Adélie Land
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Terre Adélie
Adélie Land
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| Motto: Liberté, égalité, fraternité | ||||||
| Anthem: La Marseillaise |
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| Capital | Dumont d'Urville Station |
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| Official languages | French | |||||
| Government | ||||||
| - | President | Nicolas Sarkozy | ||||
| - | Administrator | Eric Pilloton | ||||
| French overseas territory | ||||||
| - | Discovered | 1940 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 432,000 km² 166,796 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||||
| - | census | 33 (winter) | ||||
| Currency | euro (EUR) |
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| Time zone | UTC+10 | |||||
| Internet TLD | .tf | |||||
| Calling code | +262 | |||||
Adélie Land is the portion of the Antarctic coast between Pourquoi Pas Point at and Point Alden at , with a shore length of 350 km and with its hinterland extending as a sector about 2,600 km toward the South Pole. It is one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. The land area, mostly ice covered, is estimated at 432,000 km².
Since January 12, 1956, there has been a permanently staffed French research base at , Dumont d'Urville Station, with a winter population of 33, which goes up to 78 in the Antarctic summer. The first French station, Port Martin, was built April 9, 1950 at , but destroyed by fire the night of January 23 to 24, 1952. Port Martin hosted a winter population of 11 in 1950 and of 17 in 1951.
France has also maintained an inland station on the Antarctic ice sheet, 320 km from the coast and from Dumont d'Urville Station, at an elevation of 2400 meters, Charcot Station (named after Jean-Baptiste Charcot) at , built for the IGY 1957/1958, in operation from January 1957 to 1960, which housed only three men. The station was largely dug into the snow to protect it against the strong winds.
Adélie Land borders on the Australian Antarctic Territory both West and East, namely on Claire Land (part of Wilkes Land) in the West, and George V Land in the East.
The coast was discovered in 1840 by French explorer Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville, who named it after his wife, Adélie.
Adélie Land was the filming location of the documentary March of the Penguins.
USA, which signed the Antarctic Treaty in which it is written that Terre Adélie is French, claims today that it's not a French territory "The US does not recognize claims to Antarctica" CIA World Fact Book
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