In this section, we digress a little from the topic of Antarctic military secrets. But let's not stray too far from them. Why? After all, seemingly completely peaceful Antarctic stations have always kept in their safes a lot of military secrets, some of which were directly related to the existence of the Nazi bases "Horst Wessel" and "New Swabia". However, judge for yourself!
Post-war historians tried not to mention the existence of the Land of New Swabia once again. Not surprisingly, in this century, few people believe in its existence. Meanwhile, even in the last century, some information about it nevertheless leaked into the Soviet press.
In 1955, several countries of the world began organizing research expeditionary bases in western Antarctica. They were placed on the coast, usually far apart; a relatively large cluster of stations from several countries was only on Graham Land. After 10 years in our country, a two-volume major work "Atlas of the Antarctic" was published.
It contained hundreds of detailed maps, graphs, diagrams, and scientific articles, reading which one could get interesting information about the relief, geological structure, continental glaciation and sea ice, climate, geophysical phenomena, flora and fauna of the mysterious Sixth Continent. One of the maps was dedicated to the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which began in the late autumn of 1957 and ended in the early spring of 1959.
Then, according to a single program, for the first time after the end of World War II, numerous international expeditions from Argentina and Australia, Belgium and Great Britain, New Zealand and Norway, the USSR and the USA, France and Chile, South Africa and Japan began a detailed study of the icy continent. Later they were joined by Poland and Czechoslovakia. This map showed 42 scientific stations belonging to 12 countries of the world. But was this program really unified? Externally yes! But there were also some very interesting differences.
In the 1930s, especially in connection with the International Polar Year (1932-1933), many interested countries began to explore the coastline of the Antarctic ice sheet, and especially in the most accessible part of the continent, on Graham Land, where they began permanent work immediately several meteorological stations.
As a result of their research, the first reliable maps of the coast of Antarctica appeared on a scale of 1: 2,000,000, but two-thirds of the south polar land remained blank spots. For a long time, Antarctica remained a no-man's land. But immediately after the end of World War II, it became of interest to many countries of the world, including those completely far from the Antarctic shores. Why?
Unexpectedly for everyone, the Americans declared Antarctica a "box of treasures." And what fossils: coal, gold, silver, lead, iron, and most importantly, uranium! Moreover, it was recognized that the West Antarctic folded area was considered as a continuation of the metallogenic belt of the Andes with copper, molybdenum, tungsten, and tin. When did they manage to carry out deep geological exploration? T
only before the war! Beginning in the autumn of 1948, the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile, as if on an unknown command, began vying with each other to declare their claims to certain areas of Antarctica.
The leadership of the USSR, which closely followed the facts of foreign penetration into the Antarctic deserts, was again seriously worried. In February 1949, a general meeting of members of the All-Union Geographical Society was held in Leningrad, where the report of the president of the society L. Berg "Russian discoveries in Antarctica and modern interest in it" was heard. The resolution of this meeting stated that "any decision on the question of the Antarctic regime without the participation of the Soviet Union cannot have legal force, and the USSR has every reason not to recognize any such decision."
On June 7, 1950, the Soviet government sent memorandums to the above countries on the question of the Antarctic regime. It was also pointed out here that the Soviet Union is just as attentive to Antarctica also because this continent and the islands adjacent to it are a convenient base for the most important meteorological observations, which are of extreme importance for the Northern Hemisphere as well. Most likely there were other reasons as well. Which? We will probably not find out about all of them soon. But we already know a few things!
For example, in 1974, Soviet geologists discovered in the Antarctic Yamato Mountains (a series of large massifs bordered by vast fields of glacial boulders) unique minerals - charnockites, which indicate that in the very distant past somewhere there was a single continent Gondwana. Similar charnockites have previously been found only in India.
But back to the Antarctic Peninsula.
The closest of the post-war polar stations to the Horst Wessel Antarctic base were: the British Detail Island, Stonington Island, Horseshoe Island, Ferin Head and Rothera, the Argentinean General San Martin. I would like to consider the history of each of them with the greatest possible detail, but all the information now available had to be limited to data on the Argentine base "General San Martin". The British bases Stonington Island (Base E) and Ferin Head (Base J) were closed in 1958. And, here is the information about the British bases "Island Detail" (Base W), "Island Horseshoe" (Base V) and "Rothera" remained closed.
Closest to the "New Swabia" were: the Soviet "Lazarev", the British "Hally Bay" and "Shackleton", the Norwegian-South African "Norway", the Norwegian-Swedish-British "Modheim", the Argentinean "General Belgrano" and "Ellsuert" , Belgian "King Baudouin", Japanese "Showa", West German "Georg von Neumeier", East German "Georg Forster", Indian "Dakshin Gangotri", South African "Sanae".
On March 10, 1959, the Soviet polar station Lazarev was opened on the ice shelf near Cape Sedov (Princess Astrid Coast). The Belgian station "King Baudouin" was created next to it. Both stations, as it were, adjoined the right side of New Swabia Land. From the station "Lazarev" Soviet geologists under the leadership of M. Ravich for the first time explored the central and eastern parts of the mountains of Queen Maud Land.
In 1961, the Soviet polar station "Lazarev" was abandoned by Soviet scientists, and its residents moved to solid ground ... to the Schirmacher oasis. The new station was named "Novolazarevskaya". At the same time, it was in the Novolazarevskaya area that deep seismic soundings were carried out for the first time in the history of Antarctic exploration. Soviet polar explorers had at their disposal aerial photographs of this oasis taken by Nazi pilots in 1939.
The British base "Hally Bay" (Base Z) fully corresponded to its alphabetic / lu designation: it was not possible to find anything about its creation and activities.
According to official documents, the British base "Shackleton" was created in January 1956 on the Weddell Sea at coordinates 77 degrees 59 minutes south latitude and 37 degrees 09 minutes west longitude, but in January 1958 it was abandoned. Valuable equipment and instruments were dismantled and transferred to the Halle Bay station. The reasons that prompted the British to urgently close the station could not be established. But it was from here that the British explorer of Antarctica Vivian Fuchs planned to start his transcontinental trip to the South Pole in November 1957.
This science station was unsuccessful from the start. The ship that delivered cargo for the station here, due to the approaching storm, left the contents of its holds on the sea ice. The storm that broke out destroyed a significant part of building materials, coal, fuel, one of the tractors. Chemicals for hydrogen production died, as a result of which the British scientists at the station could not conduct upper-air observations. Only a year later it was possible to bring everything necessary to the station.
