Discovery of Franz Josef Land
Descubrimiento de la Tierra de Francisco José
- Date
- 30 de agosto de 1873 · confidence high
- Place
- Franz Josef Land, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia
- Credited to
- Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
An Austro-Hungarian expedition that, trapped in drifting ice aboard the Tegetthoff, sighted an archipelago of about one hundred and ninety islands in the Arctic and mapped it. It named the archipelago after the emperor.
Payer explored the archipelago by sledge in 1874, before abandoning the ship; the find was accidental and not the aim.
What it led to
- mapping of the archipelago as a stepping stone to the North Pole
- studies of ice drift and polar geography