There is no permanent population, although there are 12 activeresearch stations housing a maximum of around 40 scientists, the numbers fluctuating depending on the season. Six are occupied year-round, while the remainder are seasonal summer stations. The main aerodromes for intercontinental flights, corresponding[clarification needed] withCape Town, South Africa, areTroll Airfield, near the NorwegianTroll research station, and a runway at the RussianNovolazarevskaya Station.[8]
There is very limited ice-free land at the coast, in the vicinity of Japan's Showa station. The remainder of the coast consists of a 20-to-30-metre high (70 to 100 ft) wall of ice almost throughout the entire territory.[17][18][19] It is thus only possible to disembark from a ship in a few places.[19] Some 150 to 200 kilometres (90 to 120 mi) from the coast, rocky peaks pierce the ice cap, itself at a mean height of around 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above sea level, with the highest point atJøkulkyrkja (3,148 metres or 10,328 feet) in theMühlig-Hofmann Mountains.[17][18] The other major mountain ranges are theHeimefront Range,Orvin Mountains,Wohlthat Mountains andSør Rondane Mountains.[3]
Geologically, the ground of Queen Maud Land is dominated byPrecambriangneiss, formed c. 1 to 1.2 Ga, before the creation of the supercontinentGondwana. The mountains consist mostly ofcrystalline andgranitic rocks, formed c. 500 to 600 Ma in thePan-African orogeny during the assembly of Gondwana.[20] In the farthest western parts of the territory, there are youngersedimentary andvolcanic rocks. Research on the thickness of the ice has revealed that without the ice, the coast would be similar to those of Norway andGreenland, with deepfjords and islands.[17]
Queen Maud Land was the first part of Antarctica to be sighted, on 27 January 1820 byFabian von Bellingshausen. However, it was among the last to be explored, as it required aircraft in combination with ships to undertake systematic exploration.[3] Early Norwegian research activities in Antarctica rested entirely onwhaling and sealing expeditions funded by ship owners, particularly byChristen Christensen and his sonLars. The first two Norwegian expeditions were carried out by sealing ships in 1892–93 and 1893–94. While they were primarily sent for exploring, sealing, and whaling possibilities, they also performed scientific research.[21] Further Norwegian expeditions were mounted into the first decades of the 20th century.[22]
TheAntarctic Plateau was claimed for Norway byRoald Amundsen as the King Haakon VII Plateau whenhis expedition was the first to reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911. It was mapped as a circular territory comprising the plateau around the South Pole, including all the land above latitude 85°S. However, roughly the same area had been claimed by the British as the King Edward VII Plateau, which was in conflict with the Norwegian claim. Amundsen's claim has never been officially claimed by the Norwegian government.[23][24][25]
Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, aviator and polar explorer who explored much of Queen Maud Land.
The name Queen Maud Land was initially applied in January 1930 to the land between 37°E and 49°30′E discovered byHjalmar Riiser-Larsen andFinn Lützow-Holm duringLars Christensen'sNorvegia expedition of 1929–30.[3][17] It was named after the Norwegian queenMaud of Wales, wife of the then-reigningKing Haakon VII.[18] The territory was explored further during theNorvegia expedition of 1930–31.[17] During this whaling season, a total of 265 whaling ships, mostly Norwegian, worked off the coast of Queen Maud Land.[2] In the same season, Riiser-Larsen discovered the Prince Olav Coast, Princess Martha Coast and Princess Ragnhild Coast from the air. Captain H. Halvorsen of the whalerSevilla discovered the Princess Astrid Coast independently at the same time. Six years later, during Christensen's expedition of 1936–37,Viggo Widerøe flew over and discovered the Prince Harald Coast.[3] Negotiations with the British government in 1938 resulted in the western border of Queen Maud Land being set at 20°W.[17]
Norway's claim was disputed by Germany,[26] which dispatched theGerman Antarctic Expedition in 1938, led byAlfred Ritscher, to fly over as much of it as possible.[3][17] The shipSchwabenland reached the pack ice off Antarctica on 19 January 1939.[27] During the expedition, an area of about 350,000 square kilometres (140,000 sq mi) was photographed from the air by Ritscher,[28] who dropped darts inscribed withswastikas every 26 kilometres (16 mi). Germany eventually attempted to claim the territory surveyed by Ritscher under the nameNew Swabia,[3] but lost any claim to the land following its defeat in theSecond World War.[26][note 4]
On 14 January 1939, five days prior to the German arrival, Queen Maud Land was annexed by Norway,[18] by royal decree:[17]
That part of the mainland coast in the Antarctic extending from the limits of the Falkland Islands Dependencies in the west (the boundary of Coats Land) to the limits of the Australian Antarctic Territory in the east (45° east long.), with the land lying within this coast and the environing sea, shall be brought under Norwegian sovereignty.