The Norwegian-South African "Norway", consider the British scientific station was established in January 1957 at the coordinates of 70 degrees 30 minutes south latitude and 37 degrees 48 minutes west longitude.
The Norwegian-Swedish-British Modheim operated from 1950 to 1952.
The Argentine base "General Belgrano" was established in early 1956 on the coast of the Weddell Sea at the coordinates of 77 degrees 58 minutes south latitude and 37 degrees 48 minutes west longitude.
The American base "Ellsworth" (the seventh American station) was established on February 11, 1957 on the coast of the Weddell Sea east of Golden Bay, on the edge of the Filchner Ice Shelf, at the coordinates of 76 degrees south latitude and 41 degrees 07 minutes west longitude. Initially, it was supposed to be built at the extreme southwestern point of the Weddell Sea, at the base of Graham Land, or rather, in the area of Cape Adams. Until that time, not a single ship, not a single vessel had penetrated here. But then this decision was revised. The glacier on which the station was built was afloat. The construction of the station was standard.
Typically, such stations had up to 20 residential and storage facilities.
They were designed for the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, where they were tested. These are typical shield-type houses. Each shield is about 2 meters long and 110 centimeters wide. They were fastened with special wedge-shaped closures. The roof of the house was flat and supported by light metal rafters. From the inside, residential houses were sheathed with thin metal sheets resembling aluminum.
Each house had up to five rooms. Its layout depends on the need, because the partitions are thin five-millimeter plywood sheets, and you can change the location as you like. Moreover, between the two rooms there is something like a wardroom, where there is a table, two metal sofas and lamps on long legs. The furnishings in the rooms are rather simple: two beds with spring nets and microporous rubber mattresses, two metal wardrobes, two bedside tables and a few chairs.
Each such house has two exits - one main and one spare. The main exits of each house lead to a tunnel that connects all the houses and runs along the entire village.
The service buildings are exactly the same, but they lack partitions and, of course, furniture.
39 people remained at the station, including 10 scientists, the rest were American military sailors. The well-known polar explorer Finn Ronet was left as the head of the Ellsworth station. After the end of the International Geophysical Year, the Ellsworth station was handed over to the Argentines.
The Belgian station "King Baudouin" was established on the ice shelf of the Princess Ranhilda Coast not far from the Soviet Antarctic station "Lazarev".
Japan's Showa station was established in the mid-1950s at 69 degrees 00 minutes south latitude and 39 degrees 35 minutes east longitude. Here, three panel-type residential buildings were assembled according to the American type. In the fourth room there were two electric generators. In 1974, 18 polar explorers wintered at this Antarctic station, established on Ongul Island (Lutzow-Holm Bay, Prince Olaf Coast). The Japanese built their station on the very edge of Queen Maud Land.
Only 300 kilometers separated it from the nearest Soviet station, Molodezhnaya, and almost 1,000 kilometers from Novolazarevskaya. Barrels and various equipment were stacked on the ledges of the rocky cliffs of Ongul Island, cars were parked and a little further, in the depths, bright red houses could be seen. During the winter, large snow blows formed around the houses. The change of polar explorers was carried out by the icebreakers "Soya" and "Fuji".
From Showa Station to the aforementioned Yamato Mountains, about 300 kilometers. But the Japanese were frequent guests of the mountain range, named after their beloved Motherland. True, at first, they had to fly over coastal nunataks deep into the Ayuttsov-Holm Bay. Then, turning to the south, “crawl into the dome”, or, more simply, fly along the ice dome over the Antarctic desert. In good weather, this was not difficult, but Antarctica has never been famous for its quiet and calm character. And yet, Japanese polar explorers constantly flew there.
The West German base "Georg von Neumayer" and the East German "Georg Forster" were most likely created in a kind of counterbalance to each other.
The Indian scientific station "Dakshin Gangotri" was established in 1983-1984 in the Schirmacher oasis, 18 kilometers from the station "Novolazarevskaya".
South African Sanae. According to the map of Antarctica, which was carried out in 1955 on board the whaling mother ship Slava, it was created near the northwestern side of the New Schwabeland-1 ice shelf.
The Soviet side was always surprised by the distribution of scientific stations of Great Britain, Argentina, Chile and the USA, on the Antarctic Peninsula (aka Greim's Land). In fact, they were located “on top of each other,” but then we did not even suspect that our recent allies in World War II knew about the dead cities of extraterrestrial civilization and the Antarctic bases of the Nazis.
The first Soviet scientific stations in Antarctica were created in 1955 by our polar explorers during the International Geophysical Year. Then the Integrated Antarctic Expedition (CAE) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which consisted of several scientific teams, arrived in Antarctica to carry out scientific work. There were six detachments in her marine group: aerometeorological, hydrological, hydrochemical, marine geology, hydrobiological and hydrographic.
And as part of the coastal group - four scientific detachments: aerometeorological, geological and geographical, integrated geophysical and aerial photography. It was the KAE polar explorers who named the first two Antarctic stations the names of the ships of Thaddeus Bellingshausen, and the third - "Sovetskaya".
Three vessels were assigned to the expedition. Diesel-electric ships of 12.5 thousand tons each - "Ob" and "Lena". The first of these icebreaking ships was used for the production of oceanographic research, the second - in the role of transport. The third was a small 500-ton vessel, Refrigerator No. 7, which was mainly used for the delivery of perishable products. Soviet polar explorers had an aviation detachment: one Il-12 aircraft, two Li-2 aircraft, one An-2 light aircraft and two Mi-4 helicopters. And also - a detachment of ground transport: ATT-15 tractors and S-80 bulldozers, Gaz-47 light all-terrain vehicles and vehicles of various types. There were up to 50 sled dogs.
All Soviet stations were created in the sector allotted to us by the Special Committee of the International Geophysical Year. They were built from materials delivered aboard diesel-electric ships. When choosing specific sites for scientific stations, they were mainly guided by considerations of convenience of approaches from the sea, the possibility of unloading ships, and the desire to place the observatory and residential village on a rocky surface, which is not so much on the coast of Antarctica, or, in extreme cases, on an area of immovable continental ice.
At the same time, the houses and warehouses were located in such a way that the prevailing winds blew along the front door. 92 polar explorers, led by the head of the KAE Mikhail Somov, were left for the first wintering in Mirny. This wintering already showed that those who designed the future residential and storage facilities for polar explorers made a serious mistake. They calculated that in Antarctica precipitation falls only in the form of snow, and did not take into account that it also rains.
