Terra Australis Incognita Trivia Quiz

Answer: James Cook

It was during Cook's second voyage, in command of the Resolution, that he became the first man to cross the Antarctic Circle. This, according to records, happened on January 17th 1773. He reached a latitude of 71 degrees 10 minutes south, coming within 75 miles of the continent itself. Only the presence of field ice made him turn back.
Weddell and Ross came later and Furneaux was in command of the other ship, Adventure, that was involved in Cook's expedition.

Answer: F. G. von Bellinghausen

According to their ship's log Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen, of the Russian Imperial Navy, first sighted an icy shelf on January 27th 1820, beating Bransfield, of the Royal Navy, by just two or three days. Von Bellinghausen sited what is now called Princess Martha Coast and Bransfield saw what is today known as Trinity Peninsular.

Answer: Ernest Shackleton

This was the so called Nimrod Expedition, named after the ship that they sailed in. Mount Erebus is noted for being the southernmost active volcano on the planet. The magnetic pole was reached on January 15th 1909, and was the first time that a motor vehicle was used on the continent.

A party led by Shackleton himself set off to reach the geographical pole, but had to turn back just 97 miles short of their target.

Answer: Lack of leadership

Scott's expedition took a variety of transport with them, motors, horses and dogs. Scott, however, failed to outline to his party what their exact roles were, and so there was considerable confusion as to what they were supposed to do. Amundsen had learned from earlier expeditions to the North Pole that preparation was vital.

He also learned the importance of using dogs rather than horses. Even though Scott used Siberian ponies, they were of a very poor quality because the man that bought them knew very little about them. Amundsen's earlier trips north had prepared him for the hardships of the journey to the south.

Answer: Cape Denison

Mount Erebus and Mount Terror were named by Ross after his vessels. Victoria Land was named by him in honour of Queen Victoria and is one of the closest parts of the continent to Australia and New Zealand. The Ross Sea, Ross Dependency and the Ross Ice Shelf were named after him. James Ross had considerable experience of cold climates having taken part in five Arctic expeditions.

It was during one of those that on June 1st 1831 that Ross located the Magnetic North Pole.

Answer: South Georgia

Although Tierra Del Fuego was the nearest inhabited land, prevailing winds prevented Shackleton heading in that direction. He decided that the only real option was to make the 800 mile (1500km) journey to South Georgia where there were whaling stations.

The journey was made in a 22ft open boat which Shackleton had named the James Caird. It took 17 days for them to reach land. Because of the condition of the boat and two of the crew, Shackleton and the other two men walked across the island to reach Stromness. Because of the Antarctic winter it was three months before a rescue mission could set out for Elephant Island.

Not a single member of the expedition died.

Answer: Fram and Terra Nova

Amundsen's ship, Fram, had been used many times on expeditions to the Arctic and was probably the strongest wooden ship to have been built at the time. Terra Nova was built for the Dundee whaling fleet and served for 10 years off the coast of Labrador. Both ships survived but Terra Nova finally sank off Greenland in 1943. Fram was preserved and put on exhibition in Oslo. Discovery was the ship that Scott used on his first expedition, Explorer was a cruise ship that sank in 2007 after hitting an iceberg. Scotia was a Scottish vessel that was used to explore the Weddell Sea in 1902/4, Altair and Dagrun were Norwegian merchant vessels during the 1940s. Polheim is the only one that was not a ship.

The name means 'Pole Home' and was the name of Amundsen's base camp.

Answer: True

The team that became only the third to reach the pole was lead by Sir Edmund Hillary. They were the New Zealand part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1958. They were also the first to reach the pole using motor transportation.

Answer: Canada

One of the aims of the expedition was to complete the first overland crossing of the continent via the pole. Fuchs set out from Shackleton Base using a combination of specially adapted tractors and tracked vehicles. Another party, led by Sir Edmund Hillary set out from Scott Base on the other side of the continent.

Their job was to lay supply depots for Fuchs' onward journey. After meeting at the pole on January 19th 1958, Fuchs and his team set out to complete the journey. They reached Scott Base on March 2nd, taking 99 days to cross the continent, a trip of some 2158 miles (3473km). Shackleton's dream had finally been realised.

Answer: A birth

Emilio Marcos de Palma was born on January 7th 1978 to Argentinian parents. He was the first person to be born in Antarctica, and at the time was the person born the furthest south. The military action also took place at Hope Bay, but this took place in 1952 when Argentine forces fired over the heads of personnel of the British Antarctic Survey who were unloading supplies. An official apology was given.

The air crash happened over Mount Erebus in 1979 when an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashed killing all on board. Nuclear weapons are strictly forbidden by the Antarctic Treaty which came into force in 1961.