Antarctic Peninsula

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica, located at the base of the Southern Hemisphere. At the surface, it is the biggest, most prominent peninsula in Antarctica as it extends 1,300 km (810 miles) from a line between Cape Adams (Weddell Sea) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands. Beneath the ice sheet which covers it, the Antarctic Peninsula consists of a string of bedrock islands; these are separated by deep channels whose bottoms lie at depths considerably below current sea level. They are joined together by a grounded ice sheet. Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, lies only about 1,000 km (620 miles) away across the Drake Passage.

The Antarctic Peninsula is currently dotted with numerous research stations and nations have made multiple claims of sovereignty. The peninsula is part of disputed and overlapping claims by Argentina, Chile and the United Kingdom. None of these claims has international recognition and, under the Antarctic Treaty System, the respective countries do not attempt to enforce their claims. Argentina has the most bases and personnel stationed on the peninsula.

The first sighting of the Antarctic Peninsula by Europeans is disputed but apparently occurred in 1820. The most likely first sighting of the Antarctic Peninsula, and also of the whole Antarctic mainland, was probably on 27 January 1820 by an expedition of the Russian Imperial Navy led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. But the party did not recognize as the mainland what they thought was an icefield covered by small hillocks.

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