The rains that took place in the summer of 1957 forced Soviet polar explorers to experience for themselves what a leaky roof means. But more than one traveler who visited here wrote about the Antarctic rains. But such is the Russian character: until you experience it, you will not understand. Only after the residential houses became uncomfortable and damp, houses with gable roofs were built.
At the same time, the first inland station was built on the high-mountainous Antarctic plateau - Pionerskaya. The construction of this station, as well as the creation of a station in the Bunger oasis, was not initially included in the plans of the AEC, but already during the expedition, a decision was made to deploy these two scientific stations. Officially - to get a broader idea of the nature of the sixth continent.
Probably yes! But, I would like to draw attention to the fact that in their location these stations are close to the "New Swabia" and the Central Voltat mountains. Only the Soviet stations are near the Davis Sea, and the Nazi ones are near the Addell Sea. Moreover, an island was discovered to the west of Mirny during aerial reconnaissance, which was very similar in shape to Drygalsky Island. Are these coincidences coincidental? Unfortunately, no one has yet clearly answered this question.
To create our station, we used the premises available on the sleigh of a tractor train, and building material delivered from Mirny by plane. At the same time, the sleigh was shifted so that the auxiliary premises protected the housing from the wind. A space formed between the sliding sledges, which was quickly turned into a connecting vestibule, with the help of which it was easy to get into any room of the station. Due to difficulties with the delivery of fuel, it was decided that only four people would remain here for the winter, led by Alexander Gusev.
In the mid-1970s, more than two dozen scientific stations operated in Antarctica, six of them belonged to the Soviet Union. Five Soviet stations were located on the coast of the Antarctic seas ("Mirny", "Molodezhnaya", "Novolazarevskaya", "Leningradskaya", "Bellingshausen") and one - in the central part of the mainland, in the region of the geomagnetic pole, 1410 kilometers from Mirny ( "East").
The first Integrated Antarctic Expedition of the Soviet Union (CAE) took place in 1955-1956. Behind her, in 1956-1958, - the second and third, respectively. In the future, all Antarctic expeditions began to be called SAE, that is, Soviet Antarctic expeditions.
The Soviet study area was adjacent to the Indian Ocean on both sides of the Davis Sea, in Queen Mary Land. The mainland group of the Soviet scientific expedition led by Mikhail Somov, consisting of 70 people of various specialties, landed on the shore near the Davis Sea to the west of the Helen Glacier. By the beginning of the winter of 1955-1956, with the help of the crews of two Soviet diesel-electric ships Ob and Lena, she built the village of Mirny, which in those days consisted of several residential and office buildings, illuminated and heated by electricity; in addition to the power plant, there were a mechanical workshop, garages, hangars and storage facilities. The mainland group was divided into six special detachments. The squadron under the command of Ivan Cherevichny began work with five aircraft and two helicopters.
In addition to the main base, the Mirny settlement, two of our stations were organized by the end of 1956: Pionerskaya (375 kilometers from Mirny at an altitude of 2,700 meters) began work on May 27, 1956; Oasis station, began operation on October 15, 1956 (360 kilometers east of Mirny, in the Banger Hills oasis). In January 1959, the latter was transferred to the Polish Academy of Sciences and renamed in honor of A. Dobrovolsky, a Polish scientist, a member of the Belgian Antarctic expedition of 1897-1899.
The second Soviet Antarctic expedition, led by Alexei Treshnikov, replaced the first in December 1956. She arrived to the Sixth Continent again on the Ob and Lena, as well as on the passenger ship Kooperatsia, and consisted of two marine and one coastal detachments.
The Ob approached the Pravda Coast on December 12, 1956, but was forced to stop at a distance of 25 kilometers from the Mirny, at the edge of the fast ice that spread far into the sea. The meeting with the arrivals took place in the morning. All day long, helicopters cruised over the fast ice among the accumulation of icebergs, delivering residents of the Mirny to the Ob, and back to those who arrived on the Ob. By January 10, 1957, Kooperatsia arrived at the Mirny raid with the main scientific staff, which had to be met and led through the ice with the help of the icebreaker. The last one (no longer to fast ice, but to the ice barrier) came Lena.
Unloading ships onto the ice barrier is a difficult and dangerous operation. But this is the only possible way of unloading, when the entire fast ice is torn off and carried away by the wind to the sea. For the first AEC, such unloading was successful. But this time, people died during the unloading. Hundreds of tons of broken ice collapsed on board the Lena and into the water, dragging people along with it. Two were killed, and seven people who fell overboard were seriously injured but were rescued. The dead were buried on Haswell Island, which is the first to meet Soviet ships arriving at Mirny.
Each AAE starts with a ship. Those enrolled in the expedition (usually they are called registered), that is, those who successfully passed the medical examination, received a sailor's passport, warm clothes, filled out numerous forms (including even a will) go to Antarctica on expedition ships. Until the mid-1970s, diesel-electric ships Lena, Navarin, and Ob went to the Sixth Continent almost every year. The white comfortable motor ships Kooperatsia, Mikhail Kalinin, Estonia, and Nadezhda Krupskaya also came here. Fuel was delivered by oil tankers. Expeditionary ships were used - the floating laboratories "Professor Vize" and "Professor Zubov".
The voyage from Leningrad to the shores of the south polar continent takes a little more than a month. And from Australia, where, to save time, part of the Soviet winterers were transferred by plane, only 10 days. Aircraft Il-18 and An-10 with landings in Central Asia, India, Burma, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand also spent about 10 days. True, the flight time here was only 48 hours.
The second AAE for the implementation of the scientific program of the upcoming International Geophysical Year left 188 people for the winter in Mirny, which was 96 people more than a year earlier.
Treshnikov's winterers created several scientific stations that brought the Soviet Union closer to the South Pole. So, they built an intermediate base for a trip to the Geomagnetic Pole - the Komsomolskaya station, located more than 500 kilometers from Mirny, and between this station and Pionerskaya - the Vostok-1 intermediate station.
In December 1957, vessels with members of the Third Expedition (now SAE), led by E. Tolstikov, arrived on the Mirny raid. On board the Ob, future winterers delivered equipment for the new Sovetskaya inland station, new all-terrain vehicles of the Penguin type and modernized aircraft of the Antarctic detachment. The meeting was joyful, but unexpectedly, during the transfer of affairs to the Mirny raid, the American icebreaker Burton Island arrived with ... the deputy commander of the 43rd operational unit of the US Navy captain Gerald Ketchum.
