Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the Colonial Of
ce in 1945 and renamed the Falkland Islands Dependencies
Survey (FIDS) the primary objective of the stations remained political, to strengthen
the British title to the area, and a programme of mapping was started in support of
this. But the stations were now being staffed with scientists measuring the climate,
surveying the geology and researching the
flora and fauna.
first major Antarctic foray of the twentieth century was
led by Richard Byrd in 1928 with what was then the best equipped expedition to
go to the Antarctic. He returned again in 1934 and yet again in 1939, establishing
several temporary stations and pioneering the routine use of aircraft in Antarctic
exploration. Meanwhile, the United States had certainly noticed the expansionist
activities of Britain, Argentina and Chile and became concerned that it might be
seen as uninterested in the continent, despite the US Antarctic Service Expedition
in 1939
The United States
-
41, which had established two stations
-
Little America III and East Base on
Stonington Island
that the US Government thought at that time might be used to
mark the edges of its potential claim. Accordingly the Antarctic Developments
Project in the US Navy organised Operation Highjump in 1946
-
47, by far the
largest and most wide-ranging Antarctic expedition ever. With 13 ships, 33
aircraft and nearly 5000 personnel, it dwarfed every other country and, whilst
apparently only there to test equipment and conduct aerial photomapping, it
achieved its primary political objectives of displaying American power in a new
theatre. There had also been the privately organised Ronne Antarctic Research
Expedition to Stonington Island 1946
-
-
48 as further evidence of renewed
American involvement.
Argentina had not given up its claim, and with the election of President
Juan Peron in 1946, Antarctica reached a new level of importance in Argentine
politics. Argentina sent an expedition of seven ships in 1946
-
47 to establish new
stations to add to
, the station in the South Orkney Islands inherited from
the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition in 1904. Chile was also mobilising and in
1947 established its
'
Orcadas
'
on Greenwich Island. The following
year the President of Chile, Gonzalez Videla, visited the South Shetland Islands to
inaugurate the second station
first station
'
Arturo Pratt
'
'
Bernardo O
'
Higgins
'
on the Trinity Peninsula,
the
first ever visit by a head of state to the continent.
Relations continued to deteriorate with a clash at Hope Bay where Argentine soldiers
fired over the heads of British scientists, and Britain took to deporting Argentine
personnel from Deception Island as well as dismantling Argentine and Chilean
stations. Protest notes were delivered fromwarships and claimant signs thrown into the
sea. The risk of escalation was clearly recognised, as was the cost of keeping all this
military hardware in the Antarctic. A tripartite agreement in 1949 between the three
countries limited the deployment of warships south of 60
S, and this agreement was
renewed annually for another decade until superseded by the Antarctic Treaty.
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