— Norwegian royal resolution, 14 January 1939.[29]
The primary basis for the annexation were the Norwegian explorations and the need to secure the Norwegian whaling industry's access to the region.[18][30] Scientific operations were also a basis, with Norwegian contributions to international polar science extending back to the late 19th century.[18] In addition, Norway was forced to contend with competing claims made by the United Kingdom and other countries in the years prior to the Norwegian claim, including the new threat of German claims in Queen Maud Land.[30] The Norwegian claim was sometimes referred to as the "Bouvet sector", drawing from the previously annexedBouvet Island.[26] During 1946 and 1947, vast areas of Queen Maud Land were photographed during theRichard Evelyn Byrd expedition. In 1948, Norway and the United Kingdom agreed to limit Queen Maud Land to longitudes from 20°W to 45°E, and that the Bruce Coast andCoats Land were to be incorporated into Norwegian territory.[17]
TheNorwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1949–52 was the first international scientific expedition in Antarctica. The expedition established its winter quarters at a base calledMaudheim at 71°S, 11°W, and mapped much of western Queen Maud Land.[35][36] During theInternational Geophysical Year (1957–1958), year-round stations were established in Queen Maud Land by Norway, theSoviet Union, Belgium and Japan. The Norwegian expedition continued with topographical mapping, while the others started geophysical and geological research. Norway'sNorway Station was lent to South Africa following the withdrawal of the Norwegian expedition in 1960. South Africa later built theSANAE station, near the now-defunct Norway Station. The Soviet Union, and later Russia, has maintained continual operations, although it moved fromLazarev Station toNovolazarevskaya Station. Japan has been based at itsShowa Station since 1957, except for a hiatus of a few years. Belgium closed itsKing Baudouin Station in 1961, though it mounted limited operations in cooperation with the Netherlands in 1964–66. The United States established the temporaryPlateau Station in 1966.[17]
In 1948, the newly createdNorwegian Polar Institute was assigned the administration of Norwegian territories in the Arctic and Antarctic, including Queen Maud Land.[22] Norway sent two major expeditions to the territory in the 1940s and 1950s, but its efforts declined after that.[18] On 21 June 1957, Queen Maud Land became subject to Norwegiansovereignty as adependency (biland),[6] and theAntarctic Treaty officially came into force on 23 June 1961.[37] Norwegian activity during the 1960s was limited to some minor co-expeditions with the United States, until it gradually picked up again following a larger expedition to western Queen Maud Land and the easternWeddell Sea by the Norwegian Polar Institute in 1976–77.[17][18]
Norway's main research station, Troll, in Queen Maud Land
In 1992, an expedition byIvar Tollefsen made the first ascents of several mountains, including the tallest,Jøkulkyrkja.[17] Norway established the summer stationTroll in 1989–90.[17][18] In 2003, Minister of the EnvironmentBørge Brende was the first Norwegian minister to visit Queen Maud Land, and he soon allocated funds to expand the Troll station.[41] Troll was upgraded to a year-round station in 2005[17][18] as part of the centenary of Norway's independence.[41] Among the guests were Minister of Foreign AffairsJan Petersen and Minister of the EnvironmentKnut Arild Hareide,[41] and Troll was officially opened byQueen Sonja of Norway, the first queen to ever visit Antarctica.[8][42] In 2008, Prime MinisterJens Stoltenberg, accompanied by forty officials, scientists and reporters, became the first Norwegian prime minister to visit Queen Maud Land. He personally named three mountains around the Troll station where he was based, although he chose to sleep outdoors in a tent, rather than in a bed inside. He said the purposes of the visit were to claim Norway's possessions in Antarctica, as well as to learn more about the climate research at Troll, which he said was key to better understanding of global climate change.[8][42]
In 2015,King Harald V became the world's first reigning monarch to visit Antarctica when he went to Queen Maud Land.[43]
The locations of Norway (yellowish white) and Queen Maud Land (red stripes). This map in Winkel tripel projection distorts sizes; Antarctica is much smaller than it appears here.
