Scientists have discovered another continent off the coast of Australia. In what centuries were the continents discovered? Which mainland was the last to be discovered on earth

Assumption of the existence at the South Pole of a mysterious Terra Australis Incognita- Southern unknown land - spoke out long before the equipment of the first real expeditions there. Since then, as scientists guessed that the Earth has the shape of a ball, they believed that the areas of land and sea in the northern and southern hemispheres are approximately the same. Otherwise, they say, the balance would be disturbed, and our planet would be oriented towards the Sun by the side with a greater mass.

Once again, one has to be surprised at the perspicacity of M.V. Lomonosov, who in 1763, even before Cook's expeditions, very clearly formulated his idea of ​​the Southern Land: “In the vicinity of the Strait of Magellan and against the Cape of Good Hope, about 53 degrees of midday width, great ice is moving, why should there be no doubt that in a great distance the islands and the maturing earth are covered with many and non-melting snows, and that a large vastness of the earth's surface near the South Pole is occupied by them, than in the north ".

An interesting point: at first, the prevailing opinion was that the southern continent is much larger than it really was. And when the Dutchman Willem Janson discovered Australia, he gave it a name, proceeding from the assumption that it was a part of that very Terra Australis Incognita…

Off the coast of Antarctica. Photo: Peter Holgate.

The first who managed, albeit not of their own free will, to cross the Arctic Circle and, in all likelihood, see Antarctica, became the Dutch. In 1559, the ship commanded by Dirk Geeritz, in the Strait of Magellan was caught in a storm and was carried far to the south. Reaching 64 degrees south latitude, the sailors saw "High ground"... But apart from this mention, history has not preserved any other evidence of a possible discovery. As soon as the weather permitted, Geeritz immediately left the inhospitable Antarctic waters.

Dutch galleon of the 16th century.

It is possible that the case with the ship Geyeritsa was not the only one. Already in our time, wrecks of ships, clothing and kitchen utensils dating from the 16th-17th centuries have been repeatedly found on the coast of the Antarctic islands. One of these fragments, which belonged to a Spanish galleon of the 18th century, is kept in the museum of the Chilean city of Valparaiso. True, skeptics believe that all this evidence of shipwrecks could have been brought to Antarctica waves and currents.

In the 17th-18th centuries, French navigators distinguished themselves: they discovered the islands of South Georgia, Bouvet and Kerguelen, located in "Roaring forties" latitudes. The British, not wanting to lag behind their competitors, also equipped two expeditions in a row in 1768-1775. It was they who became an important stage in the study of the southern hemisphere.

Both expeditions were led by the famous captain James Cook... It repeatedly crossed the Arctic Circle, was covered with ice, crossed 71 degrees south latitude and was only 75 miles from the shores of the sixth continent, but an insurmountable wall of ice prevented them from reaching them.

Cook's expedition ship "Endeavor", modern replica.

Despite the failure to find mainland land, overall Cook's expeditions yielded impressive results. It was found that New Zealand is an archipelago, and not part of the southern mainland, as previously assumed. In addition, the shores of Australia, vast water areas were surveyed. The Pacific, several islands were discovered, astronomical observations were carried out, etc.

In domestic literature, there are statements that Cook did not believe in the existence of the Southern Land and allegedly openly declared this. In fact, this is not the case. James Cook argued just the opposite: “I will not deny that there may be a continent or significant land near the pole. On the contrary, I am convinced that such a land exists, and it is possible that we have seen part of it. Great cold weather, a huge number of ice islands and floating ice - all this proves that the land in the south should be ".

He even wrote a special treatise "The case for the existence of land near the South Pole", and named the open South Sandwich Islands in honor of the first Lord of the Admiralty Land of Sandwich, mistakenly believing that this is the protrusion of the continental land of the southern continent. At the same time, Cook, faced with the extremely harsh Antarctic climate, came to the conclusion that further research was useless. Since the mainland, "Being open and examined, it would still not bring any benefit to navigation, geography, or other branches of science"... Probably, it was this statement that for a long time discouraged the desire to send new expeditions to the Southern Land, and for half a century the harsh Antarctic waters were visited mainly by whaling and hunting vessels.

