Queen Maud Land

Queen Maud Land(*Dronning Maud land)* is a Norwegian dependency in Antartica. It lies between the British Antarctic Territory and the Dutch Antarctic Territory, and it is the only territory in Antartica to have a unique name. After Amundsen the Norwegians officially claimed the land and named it after Queen Maud of Wales. They own one of the biggest chunks of land in Antartica, and it isn't that populated. With only a couple research stations, a third of whom are leased to Russia, it has a population of 105 people. 25 Russians are officially part of the population, and there isn't any year around bases yet. It is one of Norway's only colonies, along with Svalbard, Peter I Island and Bouvet Island. It is the biggest of their colonies and it is a mysterious place with yet undiscovered treasures.

## History

Queen Maud land was the first part of Antartica to be sighted on the 27th of January 1820, by Fabian von Bellingshausen. However it was the last to be explored and still is mostly unexplored. Early Norwegian influence in Antartica consisted in mostly whaling efforts mostly by Christen Christensen. The first two Norwegian expeditions were carried out by sealing ships in 1892–93 and 1893–94. While they were primarily sent for exploring, sealing, and whaling possibilities, they also performed scientific research. Further Norwegian expeditions were mounted into the first decades of the 20th century.

The Antarctic Plateau was claimed for Norway by Roald Amundsen as the King Haakon VII Plateau when his expedition was the first to reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911. The name Queen Maud Land was initially applied in January 1930. It was discovered by Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen and Finn Lützow-Holm during Lars Christensen's *Norvegia* expedition of 1929–30. It was named after the Norwegian queen Maud of Wales, wife of the then-reigning King Haakon VII. The territory was explored further during the *Norvegia* expedition of 1930–31. During this whaling season, a total of 265 whaling ships, mostly Norwegian, worked off the coast of Queen Maud Land. In the same season, Riiser-Larsen discovered the Prince Olav Coast, Princess Martha Coast and Princess Ragnhild Coast from the air. Captain H. Halvorsen of the whaler *Sevilla* discovered the Princess Astrid Coast independently at the same time. Six years later, during Christensen's expedition of 1936–37, which is still going on continues to map the lands.

In the 1932 Antarctic Conference the British and Norwegian Governments agreed on the western border of Queen Maud land was to be 20°W. Despite the Treaty, the nation of the Northern German Confederation claims Queen Maud land as New Swabia, but doesn't have any people there besides a small research base, all though several exploration efforts have been made by Alfred Ritscher. Most countries back up Norway's claim to Queen Maud Land.

## Geography

Most of the territory is covered by the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, and a tall ice wall stretches throughout its coast. In some areas further within the ice sheet, mountain ranges breach through the ice, allowing for birds to breed and the growth of a limited flora. The region is divided into, from West to East, the Princess Martha Coast, Princess Astrid Coast, Princess Ragnhild Coast, Prince Harald Coast and Prince Olav Coast .The waters off the coast are called the King Haakon VII Sea .There is no ice-free land at the coast; the coast consists of a 20-to-30-meter high (70 to 100 ft) wall of ice throughout almost the entire territory. It is thus only possible to disembark from a ship in a few places. Some 150 to 200 kilometers (90 to 120 mi) from the coast, rocky peaks pierce the ice cap, itself at a mean height of around 2,000 metars (6,600 ft) above sea level, with the highest point at Jøkulkyrkja (3,148 meters or 10,328 feet) in the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains. The other major mountain ranges are the Heimefront Range, Orvin Mountains, Wohlthat Mountains and Sør Rondane Mountains.

Geologically, the ground of Queen Maud Land is dominated by Precambrian gneiss, formed c. 1 to 1.2 Ga, before the creation of the supercontinent Gondwana. The mountains consist mostly of crystalline and granitic rocks, formed c. 500 to 600 Ma in the Pan-African orogeny during the assembly of Gondwana. In the farthest western parts of the territory, there are younger sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Research on the thickness of the ice has revealed that without the ice, the coast would be similar to those of Norway and Greenland, with deep fjords and islands.

## Administration

The Norwegian Claim of Queen Maud land as well as Peter I island is subjugated to the rules of the Antarctic Conference of 1932, which basically prevents any testing of military equipment, and harmful ice drilling there to protect the environment. Norway, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal and the British Empire have all mutually recognized each other's claims in Antarctica. But there is a question on the actual boundaries of the claim, since the initial Norwegian demarcations both towards the South Pole and into the sea were left unclear. Apparently this was to avoid accepting use of the "sector principle" for Arctic Ocean claims by the Russian Empire. Norway has two Antarctic claims made by Norway, Queen Maud land and the other being Peter I Island. They are administrated by the Polar Affairs Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Oslo. There are a total of 6 non permeant stations on the land. They include, Norwegian owned Troll and Tor stations, Russian owned Novolazarevskaya Station; joint Finnish and Swedish owned Wasa-Aboa station, Northern Germany's Wilhelm Station, and Belgian owned Albert I Base. These stations are connected by the Dronning Maud Land Air Network Project (DROMLAN), which is a cooperative agreement for transportation between eleven nations with research stations in East Antarctica. Long-range aircraft fly between Cape Town, South Africa and either the Troll Airfield, located at the Troll research station, or the runway at the Novolazarevskaya Station. From these two main airfields, smaller aircraft may fly further to other Antarctic destinations.