Like all otherterritorial claims in Antarctica, the Norwegian claim of Queen Maud Land (along with its claim ofPeter I Island) is subject to theAntarctic Treaty System. The treaty makes clear that Antarctica can only be used for peaceful purposes and assures the freedom of scientific activity. It promotes international scientific cooperation and bans anynuclear-related activities. Although territorial claims are not invalidated by the treaty, all claims under Article III of the treaty are in effect suspended as long as it is in force.[40][44][45] Norway, Australia, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have all mutually recognised each other's claims in Antarctica.[46] But there is a question on the actual boundaries of the claim, since the initial Norwegian demarcations both towards the South Pole and into the sea were left unclear. Apparently this was to avoid accepting use of the "sector principle" for Arctic Ocean claims by the Soviet Union.[47] In 2015, Norway partially rectified this question by formally laying its claim to the area between the Queen Maud Land and the South Pole.[7]
Norwegian administration of Queen Maud Land is controlled by the Polar Affairs Department of theMinistry of Justice and the Police, located in Oslo.[48] The annexation of the territory is regulated by the Dependency Act of 24 March 1933; Queen Maud Land was added on 21 June 1957. It declares that Norwegian criminal law, private law andprocedural law apply to the territory, in addition to other laws that explicitly state they are valid in the territory. Furthermore, it establishes that all the land belongs to the state, and prohibits both nuclear detonations and the storage of nuclear waste.[49]
Since 5 May 1995, Norwegian law has required all Norwegian activity in Antarctica to follow international environmental law for Antarctica. Norwegian citizens who plan activities in Queen Maud Land must therefore report to the Norwegian Polar Institute, which may prohibit any non-compliant activity. Those who visit Queen Maud Land must follow laws regarding protection of nature, treatment of waste, pollution and insurance forsearch and rescue operations.[50]
Thesnow petrel is one of the species of birds found in Queen Maud Land.
There are three types of birds around Troll station: theAntarctic petrel, thesnow petrel and thesouth polar skua. The Antarctic petrel lives on the sea ice for most of the year, with the exception of its breeding season (in Antarctica, from November to February), when it moves to the inland mountains andnunataks.[51] The 3.9-square-kilometre (1.5 sq mi) area of ice-free cliffs in Princess Astrid Coast calledSvarthamaren Mountain hosts Antarctica's largest known inland colony of breeding seabirds, almost 1 million (250,000 pairs) Antarctic petrels.[18][51] Many snow petrels and south polar skuas also breed in this area. Snow petrels are generally spread out in smaller colonies throughout the mountainous areas of Queen Maud Land. During the breeding season, the south polar skua feeds exclusively upon the eggs, as well as both young and adult birds, of both petrel species.[51]
Theemperor penguin has some of its breeding places concentrated in Queen Maud Land.[52] All four of the true Antarctic seals, namely theWeddell seal,leopard seal,crabeater seal andRoss seal, can be found in the King Haakon VII Sea off Queen Maud Land.[53][54] The Ross seal is notably found in its greatest numbers in the King Haakon VII Sea.[55]
The nunatak areas have a scarcity of flora, limited tolichen,bryophyte and algae. Flowering plants are not found there. The Norwegian Polar Institute has not registered the occurrence of any threatened or rare plants or animals in Queen Maud Land, the known ones thus existing in healthy populations.[53]
These stations are connected by the Dronning Maud Land Air Network Project (DROMLAN), which is a cooperative agreement for transportation between eleven nations with research stations in East Antarctica. Long-range aircraft fly between Cape Town, South Africa and either theTroll Airfield, located at the Troll research station, or the runway at theNovolazarevskaya Station. From these two main airfields, smaller aircraft may fly further to other Antarctic destinations.[8]
Norway's Troll station serves as a major hub of the DROMLAN network through the Troll Airfield.[8] Research at Troll include air and atmospheric measurements,[56] monitoring ofgreenhouse gases and bird colonies, as well as meteorological and climate research.[41] The other Norwegian station,Tor, was established for researching birds at the breeding colony inSvarthamaren Mountain.[51]
Charnockitic rock needle, northern Holtedahlfjella, Queen Maud Land, aerial photograph in SSE direction.