Yes, yes, the very one who until recently headed Operation Windmill (Windmill) - she put a fat cross on the existence of New Swabia and Horst Wessel. Officially, Ketchum wanted to get acquainted with the living conditions at the Mirny station, the achievements of Soviet science and, of course, technology.
The leadership of the Soviet expeditions complacently allowed him to do this. But Gerald Ketchum did not arrive at the Soviet research station alone. Along with him, Burton Island officers and expedition scientists arrived at our oldest Antarctic station, including: Biologist Carl Ackland, Head of Wilkes Station, James Shear, Geographer, Head of Hallet Station, Richard Cameron, Oceanographer from Wilkes Star, commander of the visiting icebreaker Braningham.
Then more than a hundred sailors from the Burton Island visited the Mirny. The crew of this armed icebreaker (1x27-mm universal gun and 4x40-mm machine guns), specially built for work in the Antarctic, only 234 people. Thus, every second of the American crew visited the Soviet station on January 29, 1958. Such curiosity! Before, there seemed to be no interest.
Before the Soviet winterers had time to see off their American colleagues, on January 31, the ship of the Australian expedition Tala Dan came to the Mirny roadstead, heading for the Mawson station. And again, the guests wanted to get acquainted with the Soviet Mirny station. Our management has again cordially opened all station premises. The guests toured Mirny, its laboratories and facilities.
In particular detail, the Australians examined the new Penguin all-terrain vehicles, which were converted from armored personnel carriers. Not the last role in the development of the curiosity of foreign colleagues was played by the fact that on the bright orange bodies of the new cars, in addition to the penguins stamped with paint, green hearts pierced by a yellow arrow were painted.
Who came up with such a “brilliant” idea: to bring decommissioned armored personnel carriers to Antarctica, as if copied from Soviet self-propelled guns, but without guns, which extremely irritated our recent allies in World War II, and also wore military symbols? The escort team could not explain this. And the Soviet winterers - and even more so. But both the Americans and the Australians were alarmed!
From 1960 to 1990, the USSR conducted more than 20 expeditions to explore Antarctica, constantly maintaining about 10 permanent polar stations here. At the same time, several scientific stations from the previously opened ones were mothballed, but completely ready to receive polar explorers. "Oasis" was mothballed at the end of 1958, "Pionerskaya" and "Soviet" - at the beginning of 1959. In 1968, the Soviet Bellingshausen station was established on Waterloo Island (South Shetland Islands) near the Antarctic Peninsula.
And in early 1971, on the banks of the Ots, the Leningradskaya station. If we do not consider these mothballed stations as spare strongholds for further development, or rather, securing the Antarctic deserts for the USSR, then such a short lifespan and frequent mothballing of our Antarctic stations, in contrast to foreign polar stations, is very difficult to explain.
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From the book by Sergei Kovalev " Mysteries of the Sixth Continent” .
Now even in Antarctica you can find churches and temples. Brave explorers of the icy continent also need support from above, perhaps even more than others. This review presents the southernmost places of worship on Earth.
Church of the Holy Trinity.
There is also an Orthodox church in Antarctica - the Russian Orthodox Church on the island of Waterloo, not far from the Russian polar station Bellingshausen. The temple was built in Russia, settled there for a year, and then was dismantled and transported to Antarctica. On the spot, the temple was reassembled in 2 months.
The temple can accommodate up to 30 people at the same time, a wedding ceremony was even held here. The rector of the temple is replaced every year, along with the rest of the researchers.
Church of the Snows.
Non-denominational Christian chapel, one of the southernmost temples in the world. Refers to the conduct of the American Antarctic station McMurdo, located on Ross Island. Despite its location, it was twice destroyed by fire.
In winter, the church is visited by 200 parishioners, and in summer, the parish grows to 1,000 people.
The church of the snow tries to meet the needs of adherents of any religion. The Reverend Michael Smith even conducted Buddhist and Baha'i ceremonies.
Catholic chapel in the ice cave at Belgrano II station.
The southernmost church in the world is located in an ice cave in the Argentinean polar region of Belgrano II. Day and night here alternate with an interval of 4 months, and in the night sky you can observe the southern lights.
Church of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Esperanza research station, where the Church of St. Francis is located, is considered by the Argentines to be their southernmost city, although it does not pull more than a small village. It is one of thirteen Argentine settlements on the continent.
In addition to the church, there is also a permanent school, a museum, a bar and a hospital with a maternity ward, in which several Argentines were even born.
Chapel of St. Ivan of Rylsky on Livingston Island.
Orthodox church built at the Bulgarian polar station, founded by four researchers in 1988.
Despite the austerity, there is even a real bell here, donated by the former Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria, who once worked as a doctor at the station.
Chilean chapel of Santa Maria Reina de la Paz.
This may be the only church in the world built from shipping containers. Located in Antarctica's largest civilian settlement, Villa las Estrellas. Families of employees of the Chilean military base, to which the settlement belongs, live here year-round. Up to 80 people stay here for the winter, 120 in the summer. There is also a school, a hostel, a post office and a bank in the village.
Chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Luhan.
The chapel is located at another Argentinean Antarctic station, Marambio. At the time of construction, there was the first airfield in Antarctica, and it is still used very often. Because of this, the station is called the "gateway to Antarctica."
Another church that deserves attention, but it is not located in Antarctica itself, but nearby, beyond the Antarctic Circle.
Whaling Church.
This Norwegian Lutheran church was built in the whaling village of Grytviken, South Georgia, in 1913.
The church was built by the sailors themselves, and this is the only building in the village that is used for its original purpose. The whaling station itself was abandoned in 1966.
During the "heyday" of the station, up to 300 people lived and worked here at the same time.
The whale population around South Georgia dwindled relentlessly until the station was closed. To this day, in the vicinity of the village, you can find animal bones, rusted remains of ships and factories for processing whale oil.
There are many scientific polar stations and bases of various countries in the Antarctic, where scientific (including biological, geographical, geological and meteorological) research is carried out.
According to the Antarctic Treaty, any country for scientific purposes has the right to establish its own station south of 60 ° south latitude.
Russian stations in Antarctica
Novolazarevskaya - Soviet, Russian Antarctic station. It was discovered by Vladislav Gerbovich on January 18, 1961. The average annual air temperature in the area of the station is 11°C, the minimum is 41°C, the maximum is +9.9°C. It conducts research in meteorology, geophysics, glaciology, oceanology.
