FRANCE - TAAF - Adélie Land /Terre Adélie

 

Adélie Land (French: Terre Adélie, French: [tɛʁ adeli]) is a claimed territory on the continent of Antarctica. It stretches from a portion of the Southern Ocean coastline all the way inland to the South Pole. France has administered it as one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands since 1955 and applied the Antarctic Treaty System rules since 1961. Article 4 deals with territorial claims, and although it does not renounce or diminish any preexisting claims to sovereignty, it also does not prejudice the position of Contracting Parties in their recognition or non-recognition of territorial sovereignty. France has had a permanent station in Adélie Land since April 9, 1950. The current Dumont d'Urville Station has a winter population around 25, but this goes up to about 78 during the Antarctic summer. A species of penguin, the Adélie penguin, is named after it.

Adélie Land lies between 136° E (near Pourquoi Pas Point at 66°12′S 136°11′E) and 142° E (near Point Alden at 66°48′S 142°02′E), with a shore length of about 350 kilometres (220 mi) and with its inland part extending as a sector of a circle about 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) toward the South Pole. Adélie Land has borders with the Australian Antarctic Territory both on the east and on the west, namely on Clarie Land (part of Wilkes Land) in the west, and George V Land in the east. Its total land area, mostly covered with glaciers, is estimated to be 432,000 square kilometres (167,000 sq mi). The coast of Adélie Land was discovered in January 1840 by the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790–1842) who named it after his wife, Adèle.^[3] This is the basis of the French claim to this Antarctic land.