Several foreign expeditions were launched at the end of the nineteenth century to the southern tip of South America and to Antarctica. One of the first was the Italian-Argentine southern scientific expedition of 1882 led by Giacomo Bove, which was followed by other expeditions. One of the reasons that guided these explorations was motivated by the unusual astronomical phenomenon known as the transit of Venus that could be observed in the Magellanic region. This led to an important French expedition to Cape Horn and another German one to the south of Chile and Argentina. At the same time, expeditions from Princeton University with John B. Hatcher explored the southern Patagonian Cordillera. The International Congress of Geography in London in 1895 promoted the exploration of the Antarctic Region, as one of the least-known regions of the world. This motivated some 16 expeditions, several of them in the Argentine Antarctic sector and the adjacent Patagonian regions. Thus, three Swedish expeditions were organized over time, successively covering Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and Antarctica. José María Sobral participated in the latter, and together with his companions, he spent the winter in Antarctica for two consecutive years. In addition, the Scottish expedition to Antarctica, carried out with logistical support from Argentina, founded the first observatory on Laurie Island, which has been operated by Argentine scientists without interruption since 1904. All these expeditions produced a large collection of data that promoted a profound advance in the geological knowledge of the southern areas of Patagonia and Antarctica.