1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910809232703321

Autore

Stump Edmund

Titolo

The roof at the bottom of the world : discovering the Transantarctic Mountains / / Edmund Stump

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2011

ISBN

1-283-33177-2

9786613331779

0-300-17846-8

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (273 p.)

Disciplina

551.43/209989

Soggetti

Geology - Antarctica - Transantarctic Mountains

Orogeny - Antarctica - Transantarctic Mountains

Transantarctic Mountains (Antarctica)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Through the Portal -- 2. From the Sea to the Ice Plateau -- 3. Fire, Ice, and the Magnetic Pole -- 4. Penetrating the Interior -- 5. Beyond the Horizon -- 6. Earth's Land's End -- 7. To the IGY and Beyond -- Epilogue -- Appendix 1 -- Appendix 2 -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The Transantarctic Mountains are the most remote mountain belt on Earth, an utterly pristine wilderness of ice and rock rising to majestic heights and extending for 1,500 miles. In this book, Edmund Stump is the first to show us this continental-scale mountain system in all its stunning beauty and desolation, and the first to provide a comprehensive, fully illustrated history of the region's discovery and exploration. The author not only has conducted extensive research in the Transantarctic Mountains during his forty-year career as a geologist but has also systematically photographed the entire region. Selecting the best of the best of his more than 8,000 photographs, he presents nothing less than the first atlas of these mountains. In addition, he examines the original firsthand accounts of the heroic Antarctic explorations of James Clark Ross (who discovered the



mountain range in the early 1840's), Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, Richard Byrd, and scientists participating in the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958). From these records, Stump is now able to trace the actual routes of the early explorers with unprecedented accuracy. With maps old and new, stunning photographs never before published, and tales of intrepid explorers, this book takes the armchair traveler on an expedition to the Antarctic wilderness that few have ever seen.