Captain James Cook.

The next and possibly the most important discovery in history Antarctica was made by Russian sailors. In July 1819, the first Russian Antarctic expedition was launched as part of two Russian Imperial Fleets "East" and "Mirny"... The first of them, and the detachment as a whole, was commanded by the captain of the 2nd rank, the second - by the lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev... It is curious that the goals of the expedition were exclusively scientific - it had to explore the remote waters of the World Ocean and find the mysterious southern continent, penetrating "To the distant latitude that can only be reached".

The Russian sailors performed the assigned tasks brilliantly. On January 28 (according to the ship's "average astronomical" time, 12 o'clock ahead of St. Petersburg time), 1820, they came close to the ice barrier of the Antarctic continent. According to them, there was "Ice field dotted with hillocks"... Lieutenant Lazarev was more specific: "We met hard ice of extreme height ... it stretched as far as sight could only reach ... From here we continued our way to the east, attempting at every opportunity to the south, but we always met the ice-floe continent"... This day is now considered the opening day. Antarctica... Although, strictly speaking, the Russian seafarers did not see the land itself: they were 20 miles from the coast, later called Queen Maud Land, and only an ice shelf appeared to their eyes.

It is curious that just three days later, on the other side of the mainland, an English sailing ship under the command of the captain Edward Bransfield approached the Antarctic Peninsula, and the ground was supposedly visible from its side. The same was stated by the captain of the American hunting ship. Nathaniel Palmer, who visited the same place in November 1820. True, both of these ships were engaged in whale and seal fishing, and their captains were primarily interested in commercial benefits, and not in the laurels of the discoverers of new lands.

American whaling ships in Antarctic waters. Artist Roy Cross.

In fairness, we note that, despite a number of controversial issues, recognition and Lazareva pioneers Antarctica deservedly and fairly. January 28, 1821 - exactly one year after the meeting with "Ice continent"- Russian sailors in sunny weather clearly saw and even sketched the mountainous coast. The last doubts disappeared: to the south stretched not just an ice massif, but snow-capped rocks. The open land was mapped as the Land of Alexander I. It is interesting to note that for a long time the Land of Alexander I was considered part of the mainland, and only in 1940 it turned out that it was an island: a strait was discovered under a multi-meter layer of shelf ice, separating it from the continent.

For two years of sailing, the ships of the first Russian Antarctic expedition circled the open continent, leaving more than 50 thousand miles astern. 29 new islands were discovered, a huge amount of various research was carried out.

Sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" off the coast of Antarctica. Artist E.V. Voishvillo.

The first person to set foot on the earth - or rather, the ice - of the southern continent, in all likelihood, was the American St. John Davis. On February 7, 1821, he disembarked from a fishing vessel in West Antarctica near Cape Charles. However, this fact is not documented in any way and is cited only from the words of the sailor, so many historians do not recognize it. The first confirmed landing on the ice continent took place 74 years (!) Later - on January 24, 1895. Norwegian

In what sequence the continents were discovered by Europeans, you will learn from this article.

In what centuries were the continents discovered?

The discovery of the continents was consistent and logical. It is known that there are 6 continents on our planet. The largest of these is Eurasia. The second continent in terms of territorial size is Africa. Its shores are washed by two oceans - the Atlantic and the Indian. Two subsequent continents, South and North America, are connected by the small Isthmus of Panama. The fifth continent is Antarctica, which is covered with a thick shell of ice. It is the only mainland of all 6 continents where there are no permanent residents. A large number of polar stations have been created there, scientists regularly visit and conduct observations. Australia is the last and smallest continent on the planet.

How did the continents get their names?

