Polar Explorers for Kids: Historic Expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic with 21 Activities
Thousands of people inhabit the Arctic and have for many thousands of years Antarctica with its harsher climate has no native peoples but hundreds of sci entists have spent months at a time here to study this vast and treacherous glacial wonderland Over the years technological advances such as navigational devices protective clothing and sturdier vessels have made exploration of these distant lands slightly less daunting But even just a few decades ago staggering dangers difficulties and discomforts awaited polar explorers in the Arctic and Antarctica These adventurers braved deadly weather with poor maps imperfect navigation technology impossible communication challenges dangerous animals uncertain food supplies and often ill health Explor ers faced unending danger and fear one storm could shove enough ice at a wooden ship to crush it like a piece of hard candy between your jaws One summer day’s sail through a field of icebergs could panic an inexperienced crew into mutiny An early winter could strand an expedition on an ice floe a large slab of floating ice a potentially fatal place A single mis take could end the whole venture and unsuccessful explorers might not be given more money from bene factors to attempt any more excursions Why did they do it Why did the polar explorers set their dreams for farthest north and farthest south Their reasons varied A few early adventurers were hermits seeking a place to be alone with God or were simply curious about what was at the
believed to be a green and pleasant place Others sought to be the first to find a new land or to thread a northwest passage from Europe to the Orient through the Arctic which would allow for trade and create a dramatic global reach for the explorers soci eties Some wanted to be the first to map the coast of Antarctica or to cross it on land Still others were motivated primarily by fame and the titles and riches it could bring monarchs knighted quite a few of the earlier explorers in the early days and later explorers sought the vast and frenzied media exposure that often followed a first ever accomplishment Some explorers wanted to claim a land base in Antarctica or to win an international race to the North or South Pole for their homeland Many simply loved making scientific discoveries they wanted to observe the penguins on an Antarctic island to invent a new nav igational device to study polar bears and other ani mals in the Arctic or to explore the customs and activities of the Inuit formerly called Eskimos who inhabited the land And of course some were moti vated by possible fortune these explorers sought to claim natural resources including new whaling grounds gold and amber in the north and oil and gas reserves in the south No matter what their moti vation was however all of their ventures to these mysterious lands were exciting dangerous and full of possibilities The polar regions have attracted a chilled parade of explorers from many countries for more than a
thousand years Polar Explorers for Kids will introduce you to many of these extraordinary adventurers to the wonders that are known about the incredible lands they explored and to the mysteries that have yet to be solved by future explorers maybe
Part I The Arctic Bering Sea St Lawrence Island See of Okhotsk Chukoda Peninsula Alaska Chukchi Beafort Victoria Island Pack ice Arctic Ocean North Pole Russia Hudso Bay Ellesmere Island Baffin Strait Greenland Baffin island Barents Sea Newfoundland Finland Iceland
