Terra incognita
Terra incognita ( Latin for "unknown land") is a (historical) term for land masses or areas that were not yet mapped or described at the time.
The designation can be found on old nautical or map of those regions that were still unexplored or partially only assumed land. On many maps, such areas were decorated with dragons or other mythical creatures.
The most important area of the Terra incognita was the Terra Australis (incognita), a large land mass in the southern hemisphere , which was postulated in antiquity and the Middle Ages as a counterweight to the northern continents. This is how the continent Australia , discovered by seafarers around 1600 , got its name. Other parts turned out to be nonexistent or to be pack ice or coastal sections of the Antarctic .
In 1883, Clements Markham designated an unknown area as blank of the maps , which was translated into German by Sven Hedin with white spots .
With the increasing exploration and mapping of the earth, the term lost its relevance and is mainly used only in a historical and figurative sense. This overlooks the fact that even today large parts of the earth are almost unexplored.
In a figurative sense, it still stands for unexplored or researched areas of reality, of whose existence one may be aware or which one suspects but cannot yet define their content. In German one speaks of (scientific) uncharted territory .
Unexplored areas at the beginning of the 21st century
In addition to the seabed, which to a large extent has not yet been mapped or even explored (example of the Tamu massif east of Japan, located as the largest volcano on earth in 2009), the following wilderness regions of the earth are still largely white spots on the earth despite modern satellite mapping Map:
- the land structures under the inland ice of Antarctica and Greenland
- some tepui mountains in Venezuela
- some 6000 m mountains in the east Tibetan Himalayas
- Wachan Corridor in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan
- some regions of the Sahara
- remote rainforests of the Amazon basin
- Parts of the Andes
- Mountains of Papua New Guinea
Examples of discoveries / explorations after 2000
- Hodgson Sea (Antarctica, 2000)
- Muchimuk cave system (Venezuela, 2002)
- Gocta Waterfall (Peru, 2002)
- Cañón de Somoto (Nicaragua, 2004)
- Erdi Ma rock plateau (Chad, 2005)
- Sơn Đoòng Cave (Vietnam, 2009)
further reading
- FA Brockhaus: Der Neue Brockhaus (6 volumes), Volume 5. Wiesbaden 1959/1960
- Karl Weule: The exploration of the earth's surface , part II, 460 S. (Chapter III B / 3 the unknown southern land ). Fourth volume from the series Universe and Humanity (Ed. Hans Kraemer), Verlaghaus Bong & Co., Berlin-Leipzig-Vienna ~ 1902.
- Jules Verne : The Great Navigators and Explorers. A story of the discovery of the earth in the 18th and 19th centuries. (First part, Chapter II "In search of the southern continent", pp. 44–73). ISBN 3257009356 , 502 pages, numer. Ill., Diogenes-Verlag, Zurich 1974.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Dirk Liesemer : Exploring the world: The last white spots. spiegel.de, December 8, 2013, accessed December 11, 2013 .
