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Wilkins, Sir George Hubert

(Encyclopedia)Wilkins, Sir George Hubert, 1888–1958, British explorer, b. Australia. He made a number of trips to Antarctica and to the Arctic. Valuable experience gained when he accompanied Vilhjalmur Stefansson...

Bellingshausen Sea

(Encyclopedia)Bellingshausen Sea, part of the S Pacific Ocean, W Antarctica, SW of Cape Horn between the Antarctic Peninsula and Amundsen Sea. The sea is named after Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshau...

quadrant, in analytic geometry

(Encyclopedia)quadrant. 1 In analytic geometry, one of the four regions of the plane determined by two lines, the x-axis and the y-axis. Commonly these lines are drawn perpendicular to each other, and the quadrants...

nimbus, in art

(Encyclopedia)nimbus nĭmˈbəs [key], in art, the luminous disk or circle or other indication of light around the head of a sacred personage. It was used in Buddhist and other Asian art and by the early Greeks and...

chord, in geometry

(Encyclopedia)chord kôrd [key], in geometry, straight line segment both end points of which lie on the circumference of a circle or other curve; it is a segment of a secant. A chord passing through the center of a...

Filchner, Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Filchner, Wilhelm vĭlˈhĕlm fĭlkhˈnər [key], 1877–1957, German explorer, geophysicist, and travel writer. He led several expeditions to China and Tibet, where he established magnetic stations, ...

toothfish

(Encyclopedia)toothfish, common name for a genus (Dissostichus) of deep-water marine ray-finned fishes found in waters off S South America to Antarctica. The Patagonian toothfish, D. eleginoides, is the northerly o...

whaling

(Encyclopedia)whaling, the hunting of whales for the oil that can be rendered from their flesh, for meat, and for baleen (whalebone). Historically, whale oil was economically the most important. In 1932–33, par...

Marie Byrd Land

(Encyclopedia)Marie Byrd Land, area of W Antarctica, E of the Ross Shelf Ice and the Ross Sea and S of the Amundsen Sea; the Ford Ranges lie in the northwest part. The region was discovered and claimed for the Unit...

Nordenskjöld, Nils Otto Gustaf

(Encyclopedia)Nordenskjöld, Nils Otto Gustaf, 1869–1928, Swedish geographer and explorer, nephew of Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld. He headed an expedition to Patagonia (1895–97) and later explored the Klondike...