Bellingshausen station
Bellingshausen is a Soviet, Russian Antarctic station on the island of Waterloo (King George). Named after Thaddeus Bellingshausen. Founded by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition on February 22, 1968. 2009 - The wintering team of the 54th expedition continues autonomous work in Antarctica 15 people, head of the station Kutsuruba A.I. At the Progress station, planned hydrobiological studies were carried out in the water area of Ardley Bay. Weather: wind up to 23 m per second, air temperature from +3 C to -10 C.
Vostok station
Vostok station is a former Soviet, and now a Russian-American-French Antarctic research station. This is the only inland Antarctic research station currently used by Russia. The unique research station "Vostok-1" was founded on December 16, 1957 by V. S. Sidorov, who subsequently was the head of the station more than once. 2009 - The wintering team of the 54th expedition continues autonomous work in Antarctica 12 people, head of the station Turkeev A.V. At Vostok station - scheduled work and observations. Weather: air temperature from -66 C to -74 C, wind 3-6 m per second.
Mirny station
Mirny is a Soviet, Russian Antarctic station located on the coast of the Davis Sea. The station was founded on February 13, 1956 by the 1st Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1955. This is the first Soviet Antarctic station. In Mirny, there is a base for the management of the Antarctic expedition, from where all the operating Russian Antarctic stations are controlled. Vladislav Gerbovich was a repeated head of Mirny station. 2009 - The wintering team of the 54th expedition continues autonomous work in Antarctica 32 people, head of the station Bondarchuk V.A. At Mirny station, the continuation of scheduled repair work on the preparation of marching equipment, a sledge-caterpillar traverse. The vertical sounding of the ionosphere was resumed after the repair of the Bizon ionosonde. Weather: air temperature from -4 C to -25 C, wind up to 25 m per second.
Station Progress
Progress (Progress-2) is a Soviet, Russian Antarctic year-round station. The station was opened at the end of 1989 as a seasonal geological base. In 2000, work was frozen, but since 2003 it has been resumed again. At Progress station - planned scientific and construction work. Weather: air temperature from -6 C to -22 C, wind up to 23 m per second. 2009 - The wintering staff of the 54th expedition continues autonomous work in Antarctica 25 people, including 7 builders of the contracting organization, the head of the station Panfilov A.V.
Antarctica
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Antarctica- a continent located at the South Pole of the globe, opposite in relation to the Arctic. Antarctica is washed by the waves of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Often, Antarctica is called not only the mainland itself, but also the islands located in its immediate vicinity. The mainland was discovered by our compatriots: Bellingshausen and Lazarev. Before that, they spoke about Antarctica only in theoretical terms: someone assumed that it was part of South America, someone - that it was part of Australia. Fate brought Bellingshausen and Lazarev together in 1819. The Naval Ministry planned an expedition to the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Two well-equipped ships were to make a difficult journey. One of them, the Vostok sloop, was commanded by Bellingshausen, the other, bearing the name Mirny, was commanded by Lazarev. Many decades later, the first Soviet Antarctic stations would be named after these ships. July 16, 1819 the expedition set sail. Its goal was formulated briefly: discoveries "in the possible vicinity of the Antarctic Pole." However, neither Bellingshausen nor Lazarev ever talked about the discovery of the mainland. And the point here is not a sense of false modesty: they understood that it was possible to draw final conclusions only by “stepping over the side of the ship”, having carried out research on the shore. Neither the size nor the outlines of the continent could be even an approximate idea. This took many decades. Bellingshausen and Lazarev
The first to set foot on solid Antarctic land were Christensen (a ship captain from Norway) and Carsten Borchgrevink (a naturalist). In accordance with the convention of 1959, Antarctica does not belong to any of the individual states. Only scientific work is allowed on it. |
Antarctica today
For more than ten years, scientists from different countries have been conducting research on the sixth continent - Antarctica, conducting a persistent search, according to a common program, with a common goal. These studies were started during the International Geophysical Year - IGY (1957-1959); dozens of countries have united to carry out an important scientific problem - the study of the Earth as a whole.
Twelve countries of the world: the Soviet Union, the USA, England, France, Australia, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, Norway, Belgium, Japan - sent their expeditions to the southern mainland.
The IGY was over, and research had practically just begun - it became clear that it took not a year, not five, but decades to study Antarctica.
The work is directed and planned by the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research. In order to avoid disputes between the countries studying Antarctica over the rights to own the mainland, in 1959 they signed an agreement: all territorial claims in Antarctica were "frozen" for thirty years, the mainland was declared free for scientific research, and it was forbidden to build military bases and carry out maneuvers.
The first decade has passed. Dozens of expeditions continuously monitored the weather, magnetic field, earthquakes, determined the height of the glacial plateau, ice thickness, and snow properties. Special devices and cameras on the planes were filming the continent from the air.
Hundreds, thousands of articles, brochures and books have been written about the results of the expeditions.
To make research materials available to all scientists in the world, they are stored in international scientific centers - in Moscow and Washington. Every year, scientists gather at conferences and meetings to discuss new data.
In 1966, the Atlas of Antarctica was published in the Soviet Union. This is a gigantic work of hundreds of scientists. The atlas contains various maps; they talk about height and contours
ice cover, climate, patterns of temperature distribution, wind speed and air pressure. Special geophysical maps display the features of the magnetic field, the acceleration of gravity, the structure of the ionosphere over Antarctica. Geological maps make it possible to judge the rocks and the history of the formation of the continent in ancient times. There are historical maps, they show Antarctica - from its discovery by Bellingshausen and Lazarev to the geographical discoveries of our days.
And the map of the subglacial relief of Antarctica is quite unusual. The relief of other continents is easy to study, it is not hidden by a glacier, as in Antarctica. Ice covers more than 95% of the area here. The ice sheet of Antarctica is a giant dome. Its height in the center is 4 thousand meters above sea level. The steepness of the slope near the coast is greater than in the interior. The profile of a glacier resembles a mathematical curve - half an ellipse cut along its long axis. This is due to the property of ice - fluidity: ice slowly spreads from the center to the edges. And since snow is constantly falling there, this process is continuous. The speed of ice movement is low - during the year from a few centimeters in the center to 200-300 m at the edges. Mountain peaks "pierce" the ice only along the edge of the cover, where its height is no more than 2-2.5 thousand meters above sea level.
The ice sheet of Antarctica has the shape of a semi-ellipse in section.
Why don't mountains come to the surface in the center of Antarctica? Maybe they are not there at all? Maybe central
areas - is it a huge plain lying below sea level, like in Greenland?
So the question arose: is the mainland Antarctica? It was possible to answer it only by penetrating deep into, through the thickness of the ice.