South Africa'sSANAE IV station, the successor to three former stations, was completed in 1997. Research at SANAE IV includeinvasion biology/ecology, geology,geomorphology andatmospheric sciences. Its facilities include a small hospital and a two-helicopter hangar.[58]
The SwedishWasa station and the FinnishAboa station together make up theNordenskiöld Base, and cooperate in research and logistics. Research carried out includes geodesy/mapping, glaciology, human biology, meteorological observations, geology and geophysics.[59]
The GermanNeumayer Station III, finished in 2009, succeeded two former stations that were buried by snow and ice.[2] It conducts geophysical, meteorological and seismological research, as well as air chemistry measurements and atmospheric ozone monitoring.[60] Germany's other station,Kohnen, was opened as part of a major ice-drilling project.[61]
TheMaitri station succeeded theDakshin Gangotri station in 1989, India's first Antarctic base.[62] Maitri's research focus on geology, and the study of the supercontinentGondwana, when India and Antarctica belonged to the same landmass. It also includes low-temperature engineering research that is relevant to conditions in theHimalayas.[63]
TheShowa Station is Japan's main research station in Antarctica. A vast array of research is conducted there, including upper atmosphere physics, meteorology, seismology,gravimetry, geodesy/mapping, oceanography, glaciology, geology, marine and terrestrial biology, and medical research.[64] Japan's other station,Dome Fuji Station was opened as part of a major ice-coring project.[3] It mainly studies climate change and conducts deep drilling and atmospheric observations.[65]
Belgium'sPrincess Elisabeth Antarctica base was established as a project to promote polar sciences, as well as to demonstrate the possibility of building azero emission station.[66] Research is conducted by an international team of scientists, studying climatology, glaciology andmicrobiology.[67]
In John Carpenter's 1982 film "The Thing"[70] the Norwegian Antarctic Research Team finds the alien's ship & the Thing encased in ice in Queen Maud Land.
^Also spelled in Norwegian asDronning Mauds land.[1] The Norwegian name, Dronning Maud Land, is also used by English speakers.[2][3] It is derived from a 1974 agreement between Norway and the United Kingdom not to translate the names of each other's claims. Similar agreements, although informal, also exist with Australia, New Zealand and France.[4]
^At the time of the claim, Norway did not validate thesector method of demarcating polar territory. This was in line with Norwegian claims in the Arctic and hence to avoid compromising Norway's position with regard to the former Soviet Union and present-day Russia. In the 2015White Paper No. 32 (2014–2015) "Norwegian Interests and Policy in Antarctica" the Foreign Ministry confirmed that while Norway rejected the sector method of delimiting claims it was not intended create a difference in interpretation of the Norwegian claim in the Antarctica; White Paper No. 19 (1939) had stated that the purpose of the annexation was to annex "land which is currentlyterra nullius and that only Norwegians have researched and mapped".
^Although some, notably Norwegian writer Bjarne Aagaard and German geographer Ernst Herrmann, have claimed that Germany never actually occupied the territory, it is well documented that Germany issued a decree about the establishment of a German Antarctic Sector called New Swabia after the expedition's return in August 1939.[26]
^abRapp, Ole Magnus (21 September 2015)."Norge utvider Dronning Maud Land helt frem til Sydpolen".Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Oslo, Norway. Retrieved22 September 2015.…formålet med anneksjonen var å legge under seg det landet som til nå ligger herreløst og som ingen andre enn nordmenn har kartlagt og gransket. Norske myndigheter har derfor ikke motsatt seg at noen tolker det norske kravet slik at det går helt opp til og inkluderer polpunktet.
^Elvevold, Synnøve (2005)."Geologi i Antarktis"(PDF).Norsk Polarhistorie (in Norwegian). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 7 October 2011. Retrieved18 July 2011.
^"Polar Affairs Department". Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police. 16 June 2006. Retrieved12 July 2011.
^abMolle, Kris (29 October 2010)."Norway and Antarctica". Polar Conservation Organisation. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved22 July 2011.
^Molle, Kris (2 December 2010)."Novolazarevskaya". Polar Conservation Organisation. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved21 August 2011.
^Molle, Kris (2 November 2010)."Princess Elisabeth". Polar Conservation Organisation. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved21 August 2011.
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