Charcot, Jean-Baptiste

(also Jean-Baptiste-Etienne-Auguste Charcot). Born July 15, 1867, in Neuilly-sur-Seine; died Sept. 16,1936. French polar explorer. Son of J.-M. Charcot.

From 1903 to 1905, J.-B. Charcot led an antarctic expedition on the Français that conducted scientific research along the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. From 1908 to 1910 he led an expedition on the Pourquoi Pas? that continued the research and charting of the Antarctic Peninsula and did similar work for Alexander I Land and Peter I Island. Charcot named the area of ocean near Peter I Island the Bellingshausen Sea. In 1911 he conducted oceanographic work in the English Channel.

From 1920 to 1927, Charcot made soundings in various parts of the Atlantic Ocean, including the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Bay of Biscay. Between 1926 and 1936 he took part in several expeditions of the Pourquoi Pas? to the shores of Greenland. He died in a shipwreck off the coast of Iceland.

Charcot was an honorary member of the Geographical Society of the USSR and was awarded the Great Litke Gold Medal in 1914. A cape and a bay in Antarctica have been named for Charcot, as have a mountain and strait in the Kerguelen Archipelago.