To the center of the continent, sledge-caterpillar trains moved along the ice dome. Powerful tractors, in the bodies-houses of which scientists lived and worked, dragged heavy sleds with loads. Dangerous cracks in the glacier hidden by snow bridges, snowstorms and frosts lay in wait for them. From the rarefied air of the highlands, the lack of oxygen suffocated not only people, but also the engines of cars.
Scientists crossed the continent in different directions. Day after day they measured the thickness of the ice. For each such measurement, it was necessary to drill wells, arrange instruments, and make explosions.
In this case, the method of seismic sounding was used: the wave from the explosion ran through the ice to the bottom - to the border with the rock - and, reflected from it, returned to the surface. Instruments measure time
The glaciation of Antarctica can be represented as four huge spreading domes: three in the western part of the mainland and one in the eastern part. The East Antarctic dome is two domes that seem to have merged, and the uplift between their centers is an ice divide.
spent by her on this run. The wave propagation speed was 3800 m/s. Multiplying the speed by the time and dividing it in half, we got the thickness of the ice. Gravimetric measurements (accurate measurement of the acceleration of gravity) together with the seismic method made it possible to determine the thickness of the ice. Most recently, expeditions from the USSR, the USA and England have used a new sounding method - radar: radio waves "shine through" the ice and are reflected from the boundary where the ice is in contact with the bedrock.
Scientists from different countries traveled more than 50,000 km in total, determining the thickness of the ice at 10,000 points. Based on all these measurements, a map of the under-ice relief of Antarctica was created for the first time (see color insert).
It turns out that an extremely complex relief is hidden under the ice cover: powerful mountain ranges more than 3 thousand meters above sea level, and vast plains, over which the ice thickness reaches 3-4 thousand meters.
The ridges, by right of discoverers, were named after Russian academicians Gamburtsev, Vernadsky and Golitsyn by Soviet scientists. The plains were named Western, Eastern and Schmidt.
It became clear that Antarctica in the past, before the glaciation, was a large continent with mountains and valleys, rivers, lakes and inland seas. Ice (according to various sources, the ice sheet arose from 30 to 1 million years ago) hid almost the entire continent, with the exception of high mountains on the edge.
Twenty-five million cubic kilometers is the volume of ice that covers Antarctica today. If it melted, the level of the World Ocean would rise by about 60 m.
And if the ice of Antarctica is evenly distributed over the rest of the continents, it will cover them with a layer of 170 m.
Studies have shown that under the enormous weight of ice, the earth's crust in Antarctica has sunk an average of 500 m, and the subcrustal substance has been squeezed out along the edges of the mainland, possibly causing the rise of the ocean floor or marginal mountains. If before the exploration of Antarctica the existence of the mainland was questioned, now it is even measured.
Routes of seismogravimetric studies.
Seismic sounding scheme. A seismic explosion excites vibrations that reach the bedrock and, reflected from it, return to the surface of the ice sheet. These oscillations are perceived and transmitted in the form of electrical impulses to the recording oscilloscope.
This is important for understanding the movement of the earth's crust of the northern continents, which in the past were also subjected to powerful glaciation.
No less important is the study of the so-called ice sheet budget. How much snow falls and ice melts in Antarctica? If more snow falls than ice melts, then Antarctica is growing, and if vice versa, then the glacier is shrinking, and then the ocean level may rise. After all, it is enough for the ocean to rise only a few tens of centimeters to cause great trouble to people: in order to protect the coast from the onset of the sea, it will be necessary to build up dams and moorings. Glaciological measurements have shown that the budget is more or less balanced.
Special observations were made in Antarctica over the temperature of the glacier. The wells drilled made it possible to place thermometers at depths of up to 350 m. The results were unusual. As a rule, the temperature of the ice or the ground increases with depth, but in the well near Mirny, at first everything happened the other way around, and only at a depth of more than 100 m did the temperature begin to rise. What is this cold wave?
Calculations say that there can be two reasons: one is due to the fact that the ice moves from the center, cold regions, and does not have time to acquire the air temperature of the warmer, edge parts of the cover, and since the heating comes from above, the temperature in the thickness of the glacier drops with depth . Another possible reason is that several hundred or thousand years ago the climate was colder, and at a depth of more than 100 m, the temperature of those times was preserved.
Knowing the temperature at different depths, we can learn a lot about the climate. During the year, the temperature changes: warmer in summer, colder in winter, even within one day it is changeable. At a depth of 15-20 m in dense snow, these fluctuations fade, and a constant average annual temperature is maintained here. Ice measurements at this depth show, for example, that the mean annual temperature at Vostok station is minus 56°; this coincides with the observations of meteorologists.
Vostok station is now considered the pole of cold - here (August 1958) the lowest temperature on Earth was recorded -88.3 °. But studies by glaciologists have shown that the lowest temperature on Earth should have been at a point with coordinates 82c2 "south latitude, 69 ° 44" east longitude at an altitude of 4000 m above sea level. In the well drilled here, the average annual temperature is -60°C, and when the lowest temperature was recorded at Vostok station, the air temperature in this place reached 95-100°C.
Although the cold pole is determined from meteorological data, it would be more fair to consider it the indicated point discovered by glaciologists.
An interesting hypothesis about bottom melting. In the central part of Antarctica, where the ice thickness reaches 3500-4000 m, the glacier melts from below due to the heat coming from the earth's crust. From the edge, where the glacier is thinner, melting does not occur - the cold, penetrating into the glacier bed, freezes it to the rock. The hypothesis suggests that the resulting water either accumulates in the form of subglacial lens lakes, or, possibly, is squeezed out to the edge along valleys, such as, for example, the IGY Valley. These assumptions are the result of complex calculations of temperature readings in shallow wells. And recently it became known that the Americans drilled a glacier to a depth of 1700 m in the area of Byrd station and found water rushing up the well. Now it will be possible to test the correctness of the bottom melting hypothesis.
It was assumed that the oases discovered in Antarctica - ice-free land areas - also owe their origin to heat fluxes from the earth's crust. However, oases do not differ from other areas in terms of the intensity of heat flows. In summer, Antarctica receives as much heat per unit area as in the tropics, because the sun shines almost a full day, there are no clouds, the air is transparent, and although the sun's rays fall at a lower angle than in the tropics, they still heat up the dark rocks . The snow-white glacier reflects up to 90% of the sunlight. It is enough for a dark spot, a stone, to appear on the snow, as immediately around it and under it, melting begins. Therefore, although a lot of snow falls in the oases in winter, it quickly melts in summer, forming lakes.
