Introductory remarks

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1977
• Subjects: Antarctic; Argentina; South Orkney Islands; The Antarctic; Antarc*; British Antarctic Survey
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1977.0067; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1977.0067

It is now only 80 years since man first set foot on the Antarctic Continent. Thereafter there were sporadic expeditions from various nations, which were mainly exploratory in the geographical sense although scientific studies were increasingly included. Even so, the area was so vast (13.5 x 10 6 km 2 5 1/4 million square miles), the expeditions so intermittent, widely dispersed and of such short duration (at most two years), that there could be no continuity of observation. Apart from the steady occupation by Argentina since 1904 of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition’s station in the South Orkney Islands, long-term studies began with a naval operation in 1943, the forerunner of the British Antarctic Survey, and have continued to this day. But really it was not until the International Geophysical Year in 1957/8 that a broad based scientific attack on the continent was made. At that time 12 countries maintained 44 stations, both around the perimeter and in the interior of the continent; today the number is 27.