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Adélie Land

 

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Adélie Land



 
 
Adélie Land is the portion of the Antarctic coast between Pourquoi Pas Point
Pourquoi Pas Point

Pourquoi Pas is an ice-covered point which forms the west side of the entrance to Victor Bay. Charted by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1950-52, and named in 1954 after the French polar ship Pourquoi Pas ? IV. ...
 at and Point Alden
Point Alden

Point Alden in Antarctica is an ice-covered point with rock exposures along the seaward side. The point marks the western side of the entrance to Commonwealth Bay and the division between Ad?lie Land and George V Coast in Antarctica....
 at , with a shore length of 350 km and with its hinterland extending as a sector
Circular sector

A circular sector or circle sector, is the portion of a circle enclosed by two radius and an Arc , where the smaller area is known as the minor sector and the larger being the major sector....
 about 2,600 km toward the South Pole
South Pole

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's rotation intersects the surface....
. It is one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. The land area, mostly ice covered, is estimated at 432,000 km².

Since January 12, 1956, there has been a permanently staffed French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 research base at , Dumont d'Urville Station
Dumont d'Urville Station

The Dumont d'Urville Station is a France scientific station located in Antarctica on ?le des P?trels, archipelago of Pointe G?ologie in Ad?lie Land....
, with a winter population of 33, which goes up to 78 in the Antarctic summer.






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Adélie Land is the portion of the Antarctic coast between Pourquoi Pas Point
Pourquoi Pas Point

Pourquoi Pas is an ice-covered point which forms the west side of the entrance to Victor Bay. Charted by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1950-52, and named in 1954 after the French polar ship Pourquoi Pas ? IV. ...
 at and Point Alden
Point Alden

Point Alden in Antarctica is an ice-covered point with rock exposures along the seaward side. The point marks the western side of the entrance to Commonwealth Bay and the division between Ad?lie Land and George V Coast in Antarctica....
 at , with a shore length of 350 km and with its hinterland extending as a sector
Circular sector

A circular sector or circle sector, is the portion of a circle enclosed by two radius and an Arc , where the smaller area is known as the minor sector and the larger being the major sector....
 about 2,600 km toward the South Pole
South Pole

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's rotation intersects the surface....
. It is one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. The land area, mostly ice covered, is estimated at 432,000 km².

Since January 12, 1956, there has been a permanently staffed French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 research base at , Dumont d'Urville Station
Dumont d'Urville Station

The Dumont d'Urville Station is a France scientific station located in Antarctica on ?le des P?trels, archipelago of Pointe G?ologie in Ad?lie Land....
, with a winter population of 33, which goes up to 78 in the Antarctic summer. The first French station, Port Martin, was built April 9, 1950 at , but destroyed by fire the night of January 22 to 23, 1952. Port Martin hosted a winter population of 11 in 1950 and of 17 in 1951.

France has also maintained an inland station on the Antarctic ice sheet
Ice sheet

An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 square kilometer . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of Canada and North America, the Wisconsin glaciation ice sheet covered n...
, 320 km from the coast and from Dumont d'Urville Station, at an elevation
Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the above mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height is used for points above the surface, such as an aircraft in flight or a s...
 of 2400 meters, Charcot Station (named after Jean-Baptiste Charcot
Jean-Baptiste Charcot

Jean-Baptiste Charcot , born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a France scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. His father was the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot ....
) at , built for the IGY 1957/1958, in operation from January 1957 to 1960, which housed only three men. The station was largely dug into the snow to protect it against the strong winds.

Adélie Land borders on the Australian Antarctic Territory
Australian Antarctic Territory

The Australian Antarctic Territory is the part of Antarctica claimed by Australia and is the largest territory of Antarctica claimed by any nation....
 both West and East, namely on Claire Land (part of Wilkes Land
Wilkes Land

Wilkes Land is a large district of land in eastern Antarctica, formally claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, though the validity of this claim has been placed in abeyance for the period of the operation of the Antarctic Treaty, to which Australia is a signatory....
) in the West, and George V Land in the East.

The coast was discovered in 1840 by French explorer Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville, who named it after his wife, Adélie.

Adélie Land was the filming location of the documentary March of the Penguins.

Under the Antarctic Treaty System
Antarctic Treaty System

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ATS, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population....
, the French claim to Adélie Land, like other claims to Antarctic territory, is neither recognised nor disputed by other signatories to the Treaty.

See also

  • List of places named after people
    List of places named after people

    There are a number of places named after famous people. For more on the general etymology of place names see toponomy. For other lists of eponyms see eponym....


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