In addition to the ice sheet, there are huge ice shelves in Antarctica that are afloat. They arise from sea ice or the rising edge of a continental ice sheet. Falling snow increases the thickness of these glaciers from above. From below, they thaw, eroded by sea water. But sometimes the opposite phenomenon is observed in ice shelves - they melt from above, and freeze from below. In one such glacier, near the American station McMurdo, fish and algae thaw on the surface, which were frozen into the glacier from below several hundred years ago.
Schematic of the budget for the Antarctic ice mass. Precipitation falling to the surface turns into ice, which slowly spreads from the center to the edges. At the edges, the ice melts from the surface and icebergs break off here, drifting north. Under the influence of the flow of heat from the bowels of the earth, bottom melting occurs. The resulting water is squeezed out to the edges or accumulates in the form of lenses in the thickness of the glacier.
This is how ice shelves form.
For ten years, geologists have surveyed and mapped the structure of almost all the peaks that come to the surface. Although this is only a few percent of the area of Antarctica, they nevertheless managed to reconstruct its geological history. The eastern part of Antarctica is a platform. It originated in the Proterozoic era, as part of the ancient mainland of Gondwana. In the Paleozoic, there were strong mining processes in West Antarctica, several times it fell below sea level. There are indications that there was a glaciation in Antarctica during the Mesozoic era, which subsequently disappeared. Once the mainland was covered with heat-loving tropical vegetation, which later turned into coal. Of course, Antarctica is very rich in minerals, and even in that small part of the continent that geologists explored, they discovered deposits of ores of iron and polymetals, mica and coal, fluorite and rock crystal. Scientists believe that there must be diamonds in Antarctica.
Until now, the complete aseismicity of Antarctica remains a mystery. For all these years, not a single seismic station on the territory of Antarctica has registered even a single weak earthquake. This is surprising because West Antarctica is part of the Pacific ring of a seismically active zone.
The legendary Russian polar station "Vostok" in Antarctica was established in 1957. It is located in the center of the continent, among ice and snow. Like 59 years ago, today it is a kind of symbol of the pole of inaccessibility.
The distance from the station to the South Pole is less than to the sea coast, and the population of the station does not exceed 25 people. Low temperatures, an altitude of more than three kilometers above sea level, complete isolation from the world in winter make it one of the most inconvenient places for a person to stay on Earth. Despite the most difficult conditions, life in the Vostok does not stop even at -80 °C. Scientists are studying a unique subglacial lake, which is located at a depth of more than four kilometers.
Location
The scientific station "Vostok" (Antarctica) is located 1253 km from the South Pole and 1260 km from the sea coast. The ice cover here reaches a thickness of 3700 m. In winter, it is impossible to get to the station, so polar explorers have to rely only on their own strength. In summer, cargo is delivered here by plane. For the same purpose, a sledge-caterpillar train from the Progress station is also used. Previously, such trains also came from Mirny station, but today, due to the increase in hummocks along the train route, this has become impossible.
The polar station "Vostok" is located near the South geomagnetic pole of our planet. This allows you to study changes in the Earth's magnetic field. In the summer, about forty people are at the station - engineers and scientists.
Station "Vostok": history, climate
This unique scientific center was built in 1957 for research and observation of the Antarctic ecosystem. Since its foundation, the Russian Vostok station in Antarctica has never stopped working, and its activities continue today. Scientists are very interested in the relic subglacial lake. In the mid-nineties, a unique drilling of glacial deposits was carried out at the station. First, thermal drilling tools were used, and then electromechanical ones, on a load-carrying cable.
Drilling groups of the AANII and the Leningrad Mining Institute jointly discovered the unique underground lake Vostok. It is hidden by an ice sheet more than four thousand meters thick. Its dimensions are presumably 250x50 kilometers. Depth over 1200 meters. Its area exceeds 15.5 thousand square kilometers.
New projects are being developed to survey this deep lake. Vostok is a station in Antarctica that took part in the target federal program World Ocean. In addition, scientists are studying human life in such extreme conditions.
Climate
The polar station "Vostok" is famous for its harsh conditions. The climate of this place can be briefly described - there is no colder place on Earth. The absolute minimum temperature is recorded here - 89 ° C. Average temperatures during the year range from -31 °C and -68 °C, to the absolute maximum, which was recorded back in 1957 - -13 °C. The Polar Night lasts 120 days - from the end of April to the end of August.
The warmest months at the station are December and January. At this time, the air temperature is -35.1 °C -35.5 °C. This temperature is comparable to the cold Siberian winter. The coldest month is August. The air temperature drops to -75.3 °C, and sometimes even below -88.3 °C. The coldest maximum (daily) is -52 °C; for the entire observation period in May, the temperature does not rise above -41.6 °C. But low temperatures are not the main climatic problem and difficulty for polar explorers.
The Vostok station (Antarctica) is located in an area with almost zero air humidity. There is a lack of oxygen here. The station is located at an altitude of more than three thousand meters above sea level. In such difficult conditions, acclimatization of a person lasts from a week to two months. This process is usually accompanied by flickering in the eyes, dizziness, nosebleeds, ear pain, a feeling of suffocation, high blood pressure, sleep disturbance, loss of appetite, nausea, severe muscle and joint pain, weight loss up to five kilograms.
Scientific activity
"Vostok" is a station in Antarctica, whose specialists have been conducting research on mineral and hydrocarbon raw materials, drinking water reserves, conducting actinometric, aero-meteorological, glaciological and geophysical observations here for more than half a century. In addition, they conduct medical research, study climate change, conduct research on the "ozone hole", etc.
Life at the station
Vostok is a station in Antarctica where special people live and work. They are infinitely devoted to their work, they are interested in the exploration of this mysterious continent. This obsession, in the best sense of the word, allows them to endure all the hardships of life, long separation from loved ones. The lives of polar explorers can be envied only by the most desperate extreme sportsmen.
Station "Vostok" (Antarctica) has many features. For example, in ordinary life we are surrounded by some insects - butterflies, mosquitoes, midges. There is nothing at the station. Not even microorganisms. The water here is from melted snow. It does not contain any minerals or salts, so at first the station workers are constantly thirsty.
We have already mentioned that researchers have been drilling a well to the mysterious Lake Vostok for a long time. In 2011, new ice was discovered at a depth of 3540 meters, which was frozen from below. This is the frozen water of the lake. Polar explorers claim that it is clean and very pleasant in taste, it can be boiled and brewed into tea.