The continents were called by the Europeans who discovered them. There is no exact date for the discovery of Eurasia and Africa. It is only known that the ancient Greeks knew and distinguished Eurasia into Asia and Europe. Europe is the part of the territory that was located west of Greece, and Asia was on the east side. Africa became known to the world after the southern part of the Mediterranean coast was conquered by the Romans.

At the end of the 15th century - early XVI centuries, namely in 1492 he made a long sea expedition and discovered America.

In the 17th century Dutch sailors discovered the fifth continent, which they called "Terra Australis Incognita". This stands for Unknown South Land. The fifth continent was Australia.

The last unknown continent

Early in the morning of July 17, 1819, a Russian naval expedition set out on a long voyage from Kronstadt on two sloops - "Vostok" (Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen) and "Mirny" (Captain Mikhail Lazarev), there were 190 people on board the ships. The expedition leaders are experienced sailors: Bellingshausen took part in the first Russian round-the-world voyage under the command of Ivan Kruzenshtern; Lazarev made a three-year voyage from Kronstadt to the shores of Alaska and back. This time, they were given a particularly serious task: to penetrate through the ice of the Southern Ocean as close as possible to the South Pole, discovering unknown lands along the way, “leaving this enterprise only with insurmountable obstacles,” the instructions to the head of the expedition, Bellingshausen, said.

Mikhail Lazarev

Only half a century has passed after the thousand-day voyage of the famous James Cook, stopped by the ice of the southern ocean and declared on his return from his second voyage around the world in his book Journey to the South Pole and Around the World:

"I can safely say that no man will ever dare to penetrate further south than I was able to."

Thaddeus Bellingshausen

The Russian expedition set off with the intention of going south along the routes that the English navigator had passed. The way to the goal was far. Copenhagen, London, Portsmouth, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro ... Only at the end of November "Vostok" and "Mirny" headed for the South Pole. A description of the western coast of South Georgia Island has been made, and a volcanic island in the South Sandwich Islands group has been discovered. Snow, ice, fogs accompanied the ships. The same foggy, inhospitable was the day of January 27, 1820, when the point with coordinates 69 ° 21'28 "south latitude and 2 ° 14'50" west longitude was reached. Bellingshausen wrote in his logbook: "A continuous ice field dotted with hillocks." Lazarev: "... we met hard ice of extreme height." The study of the navigation charts of the expedition showed that on that day they were near the coast of the Antarctic continent, which was named by the Norwegian explorers 109 years later the Princess Martha Coast.

Thus, a huge continent covered with ice was discovered. But the circumspect and precise Bellingshausen wanted to verify this by going to the ground itself. Three attempts were made to approach the mainland, but the blocks of ice did not let the ships. More than a hundred days have passed in continuous voyage, they have gone around almost the entire continent - up to the twentieth meridian. Bellingshausen gave the order to go north, to Australia - to rest. The ships spent a whole month in the port of Sydney, healing the wounds inflicted by the ice, and then headed south again.

Storms, fogs, icebergs - nothing could stop the brave sailors. For the sixth time they crossed the Antarctic Circle and in January 1821 discovered the island of Peter I, and soon the mountainous coast of the south polar continent, calling it the Shore of Alexander I. From here the sloops turn to the South Shetland Islands, and Russian sailors are the first to explore them.

The approaching Antarctic winter is forcing Bellingshausen to leave the polar waters and start the return journey home. July 24, 1821, after 750 days of sailing, "Vostok" and "Mirny" arrived in Kronstadt.

Swimming of Lazarev and Bellingshausen

The results of the expedition were brilliant - 28 islands were discovered in the southern polar seas and the coast of the last mainland that remained unknown to mankind ...

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January 16 (28 Gregorian), 1820 sailing ships "Vostok" and "Mirny" approached "covered with hilly ice", as Bellingshausen pointed out in his diary, the coast of Antarctica. So was opened last mainland on Earth - the era of great geographical discoveries ended happily.

