{"title":"Roald Amundsen’s route across the polar plateau in 1911–1912","authors":"Björn Lantz","doi":"10.1017/S0032247422000274","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Roald Amundsen’s exact route from the top of the Axel Heiberg glacier to the South Pole and back in 1911–1912 has always been somewhat unclear because he never observed his longitude during his southern journey. His approach was simply to steer approximately in a true southerly direction by magnetic compass as long as obstacles did not force him to deviate. The fact that he only knew approximately where he was most of the time on the polar plateau never caused any severe problems for him, but it complicated the search for a depot during the return journey. Based on Amundsen’s bearings of some peaks in the Transantarctic Mountains, in combination with his compass courses adjusted with accurate values for the magnetic declination at the time, this paper elucidates Amundsen’s actual route across the polar plateau in 1911–1912. The main result is that Amundsen must have taken a more easterly route than what previously has been assumed.","PeriodicalId":49685,"journal":{"name":"Polar Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Polar Record","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247422000274","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Roald Amundsen’s exact route from the top of the Axel Heiberg glacier to the South Pole and back in 1911–1912 has always been somewhat unclear because he never observed his longitude during his southern journey. His approach was simply to steer approximately in a true southerly direction by magnetic compass as long as obstacles did not force him to deviate. The fact that he only knew approximately where he was most of the time on the polar plateau never caused any severe problems for him, but it complicated the search for a depot during the return journey. Based on Amundsen’s bearings of some peaks in the Transantarctic Mountains, in combination with his compass courses adjusted with accurate values for the magnetic declination at the time, this paper elucidates Amundsen’s actual route across the polar plateau in 1911–1912. The main result is that Amundsen must have taken a more easterly route than what previously has been assumed.
期刊介绍:
Polar Record is an international, peer-reviewed scholarly periodical publishing results from a wide range of polar research areas. The journal covers original primary research papers in the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, life sciences, and polar technology, as well as papers concerning current political, economic, legal, and environmental issues in the Arctic or Antarctic. Polar Record endeavours to provide rapid publication, normally within nine months of initial submission.