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Queen Maud Land ((ノルウェー語:Dronning Maud Land)) is a c. 2.7 million-square-kilometre (1 million sq mi) region of Antarctica claimed as a dependent territory by Norway. The territory lies between 20° west and 45° east, between the British Antarctic Territory to the west and the Australian Antarctic Territory to the east. The latitudinal limits of the territory were not officially defined〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Norwegian Polar Institute )〕 until 2015 when Norway formally laid claim to the area between it and the South Pole. Positioned in East Antarctica, the territory comprises about one-fifth of the total area of Antarctica. The claim is named for the Norwegian queen Maud of Wales (1869–1938). Norwegian Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen was the first person known to have set foot in the territory, in 1930. On 14 January 1939, the territory was claimed by Norway. From 1939 until 1945, Germany claimed New Swabia,〔 which consisted of part of Queen Maud Land. On 23 June 1961, Queen Maud Land became part of the Antarctic Treaty System, making it a demilitarised zone. It is one of two Antarctic claims made by Norway, the other being Peter I Island. They are administrated by the Polar Affairs Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security in Oslo. Most of the territory is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, and a tall ice wall stretches throughout its coast. In some areas further within the ice sheet, mountain ranges breach through the ice, allowing for birds to breed and the growth of a limited flora. The region is divided into the Princess Martha Coast, Princess Astrid Coast, Princess Ragnhild Coast, Prince Harald Coast and Prince Olav Coast. The waters off the coast are called the King Haakon VII Sea. There is no permanent population, although there are 12 active research stations housing a maximum average of 40 scientists, the numbers fluctuating depending on the season. Six are occupied year-round, while the remainder are seasonal summer stations. The main aerodromes for intercontinental flights, corresponding with Cape Town, South Africa, are Troll Airfield, near the Norwegian Troll research station, and a runway at the Russian Novolazarevskaya Station.〔 == Geography == Queen Maud Land extends from the boundary with Coats Land in the west to the boundary with Enderby Land in the east, and is divided into the Princess Martha Coast, Princess Astrid Coast, Princess Ragnhild Coast, Prince Harald Coast and Prince Olav Coast.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=Encyclopædia Britannica )〕 The territory is estimated to cover around .〔 It is not officially defined where the limits of the claim are in the south and in the sea in the north.〔 The sea that extends off the coast between the longitudal limits of Queen Maud Land is generally called King Haakon VII Sea.〔Stonehouse, pp. 155–156.〕 There is no ice-free land at the coast; the coast consists of a wall of ice throughout almost the entire territory.〔 It is thus only possible to disembark from a ship in a few places.〔 Some from the coast, rocky peaks pierce the ice cap, itself at a mean height of around above sea level, with the highest point at Jøkulkyrkja () in the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains.〔〔 The other major mountain ranges are the Heimefront Range, Orvin Mountains, Wohlthat Mountains and Sør Rondane Mountains.〔 Geologically, the ground of Queen Maud Land is dominated by Precambrian gneiss, formed c. 1 to 1.2 Ga, before the creation of the supercontinent Gondwana. The mountains consist mostly of crystalline and granitic rocks, formed c. 500 to 600 Ma in the Pan-African orogeny during the assembly of Gondwana. In the farthest western parts of the territory, there are younger sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Research on the thickness of the ice has revealed that without the ice, the coast would be similar to those of Norway and Greenland, with deep fjords and islands.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Queen Maud Land」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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