O. Tikhomirov

Even in ancient times, people believed that in the southern polar region lies a large, unexplored land. There were legends about her. They talked about all sorts of things, but most often - about gold and diamonds, which she is so rich in. Brave sailors set off to the South Pole. In search of a mysterious land, they discovered many islands, but no one was able to see the mysterious continent.
The famous English navigator James Cook made a special trip in 1775 to "find the mainland in the South Arctic Ocean", but he also retreated before the cold, squall wind and ice.
Is it really there, this unknown land? On July 4, 1819, two Russian ships left the port of Kronstadt. On one of them - on the sloop "Vostok" - the commander was Captain Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen. The second sloop, Mirny, was commanded by Lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. Both officers, experienced and fearless sailors, by that time had already managed to make a round-the-world voyage. Now they were given the task: to approach the South Pole as close as possible, "check all the wrong" that was indicated on the maps, and "discover unknown lands." Bellingshausen was appointed head of the expedition.
Four months later, both sloops entered the Brazilian port of Rio de Janeiro. The teams got a little respite. After the holds were replenished with supplies of water and food, the ships weighed down and continued on their way. More and more bad weather played out. It was getting colder. There were squalls of rain. A thick fog enveloped everything around.
In order not to get lost, the ships had to stay close to one another. At night, by order of Bellingshausen, lanterns were lit on the masts. And if it happened that the sloops lost sight of each other, they were ordered to fire from the cannons.
Every day "Vostok" and "Mirny" came closer and closer to the mysterious land. When the wind died down and the sky cleared, the sailors admired the play of the sun in the blue-green waves of the ocean, watched with interest the whales, sharks and dolphins that appeared nearby and accompanied the ships for a long time. On the ice floes began to come across seals, and then penguins - large birds that amusingly paced, stretched out in a column. It seemed that the penguins had thrown open black cloaks over their white clothes. The Russian people have never seen such amazing birds before. The travelers were amazed by the first iceberg - the floating ice mountain.
Having discovered several small islands and marked them on maps, the expedition headed for Sandwich land, which Cook was the first to discover. The English navigator did not have the opportunity to explore it and believed that a large island lay in front of him. The shores of the Sandwich land were densely covered with snow. Ice floes piled up near them. Calling these places "the terrible south", the Englishman turned back. In the logbook, Cook wrote: "I take the liberty of saying that the lands that may be in the south will never be explored."
Bellingshausen and Lazarev managed to walk 37 versts further than Cook and study the Sandwich land more precisely. They found out that this is not one island, but a number of islands. The Englishman was mistaken: what he called capes, in fact, turned out to be islands.
Making their way between the heavy ice, "Vostok" and "Mirny" tried at every opportunity to find a passage to the south. Soon there were already so many icebergs near the sloops that they had to maneuver every now and then so as not to be "shattered by these masses, which sometimes stretched up to 100 meters above the sea surface." This entry was made in his diary by midshipman Novosilsky.
On January 15, 1820, a Russian expedition crossed the Arctic Circle for the first time. The next day, from "Mirny" and "Vostok" we saw a high strip of ice on the horizon. The sailors at first mistook them for clouds. But when the fog cleared, it became clear that a coast appeared in front of the ships, consisting of hilly heaps of ice.
What is it? Has the mysterious Southern mainland? Bellingshausen did not allow himself to draw such a conclusion. The researchers put everything they saw on the map, but again the oncoming fog and snow prevented them from determining what was behind the hilly ice. Later, many years later, this very day - January 16 - began to be considered the day of the discovery of Antarctica. This was confirmed by aerial photographs: Vostok and Mirny were indeed 20 kilometers from the sixth continent.
