Wilkes Land
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory
Australian Antarctic Territory
The Australian Antarctic Territory is a part of Antarctica. It was claimed by the United Kingdom and placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1933. It is the largest territory of Antarctica claimed by any nation...
, though the validity of this claim has been placed for the period of the operation of the Antarctic Treaty, to which Australia is a signatory. It fronts on the southern Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
between Queen Mary Coast
Queen Mary Coast
Queen Mary Land or the Queen Mary Coast is that portion of the coast of the Australian Antarctic Territory lying between Cape Filchner, in 91° 54' E, and Cape Hordern, at 100° 30' E. It was discovered in February 1912 by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under the leadership of Douglas...
and Adelie Land
Adélie Land
Adélie Land is the portion of the Antarctic coast between 136° E and 142° E , with a shore length of 350 km and with its hinterland extending as a sector about 2,600 km toward the South Pole. It is claimed by France as one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, although not...
, extending from Cape Hordern
Cape Hordern
Cape Hordern is an ice-free cape, overlain by morainic drift, at the northwest end of the Bunger Hills in Antarctica. Probably sighted from Watson Bluff by A.L. Kennedy and other members of the Western Base Party of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Mawson, 1911-14, who charted the west...
in 100°31' E to Pourquoi Pas Point
Pourquoi Pas Point
Pourquoi Pas is an ice-covered point which forms the west side of the entrance to Victor Bay. It was charted by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1950-52, and named in 1954 after the French polar ship Pourquoi-Pas?....
, in 136°11' E. The region extends as a sector
Circular sector
A circular sector or circle sector, is the portion of a disk enclosed by two radii and an arc, where the smaller area is known as the minor sector and the larger being the major sector. In the diagram, θ is the central angle in radians, r the radius of the circle, and L is the arc length of the...
about 2600 km
Kilometre
The kilometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second...
towards 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 axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
, with an estimated land area of 2,600,000 km², mostly glaciated. It is further subdivided in the following coastal areas which can also be thought of as sectors extending to the South Pole:
- Knox Land: 100°31' E to 109°16' E
- Budd Land: 109°16' E to 115°33' E
- Sabrina Land: 115°33' E to 122°05' E
- Banzare Land: 122°05' E to 130°10' E
- Clarie Land: (Wilkes Coast) 130°10' E to 136°11' E
In a wider sense, Wilkes Land extends further East to 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 Adélie Coast and George V Coast in Antarctica. The point was discovered on January 30, 1840 by the USEE under...
in 142°02' E, thereby including Adelie Land
Adélie Land
Adélie Land is the portion of the Antarctic coast between 136° E and 142° E , with a shore length of 350 km and with its hinterland extending as a sector about 2,600 km toward the South Pole. It is claimed by France as one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, although not...
, which is claimed by France.
Name
Wilkes Land is named after Lieutenant Charles WilkesCharles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and commanded the ship in the Trent Affair during the American Civil War...
(later a Rear Admiral), the American explorer who commanded the 1838–42 United States Exploring Expedition. The naming is in recognition of Wilkes' discovery of the continental margin
Continental margin
The continental margin is the zone of the ocean floor that separates the thin oceanic crust from thick continental crust. Continental margins constitute about 28% of the oceanic area....
over a distance of 2,400 km
Kilometre
The kilometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second...
(1,500 mile
Mile
A mile is a unit of length, most commonly 5,280 feet . The mile of 5,280 feet is sometimes called the statute mile or land mile to distinguish it from the nautical mile...
s) of coast, thus providing substantial proof that Antarctica is a continent
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
. This definition of extent excludes the area east of 142°02' E, George V Land
George V Land
George V Land is a segment of Antarctica part of the land claimed as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, inland from the George V Coast. As with other segments of Antarctica, it is defined by two lines of longitude, 142°02' E and 153°45' E, and by the 60°S parallel....
, which was sighted by Wilkes but has been shown by later expeditions to be further south than the positions originally assigned by him.
Geology
In 2006 a team of researchers led by Ralph von FreseRalph von Frese
Ralph R. B. von Frese is an American geophysicist at the Ohio State University who identified the Wilkes Land crater with Laramie Potts.In 1969, von Frese obtained a B.A. cum laude from Park College in physics, mathematics and German. He earned M.Sc degrees in physics and geophysics and a Ph.D....
and Laramie Potts
Laramie Potts
Laramie Potts is an American scientist at the Ohio State University who identified the Wilkes Land crater with Ralph von Frese. He is from South Africa...
used gravity measurements by NASA's GRACE
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
The Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment , a joint mission of NASA and the German Space Agency, has been making detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field since its launch in March 2002....
satellites to discover the 300-mile-wide Wilkes Land crater
Wilkes Land crater
Wilkes Land crater is an informal term that may apply to two separate cases of conjectured giant impact craters hidden beneath the ice cap of Wilkes Land, East Antarctica...
, which probably formed about 250 million years ago.
Wilkes Land in Popular Culture
- Wilkes Land is featured prominently in the 1998 film The X-FilesThe X-Files (film)The X-Files is a 1998 American science fiction-thriller film written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Rob Bowman. It is the first feature film based on The X-Files series created by Carter that revolves around a fictional FBI paranormal investigation unit called the X-Files...
. Fox Mulder journeys to Antarctica to save his partner Dana ScullyDana ScullyFBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
, who is being held there against her will. In the process discovering a huge secret lab under the surface run by the Cigarette-Smoking Man.