An Enchanted Learning® Web Page Zoom Explorers

Byrd also led four Antarctic land expeditions:

• During the 1928-30 expedition, the base called Little America was built on the Ross Ice Shelf; the nearby Marie Byrd Land was named for Byrd's wife, and on Nov. 29, 1929, Byrd (as navigator) and three others made a 19-hour flight over the South Pole.
• During the 1933-35 mapping, land-claiming, and scientific expedition, Byrd spent five months isolated at a weather station hut (called Bolling Advance Base) and was rescued after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning.
• During the 1939-41 US government expedition (called the US Antarctic Service Expedition), Byrd discovered Thurston Island.
• During the huge 1946-47 US government expedition (called Operation Highjump), ship-based and land-based aircraft mapped 537,000 square miles (1,390,000 square km) along the Antarctic coast.