Geographical Discovery Chapter 120-2: Humboldt Take the Americas and North Asia-Columbus Discover America, Humboldt defined America, China's first formal meteorological observatory and geomagnetic station was established by him.
Alexander von Humboldt is too great. It is not enough to introduce his legendary life without distinction of three articles.
Hubold America Expedition Roadmap
[America Expedition]
Hubold’s trip in the Americas
Hubold’s first trip was in 1790, which was mentioned earlier, and traveled with George Foster. The journey was not long, and he only traveled to Western Europe. On the way, he met many people in the scientific community. In 1795, he went to Italy and Switzerland for botany and geology investigations.
In 1796, Humboldt ushered in a turning point that affected his life in misfortune. His mother died this year. Humboldt not only received a legacy from his mother—the beautiful Lingen Villa, but also allowed him to travel and inspect around the world without any restrictions. In 1797, he decisively resigned from his official position and devoted himself to various preparations for travel and inspection.
In March 1799, Humboldt met with the Spanish king and requested to go to America for an inspection. At that time, most of South America, all of China and the United States, and parts of North America were still under the jurisdiction of Spain, and trade with other countries was strictly prohibited. Because Humboldt is well versed in geology and mining affairs, he was able to convince the king that this trip was of great benefit to Spain, such as exploring new mineral sources.
On June 5, 1799, Humboldt and French botanist Emme Bonpurin Spain set sail on the "Piccharo" cruise ship from the Port of Catana in northern Spain, and began his important trip to America in his life. ——It was this unusual long voyage that established Humboldt's position as an unprecedented person in the geology community, and also set off a revolution, creating a new era of modern geology, especially natural geography. Among the items accompanying the ship are quadrant meters, sextant meters, magnetometers, hydrometers, barometers, thermometers, sky blue meters, air purity meters, timing meters, Leiden bottles, etc., and all the excellent instruments that science could provide at that time were available. And all of this, including shipping costs and daily expenses, are paid by Humboldt at his own expense. Before the trip, he made the most optimistic plan, and even negotiated a way to transport the specimens back to Europe after a few years, and paid the fee in advance. In a letter to a friend, Humboldt talked about the purpose of the trip: "I want to collect plants, search for fossils, and observe the astronomical phenomena. But this is not the main purpose of this trip. I want to explore how various forces in nature interact and how the geographical environment affects the lives of animals and plants. In other words, I want to find the consistency of the natural world." But he also estimated the worst outcome, so he made a will.
Because Napoleon's war had begun, Humboldt and his party had to avoid British warships at the beginning of the trip. By July 16, they arrived in Kumana (now Colombia) located in the northeast corner of South America; they were stationed in Caracas by the end of the year.
Humboldt travel route map in Venezuela
From early spring to July 1800, Humboldt and Bonpland took boats and canoes, and rowed 2,760 kilometers along the largest river in Venezuela, the Orinoco River, , and went deep into the inland South America. They measured and mapped most of the uninhabited forest areas, confirming that the river was connected to the Amazon River, the largest river in South America through a tributary. The hardships encountered along the way are indescribable. They have to feed bananas and fish as their staple food, and are often bitten by swarms of mosquitoes, ants and other insects, as well as poisonous snakes, piranhas and crocodiles. Almost everyone suffers from fever, but Humboldt seems to be immune. He insists on observing and recording various natural phenomena and uses instruments to measure latitude and longitude. Later, they returned to Kumana for several months to rest. In November of the same year, they sailed to Havana.
Chimboraso map, cross-section of the volcano and corresponding plant geography, excerpted from Humboldt's "Geography and Plants in the Equatorial Region"
From March 1801 to the autumn of 1802, Humboldt and Bonplan began another adventure of the Andes in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru , and made a long journey from Cartagena to Lima to reach the source of the Amazon River. Humboldt climbed and inspected many volcanoes in Ecuador, and in order to collect gas released from the inside of the earth, he repeatedly walked down the depths of the active crater. In Quito, where earthquakes are frequent, Humboldt climbed Pichincha volcano three times, observed blue flames that were constantly rushing into 600 meters below his feet, and accurately recorded 15 obvious aftershocks in 36 minutes. Among the local residents, there is a rumor that a German who is not afraid of death threw gunpowder into the crater, which caused the earthquake. After carefully observing the local rocks in and , he thought his teacher Werner's statement that all rocks are made of water is wrong, and asserted that granite, gneiss and other crystalline rocks are igneous rocks. He and Bonplan also climbed Chimboraso Mountain (at that time it was believed to be the highest peak in the world. Several years later, when he learned that the Himalayas were far higher than Chimboraso Mountain, he was very frustrated), climbed to an altitude of 5,878 meters, which was the highest point that mankind had ever reached at that time. This record lasted for 29 years. Among the mountains and ridges, Humboldt was busy measuring the altitude with an empty box pressure gauge, measuring the temperature with a thermometer, and measuring the earth's magnetic field with a magnetometer. He noticed the decline in magnetic strength when moving from the earth pole to the Hercules. He observed the interesting phenomenon that the temperature, air pressure, plants and agriculture in tropical mountainous areas significantly changed with different heights. He also recorded the signs of alpine diseases caused by hypoxia.
In October 1802, Humboldt and his party walked out of the Andes and prepared to head north along the western coast of the Americas through the Pacific Ocean. Arrived at Mexico Port of Acapulco in March 1803. On the way, Humboldt noticed an ocean current flowing northward along the west coast of South America, with a powerful cold water flowing upward from the seabed, measuring the flow rate and water temperature. He called it "Peru Cold Rise", but later many maps marked it as "Humboldt Cold Rise". Interestingly, early summer of this year, news of Alexander von Humboldt's death spread in Paris, saying that he "death the hands of the natives of North America." The Hamburg Newsletter on June 12 of the following year was even more convincing: "I heard that the famous traveler Mr. Humboldt unfortunately suffered from yellow fever and died in Acapulco, America." In fact, he was in the United States at that time and was treated at the state guest level. Two months later, Humboldt suddenly appeared in Paris, shocking European scholars.
Humbold Cold Stream
On August 1, 1804, after 23 days of voyage across the Atlantic , the French Clipper "Lucky" carried by Humboldt arrived at the port of Bordeaux, France. Their trip to Central and South America lasted for five years, with a total journey of 65,000 kilometers, which was equivalent to a circle and a half of the earth. They brought back more than 40 boxes of American "land goods", including a large number of animal and plant specimens (there are no less than 60,000 specimens of plants and plants alone, including more than 6,000 plants), mineral sampling and fossils, geology geography , exploration records of astronomy, meteorology, oceanography, and rich materials on ethnography, ethnology, and indigenous culture. These precious materials became the source of Humboldt's concentration on writing and important contributions to geography in the future. Paris was sensational, and people highly appreciated his spirit of sacrifice and his unremitting pursuit of knowledge, and regarded him as a hero of the ages, and welcomed him like a king. Humboldt became the most eye-catching figure for a while. At that time, there might be only one person in Paris and even Europe that is more popular than him, that is Napoleon I. The upper class rushes to invite him to the banquet, the French Academy set up a seat to welcome him, and the Paris Botanical Garden set up a special institute for him to display exhibits. People are accustomed to using "living dictionary" and "encyclopedia" to describe a scholar's extensive knowledge, but for Humboldt, such words are no longer applicable, because they refer to solidified book knowledge that can be found, and he brought a new continent, with more than 3,000 brand new species alone.Chemist Betolei sighed, "This is simply a living science academy!"
[North Asia Expedition]
Humboldt's road map for investigation in Russia
In 1829, Humboldt was invited by Russian Tsar Nicholas I to investigate the vast Asian territory under his rule. At this time, he was over 60 years old, but he was still ambitious. He rode a horse and drove across the steep Ural Mountains, inspected the vast Siberian , from the Yenisei River to the Altai Mountains at the border of China, and inspected the Caspian Sea on his way back. This trip to North Asia lasts for half a year and the itinerary is 15,480 kilometers. Humboldt paid great attention to the temperature observation on the way. He clearly saw that the temperature at the same latitude varies due to the distance from the ocean. At the same time, the magnetic declination and magnetic inclination angles from , St. Petersburg, and , to the Altai Mountains were measured.
After returning to St. Petersburg, Humboldt emphasized to the Tsar that Russia should establish the Geophysical Station in St. Petersburg and organize geomagnetic and meteorological networks nationwide, saying that doing so would give mankind endless benefits. This suggestion will soon be implemented. By 1835, the Russian Meteorological Station had been established from St. Petersburg eastward to an island along the coast of Alaska in North America. At that time, in order to compare with the adjacent places, Russia also established a geomagnetic meteorological station in the Russian church in Beijing in the 21st of Daoguang (1841). It was actually China's first official meteorological observatory and geomagnetic station. Taichung records continued in 1882, except for two pauses, and were the most precious meteorological and geomagnetic records in China in the 19th century. Humboldt later made the first world annual average isotherm chart in 1845 based on the data from these observatory stations.
