Baron Gaston de Gerlache de Gomery (

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, 17 November 1919 –

Oudenaarde Oudenaarde (; ; in English sometimes ''Oudenarde'') is a Belgium, Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders. The municipality ...

, 13 July 2006) was a Belgian polar explorer. Gaston de Gerlache was the son of

Adrien de Gerlache Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery (; 2 August 1866 – 4 December 1934) was a Belgian officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99. Early years Born in Hasselt in eastern Belgium as t ...

, and followed in the tracks of his father by leading the second Belgian expedition to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

in 1957–1958, 60 years after his father led the 1897–1899

Belgian Antarctic Expedition The Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–1899 was the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic region. Led by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery aboard the RV ''Belgica'', it was the first Belgian Antarctic expedition and is considered the fir ...

aboard the ship ''Belgica''. Gaston de Gerlache and his crew established the King Baudouin Base in 1958 in the context of the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...

. On 11 December 1958 an aircraft with four Belgians, led by Gaston de Gerlache crashed in the Crystal Mountains, 250 km from King Baudouin Base, Antarctica. The crew was searched for and rescued on 16 December by the Soviet polar pilot V. M. Perov on an Li-2 aircraft, that had taken off from Mirny Station.Rescue of Belgian Plane Crew in Antarctic
Soviet Bloc International Geophysical Year Information, 16 January 1959, U. S. Department of Commerce, pp. 18–19 In 1960 Gaston de Gerlache published his travel journal ''Retour dans l'antarctique''. A year later he made a documentary about his expedition named ''Plein sud''. An article, "Belgium in the Antarctic", written by Gaston de Gerlache de Gomery appeared in the ''Geographical'' magazine (May 1962 issue). Mount Gaston de Gerlache in the Queen Fabiola Mountains on Antarctica was named after him.

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Artikel in Trends over Gaston de Gerlache
Belgian explorers 1919 births 2006 deaths {{Belgium-bio-stub