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Abstract

abstract

Much of the scientific research in the polar regions prior to the 1950s was concentrated on the Arctic or the sub-Antarctic regions. Of the 14 expeditions which participated in the First International Polar Year (1882-1883) only two were in the Southern Hemisphere and of these the French station at Tierra del Fuego at 55° S was the furthest south. Although there was a larger number of stations in the Southern Hemisphere during the course of the Second Polar Year (1932-33), there was only one station on a sub-Antarctic island and none on the Antarctic continent.