![]() The Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition of 1872–74 was the first to announce the discovery of the islands. Schilling proposed in 1865 that the ice conditions in the Barents Sea could only be explained if there was another land mass in the area, but he never received funding for an expedition. It was at the time common to keep newly discovered areas secret, as their discovery was aimed at exploiting them for sealing and whaling, and exposure would cause competitors to flock to the site. The account is believed to be factual, but an announcement of the discovery was never made, and their sighting therefore remained unknown to subsequent explorers. ![]() They sailed northeast from Svalbard in 1865 searching for suitable sealing sites and found land which was most likely Franz Josef Land. The first was the Norwegian sealing vessel Spidsbergen, with captain Nils Fredrik Rønnbeck and harpooner Johan Petter Aidijärvi. There are two candidates for the discovery of Franz Josef Land. The islands have been a nature sanctuary since 1994 and became part of the Russian Arctic National Park in 2012. With the Cold War, the islands became off limits for foreigners and two military airfields were built. ![]() The Kingdom of Norway rejected the claim and several private expeditions were sent to the islands. The islands, then under the name Fridtjof Nansen Land, were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1926, who settled small outposts for research and military purposes. The first reported finding was in the 1873 Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition led by Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht, who named the area after Emperor Franz Joseph I. ![]() The archipelago was first spotted by the Norwegian sealers Nils Fredrik Rønnbeck and Johan Petter Aidijärvi in 1865, although they did not report their finding. The highest elevations are found in the eastern group, with the highest point located on Wilczek Land, 670 meters (2,200 ft) above mean sea level. Cape Fligely on Rudolf Island is the northernmost point of the Eastern Hemisphere. Compared to other Arctic archipelagos, Franz Joseph Land has a high dissection rate of 3.6 square kilometers per coastline kilometer. The islands have a combined coastline of 4,425 kilometers (2,750 mi).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |