian explorerRoald Amundsen, who had sailed just in time to escape creditors seeking to stop the expedition, completed a three-year voyage in the converted 47-ton herring boatGjøa. At the end of this trip, he walked into the city ofEagle, Alaska, and sent a telegram announcing his success. His route was not commercially practical; in addition to the time taken, some of the waterways were extremely shallow.[31]
Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933) led several Arctic expeditions. He grew up inGreenland speakingGreenlandic andDanish, and has been called the "father ofEskimology"[32] and was the first Greenlander of Inuit and European descent to cross theNorthwest Passage viadog sled.[33] Rasmussen and his friendPeter Freuchen participated in sevenThule Expeditions, named afterultima Thule, and wrote numerous books on their Arctic experiences.
On April 6, 1909,Robert Peary claimed to be the first person in recorded history to reach the North Pole[28] (although whether he actually reached the Pole is disputed).[1][34] He traveled with the aid of dogsleds and three separate support crews who turned back at successive intervals before reaching the Pole. Many modern explorers, including Olympic skiers using modern equipment, contend that Peary could not have reached the pole on foot in the time he claimed.
A number of previous expeditions set out with the intention of reaching the North Pole but did not succeed; that of British naval officerWilliam Edward Parry in 1827, the tragic AmericanPolaris expedition underCharles Francis Hall in 1871, the ill-fatedJeannette expedition commanded by US Navy Lieutenant CommanderGeorge W. De Long in 1879, and the NorwegianFram expedition ofFridtjof Nansen in 1895. AmericanFrederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1908, but this has not been widely accepted.[35]
On May 9, 1926, AmericansRichard E. Byrd andFloyd Bennett claimed to have flown over the North Pole in aFokker F.VIIa/3m Tri-motor monoplane. However, their claim to have reached the Pole is disputed.[36]
The crew of the airshipNorge (including Roald Amundsen and the American sponsorLincoln Ellsworth) flew over the Pole on May 12, 1926. This is the first undisputed sighting of the Pole.Norge was designed and piloted by the ItalianUmberto Nobile, who overflew the Pole a second time on May 24, 1928. Nobile's second trip was in the airshipItalia that ran into a storm on the return trip and crashed on the ice. Survivors were eventually recovered. Amundsen disappeared, with the crew of his sea plane, during the rescue operations.
The first people to have without doubt walked on the North Pole were the Soviet party of 1948 under the command ofAleksandr Kuznetsov, who landed their aircraft nearby and walked to the pole.[37]
On August 3, 1958, the American submarineUSS Nautilus (SSN-571) reached the North Pole without surfacing. It then proceeded to travel under the entirePolar ice cap. On March 17, 1959, theUSS Skate (SSN-578) surfaced on the North Pole and dispersed the ashes of explorer SirHubert Wilkins. These journeys were part of military explorations stimulated by theCold War context.
On April 19, 1968,Ralph Plaisted reached the North Pole viasnowmobile, the first surface traveler known with certainty to have done so. His position was verified independently by aUS Air Force meteorological overflight. In 1969Wally Herbert, on foot and by dog sled, became the first man to reach the North Pole on muscle power alone, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's famous but disputed expedition.
The first persons to reach the North Pole on foot (or skis) and return with no outside help, no dogs, airplanes, or re-supplies wereRichard Weber (Canada) and Misha Malakhov (Russia) in 1995. No one has completed this journey since.
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant ColonelJoseph O. Fletcher and LieutenantWilliam Pershing Benedict landed a plane at the Pole on May 3, 1952, accompanied by the scientistAlbert P. Crary.[38]
On 2 May 2007,BBC'sTop Gear reached the 1996 position of the magnetic north pole (78°35.7′N104°11.9′W / 78.5950°N 104.1983°W /78.5950; -104.1983 (Magnetic North Pole 1996)) in a modifiedToyota Hilux.
On 2 August 2007, duringArktika 2007 Russian crewed submersibles were the first to descend to the seabed below the pole.
On April 26, 2009,Vassily Elagin, Afanassi Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Sergey Larin, Alexey Ushakov, Alexey Shkrabkin and Nikolay Nikulshin after 38 days and over 2,000 km (1,200 mi) (starting fromSredniy Island,Severnaya Zemlya)drove two Russian built cars "Yemelya-1" and "Yemelya-2" to the North Pole.
Occasionally one of them would happen on a new country by accident, just as Naddod the Viking happened upon Iceland in 861 by being driven there by a gale while on his way to the Faroe Islands.
helen wright great white north.
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