Ruggiero

QUESTION 1: WHAT DOES ANTARCTICA MEAN?  Ancient Greek philosophers talked about an Arctic land long before it was officially discovered. Around the time of 350 BC, they assumed that there would be a southern landmass to balance the northern landmass at the North Pole. The Northern landmass was called the Arctic, after the Greek word for bear, Arktos. From the Arctic, the bear constellation was visible in the Arctic night sky, just as the southern cross is visible in the southern skies. So Antarctica means “opposite the bear”.  media type="custom" key="19358536" QUESTION 2: HOW WAS ANTARCTICA DISCOVERED?  In 1772, Captain James Cook set off from England in search of a southern continent, hoping to travel as far south as possible. At first, Cook reached huge ice blocks that stopped him from travelling any further south. At this time, he was yet to sight any land, however shortly after he went on to reach Australia and New Zealand. In January 1772 he reached the Antarctic circle then later reached Antarctica but there was no recorded date when he reached Antarctica.

QUESTION 3: HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHO THE MAN ON THE 100 DOLLAR NOTE IS? It’s Sir Douglas Mawson (1882-1958) Sir Douglas Mawson is remembered as Australia’s most famous Antarctic explorer. The first permanent Antarctic base was named in his honour. Thanks to Mawson’s efforts, Australia owns and protects 49% of Antarctica. Mawson studied and later lectured in geological sciences at universities in Sydney and Adelaide. He became fascinated with learning more about Antarctica and spent a considerable amount of time and effort exploring the continent in the early parts of the 20th century. Mawson felt that it was important that people find out about Antarctica, and preserve Antarctica for as long as possible.