Fridtjof Nansen particularly in the polar regions. The Nansen family originated in Denmark. Hans Nansen (1598–1667), a trader, was an early explorer of the White Sea region of the Arctic Ocean. In later life he settled in Copenhagen, becoming the city's "borgmester" in 1654. Later generations of the family lived in Copenhagen until the mid-18th century, when Ancher Antoni Nansen moved to Norway (then in a union with Denmark). His son, Hans Leierdahl Nansen (1764–1821), was a magistrate first in the Trondheim district, later in Jæren. After Norway's separation from Denmark in 1814, he entered national political life as the representative for
Geology of the Pacific Ocean as the Aleutian Arc off Alaska and the Kermadec-Tonga Subduction Zone north of New Zealand. As a result of the collision of the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate, the Andes Mountains emerged in western South America, close to the Peru–Chile Trench. Many large fracture zones aligned in an east-west direction, occur in the floor of the northeastern Pacific. The Pacific is a broad ocean basin (unlike the narrow Atlantic Ocean) and extends over a width of between New Guinea and Peru. The andesite line, a zone of intense volcanic and seismic activity, is a major regional distinction in