Antarctic Peninsula Tierra Del Fuego 100 Years Of Swedish Argentine Scientific Cooperation At The End Of The World

This symposium, held in Argentina in March 2003, commemorates Otto Nordenskjöld’s 1901 expedition, and pays tribute to the Swedish and Argentinian explorers who took on the challenge of early fieldwork in Patagonia and Antarctica. This theme is extended to include recent fieldwork in the natural sciences in the Archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, the Antarctic Peninsula and the sub-Antarctic seas, and celebrates the fruitfulness of continuing Swedish-Argentinian scientific cooperation. The symposium and associated activities took place in the cities of Buenos Aires, La Plata and Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego), and this book includes a selection of the most significant contributions presented at the meeting.

This symposium, held in Argentina in March 2003, commemorates Otto Nordenskjöld’s 1901 expedition, and pays tribute to the Swedish and Argentinian explorers who took on the challenge of early fieldwork in Patagonia and Antarctica. This theme is extended to include recent fieldwork in the natural sciences in the Archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, the Antarctic Peninsula and the sub-Antarctic seas, and celebrates the fruitfulness of continuing Swedish-Argentinian scientific cooperation. The symposium and associated activities took place in the cities of Buenos Aires, La Plata and Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego), and this book includes a selection of the most significant contributions presented at the meeting.

One of the most intriguing paleobiogeographical phenomena involving the origins and gradual sundering of Gondwana concerns the close similarities and, in most cases, inferred sister-group relationships of a number of terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate taxa, e.g., dinosaurs, flying birds, mammals, etc., recovered from uppermost Cretaceous/ Paleogene deposits of West Antarctica, South America, and NewZealand/Australia. For some twenty five extensive and productive investigations in the field of vertebrate paleontology has been carried out in latest Cretaceous and Paleogene deposits in the James Ross Basin, northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), West Antarctica, on the exposed sequences on James Ross, Vega, Seymour (=Marambio) and Snow Hill islands respectively. The available geological, geophysical and marine faunistic evidence indicates that the peninsular (AP) part of West Antarctica and the western part of the tip of South America (Magallanic Region, southern Chile) were positioned very close in the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene favoring the “Overlapping” model of South America-Antarctic Peninsula paleogeographic reconstruction. Late Cretaceous deposits from Vega, James Ross, Seymour and Snow Hill islands have produced a discrete number of dinosaur taxa and a number of advanced birds together with four mosasaur and three plesiosaur taxa, and a few shark and teleostean taxa.

A wealth of new information on the diversity, evolution and geochronology of the uniquely complete fossil record of Gran Barranca.

Featuring the previously unpublished diary of José María Sobral, Under-Lieutenant of the Argentine Navy, this book provides insight on his life and his participation in Otto Nordenskjöld's Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1903. This biography highlights Sobral's personal thoughts on the mission, his position, the science being discovered, and the geopolitical situation around him. The reader also learns about the state of science, Antarctic exploration, and cultural-political-issues at that time. The author's critical and contextual analysis of the diary explains more about Sobral and his role in Argentina, Antarctica, science and history. This paints a detailed picture of Sobral as an individual, and provides the framework to depict the world in which Sobral lived and worked as well as his expedition and accomplishments. The book aims to explain the context of Sobral's writings, the significance of the events he described in his diary entries, and the way all of these events tied into history and scientific discovery.

For more than a century, the study of hunting and gathering societies has been central to the development of both archaeology and anthropology as academic disciplines, and has also generated widespread public interest and debate. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers provides a comprehensive review of hunter-gatherer studies to date, including critical engagements with older debates, new theoretical perspectives, and renewed obligations for greater engagement between researchers and indigenous communities. Chapters provide in-depth archaeological, historical, and anthropological case-studies, and examine far-reaching questions about human social relations, attitudes to technology, ecology, and management of resources and the environment, as well as issues of diet, health, and gender relations - all central topics in hunter-gatherer research, but also themes that have great relevance for modern global society and its future challenges. The Handbook also provides a strategic vision for how the integration of new methods, approaches, and study regions can ensure that future research into the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers will continue to deliver penetrating insights into the factors that underlie all human diversity.

This book discusses the expansion of new activities carried out in Antarctica and the focus among treaty parties on the perceived challenges posed by adventure tourism in the region. Shedding light on the latest trends and the modus operandi of all parties involved, it draws attention to new elements in the debate on how tourism and environmental protection can best be reconciled, with tourism in Antarctica rapidly increasing in recent decades. As far as technical practice and visitor guidance are concerned, the challenge facing tour operators lies in determining whether tourism has a negative or positive impact on the environment. The individual chapters address the development of polar tourism in terms of numbers, types and activities. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, which advocates and promotes the practice of safe and environmentally responsible travel to the Antarctic, is also part of this study. In this context, special attention is paid to its strategies relating to adventure tourism – including both deep-field activities and those additional or new activities launched from traditional ship or yacht-based platforms. The analysis includes aspects of risk management and environmental considerations, as well as views on the cultural perspectives of Antarctica.

The volume highlights developments in our understanding of the palaeogeographical, palaeobiological, palaeoclimatic and cryospheric evolution of Antarctica. It focuses on the sedimentary record from the Devonian to the Quaternary Period. It features tectonic evolution and stratigraphy, as well as processes taking place adjacent to, beneath and beyond the ice-sheet margin, including the continental shelf. The contributions in this volume include several invited review papers, as well as original research papers arising from the International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences in Edinburgh, in July 2011. These papers demonstrate a remarkable diversity of Earth science interests in the Antarctic. Following international trends, there is particular emphasis on the Cenozoic Era, reflecting the increasing emphasis on the documentation and understanding of the past record of ice-sheet fluctuations. Furthermore, Antarctic Earth history is providing us with important information about potential future trends, as the impact of global warming is increasingly felt on the continent and its ocean.