The Russian ships could not move even deeper to the south: solid ice blocked the way. Fogs did not stop, wet snow fell incessantly. And then there was a new misfortune: an ice floe broke the skin on the Mirny sloop, and a leak formed in the hold. Captain Bellingshausen decided to head for the shores of Australia and there, in Port Jackson (now Sydney), to repair the Mirny.
The repair was not easy. Because of him, the sloops stood in the Australian port for almost a month. But now the Russian ships raised their sails and, having saluted from the cannons, went to New Zealand to explore the tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean, while winter lasted in the Southern Hemisphere.
Now the sailors were pursued not by the icy wind and blizzard, but by the scorching rays of the sun and the exhausting heat. The expedition discovered a chain of coral islands, which were named after the heroes Patriotic War 1812 During this voyage, "Vostok" almost ran into a dangerous reef - it was immediately given the name "Stranded Beware".
When ships anchored near the inhabited islands, many boats with natives rushed to the sloops. The sailors were filled with pineapples, oranges, coconuts and bananas. In exchange, the islanders received items useful to them: saws, nails, needles, dishes, fabrics, fishing tackle, in a word, everything that was needed on the farm.
July 21 "Vostok" and "Mirny" stopped off the coast of the island of Tahiti. It seemed to Russian sailors that they were in a fairy-tale world - this piece of land was so beautiful. Dark, high mountains thrust their peaks into the bright blue sky. Lush coastal greenery glowed emerald against the backdrop of azure waves and golden sand. King of the Tahitians Pomare wished to be aboard the "Vostok". Bellingshausen kindly received him, treated him to dinner, and even ordered him to fire several shots in honor of the king. Pomare was very pleased. True, with each shot he hid behind Bellingshausen's back.
Returning to Port Jackson, the sloops began to prepare for a new difficult campaign in the land of eternal cold. On October 31, they weighed anchor, heading south. Three weeks later, the ships entered the ice zone. Now the Russian ships were circling the South Arctic Circle from the opposite side.
"I see the land!" - such a signal came from the "Mirny" to the flagship on January 10, 1821. All members of the expedition poured on board in excitement. And at this time the sun, as if wishing to congratulate the sailors, for a short moment looked out of the torn clouds. Ahead, about forty miles, was a rocky island. The next day, they approached him closer. The mountainous island rose 1300 meters above the ocean. Having assembled the team, Bellingshausen solemnly announced: "The open island will bear the name of the creator of the Russian fleet, Peter the Great." Three-fold "Hurray!" swept over the harsh waves.
A week later, the expedition discovered a coast with a high mountain. Bellingshausen tried to bring the sloops to him, but an impenetrable ice field appeared in front of them. The land was called the Shore of Alexander I. The waters that wash this land and the island of Peter I were later called the Bellingshausen Sea.
The voyage of "Vostok" and "Mirny" continued for more than two years. It ended in his native Kronstadt on July 24, 1821. Russian sailors traveled eighty-four thousand versts on sloops - this is more than a double path around the globe along the equator.
The first to reach the South Pole was the Norwegian Raul Amudsen at the end of 1911. He and his expedition of several people got to the pole on skis and dog sleds. A month later, another expedition approached the Pole. It was headed by the Englishman Robert Scott. This, undoubtedly, was also a very courageous and strong-willed person. But when he saw the Norwegian flag left by Amudsen, Scott experienced a terrible shock: he is only the second! We've been here before! The Englishman had no strength left for the return trip. "God Almighty, what a terrible place!" ... - he wrote in his diary with a weakening hand.
But who owns the sixth continent, where valuable minerals and minerals have been found deep under the ice? Many countries laid claim to different parts of the mainland. The development of minerals, of course, would lead to the death of this cleanest continent on Earth. And the human mind won out. Antarctica has become a world nature reserve - the "Land of Science". Now only scientists and researchers from 67 countries work here at 40 scientific stations. Their work will help to better know and understand our planet. In honor of the Bellingshausen and Lazarev expedition, Russian stations in Antarctica are named Vostok and Mirny.