Struve Geodetic Arc Belarus

Struve Geodetic Arc - Belarus

Short Report

The Struve Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest Norway to the Black Sea, by 10 countries and more than 2,820 km. These are points of a study, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which corresponded to the first accurate measurement of a long segment of a meridian. This helped the exact size and shape of the earth and was an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographical maps. It is an extraordinary example of scientific cooperation between scientists from different countries and the cooperation between monarchs for a scientific cause. The original arc consisted of 258 main triangles with 265 main station. The website contains 34 original station points, with different markings, i.e. a hole drilled in rock, iron cross, cairns, or built-in obelisks.

Wide Report

The first accurate measurement of a long segment of a meridian, helps the exact size and shape of the world is an important step in the development of earth sciences. From about 500 Bc it had been known that the earth not flat, but of a spherical shape. In the 3rd century BC. BC., the surveying technique and theory for the determination of the size of the Earth was developed by Eratosthenes. This theory remained in use until the age of satellite of Geodesy. Eratosthenes's theory, with length and angles determined by star observations made it possible to determine the size of the Earth, while the measurements themselves were still not accurate, especially because of the lack of resources and equipment. In the 17th century better measuring equipment was developed, together with a new method with triangulations. According to this method, a much shorter line can be measured accurately, while the long distances were covered by a chain of triangles. This triangles covered each hundreds of kilometers, with each of the sides (baselines) as long as 100 km and each triangle in the chain with one common basis with at least one other triangle, and two joint angles (station) with another triangle.

The triangulation method help creating in the 1730s and 1740s the actual shape of the Earth, by means of long arches in Peru and Lapland. The problem of the size of the Earth remain unresolved and had much more complex, because it was known that it was not a perfect sphere. The various early les arcs in France, Peru, Lapland, Italy, South Africa and Austria had several shortcomings that do not allow for a proper solution to this problem. The defeat of Napoleon, followed by the Congress of Vienna and the decision in 1815 to internationally agreed limits in Europerequires accurate maps. These needs are clearly felt in Russia, where Tsar Alexander I the astronomer Wilhelm Struve with all funds for his project for a new long geodetic arc. This can be seen as the first step in the development of modern geodetic framework and topographical maps.

A very long arc, completed in 1840, was measured in India by Lambton and Everest and a shorter arc in Lithuaniaby Carl Tenner. Struve, who was working at the DorpatUniversity in modern Estonia, decided that the arc it would impose would follow a line of longitude (meridian) runs through the observatory of the university. The new long arc, later known as the Struve Arc, was eventually createded join previous, smaller arches to the south measured by Tenner, and the extension of the north and south. The arc is therefore a line connecting Fuglenæs near Hammerfestin the far north, along 2,800 km, with Staro-Nekrasowka , near Ismail, on the Black Sea coast.

The world heritage consists of 34 of the original transmitter was by Struve and his colleagues between 1816 and 1851 - four points in Norway, four in Sweden, six in Finland, one in Russia three in Estonia, two in Latvia, three in Lithuania, five in Belarus, Moldova and four in Ukraine. The marks in various forms: small holes drilled in rock surfaces, and sometimes filled with lead; cross-shaped engraved marks on rock surfaces; hard stone or brick with a marker; rock structures (cairns), with a central stone or brick. Characterized by a drilled hole; one stone, and specially constructed 'monuments' in commemoration of the point and the arc.  The Struve geodetic Arc is an extraordinary example of exchange of human values in the form of scientific cooperation between scientists from different countries, as well as an excellent example of a technological ensemble.

Source:whc/unesco