The building where the polar explorers live is swept up by a two-meter layer of snow. There is no daylight inside. Two exits lead outside - the main and the spare. The main exit is a door, behind which a fifty-meter tunnel is dug in the snow. The emergency exit is much shorter. It is a steep staircase leading to the roof of the station.
The residential building has a wardroom, a TV hangs on the wall (although there is no on-air television at the station), and a billiard table is installed. When the temperature in this room drops to below zero, everyone tries not to go there. But one day, polar explorers found a faulty game console in a warehouse. It was repaired, connected to the TV, and the wardroom came to life - now polar explorers gather here. In warm jackets and trousers, in felt boots and hats, they come to play fisticuffs and races.
Polar explorers note that in recent years the station "Vostok" (Antarctica) has changed in everyday life. A warm residential module, dining rooms, a diesel block and other buildings necessary for the life of the station made life here quite acceptable.
Fire at Vostok station in Antarctica
On April 12, 1982, Vostok did not get in touch with the mainland. Nobody could guess what happened. According to the schedule, the station made contact nine times a day. When there was no connection even at the second agreed hour, it became clear that something extraordinary had happened. Lack of communication - in any case, an emergency. No one could have foreseen the extent of the trouble at the station then.
The station "Vostok" (Antarctica) had a separate room where the diesel-electric station was located. There the fire started on the night of March 12. It was the very beginning of wintering. A small house was attached to the power plant, in which the mechanics lived. They were awakened at four in the morning by the acrid smell of smoke.
When they went outside, they found that the fire was blazing on the roof. After a couple of minutes, all the winterers, hastily dressed, ran out into the cold. The spotlight that illuminated the area went out. The light was only from the fire.
Fighting fire
The fire was covered with snow, then they tried to cover it with a tarpaulin to prevent the access of oxygen. But the tarpaulin ignited instantly. The people who climbed onto the roof soon had to jump down. The roof burned down completely in thirty minutes.
Fifteen meters from the station there were tanks with diesel fuel. It was impossible to pull them out - they are too heavy. Luckily, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction. It was also saved by the fact that the diesel fuel was too cold, in the cold it became viscous. She had to be very hot to flare up.
The polar explorers did not immediately notice that there was not one mechanic among them. His remains were found in the ashes. Immediately after the fire, the station premises were left without heat and light, and it was -67 ° C outside ...
How to survive?
There was a real disaster. Two diesel generators, which supplied electricity to the station, and two backup ones, were completely out of order. There was no light in the rooms, the scientific instruments were de-energized, the batteries and the stove in the galley cooled down. The problem was even with water - it was obtained in an electric melter from snow. In the back room they found an old kerosene stove. She was transferred to one of the residential barracks.
Meanwhile, Moscow was frantically looking for a way out of the current situation. They consulted with pilots and sailors. But none of the options could be implemented in the harsh polar night.
Life after the fire
The polar explorers decided to survive on their own. Courageous guys did not wait for help from the mainland. A radiogram was transmitted to Moscow: "We will survive until spring." They were well aware that the icy continent does not forgive mistakes, but it is also ruthless to those who fall into despair.
Wintering continued in force majeure conditions. The polar explorers moved into one tiny living quarters. Based on gas cylinders, five new stoves were made. In this room, which was both a bedroom, and a dining room, and a kitchen, there were also scientific instruments.
The main disadvantage of the new furnaces was soot. She was collected a bucket a day. After some time, thanks to the ingenuity of the aerologist and the cook, the winterers were able to bake bread. They glued portions of the dough to the walls of the oven and thus received completely edible bread.
In addition to hot food and warmth, light was needed. And then these strong people began to make candles, using the available paraffin and asbestos cord for this. "Candle Factory" worked until the end of wintering.
Work continues!
Despite the incredible conditions, polar explorers increasingly began to think about continuing their scientific activities. But this was due to a huge shortage of electricity. The only surviving engine satisfied only the needs of radio communications and electric welding. They were simply "afraid to breathe" on him.
However, the meteorologist interrupted his observations of the weather only during a fire. After the tragedy, he worked as usual. Looking at him, the magnetologist resumed his work.
The rescue
This is how wintering went - in the absence of sunlight, with a lack of oxygen, with enormous domestic inconveniences. But these people survived, which in itself is a feat. They have not lost self-control and "taste" to work. They lasted 7.5 months, as promised to the Moscow curators, in extreme circumstances.
In early November, an Il-14 plane flew to the station, which delivered a new generator and four new winterers from the next, 28th expedition. There was also a doctor among the passengers of the long-awaited plane. According to him, he expected to see demoralized and exhausted people at the station. However, these guys were fine.
And fifteen days later a sledge-tractor train arrived from Mirny. He delivered building materials and products, as well as everything for the construction of a power plant. After that, time at the station went faster: everyone tried to make up for the accumulated "debts" on scientific research.
When the shift arrived, the courageous polar explorers were sent by plane to Mirny. The remains of the deceased were delivered on the same board. He was buried in the Antarctic "Novodevichy" cemetery. The rest of the polar explorers transferred to the ship "Bashkiria", which delivered them to Leningrad. Today, all of them are alive and well, and some of them managed to take part in the Antarctic expedition again during this time.
Station "Vostok": visiting rules
Tourists, as well as trained travelers, are not invited to the station - this is an exclusively scientific center. Nevertheless, it is still possible to visit the "East". To do this, those who wish must contact the Institute and convincingly prove why the station needs them. The minimum requirements for applicants are good health and many useful skills.
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Antarctic station "Vostok" Polar station (polar station, SP) a scientific observation post created on the coast ... Wikipedia
Vostok Antarctic Station Polar station is a scientific observation point established on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, in Antarctica, on nearby islands, and also on drifting ice. In the Northern Hemisphere, polar (Arctic) ... ... Wikipedia
The Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE) is a continuously operating expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia. Participate in the RAE ... ... Wikipedia
- (RAE) a continuously working expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia. Winterers participating in the RAE spend about a year in Antarctica ... Wikipedia
Coordinates: 62°12′59″ S sh. 58°57′52″ W / 62.216389°S sh. 58.964444° W etc. ... Wikipedia
February 13, 1956 the first Soviet Antarctic station - "Mirny". It was the beginning of the great history of the development of the southern continent by our country, which continues to this day. And today we will talk about the seven most famous and important domestic stations in Antarctica.
The name "Mirny" is taken from the legendary sloop, one of the ships of the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev, who discovered Antarctica in January 1820. The second ship, Vostok, also gave the name to the Soviet and then Russian polar station.
In its best years, the Mirny station was home to 150-200 polar explorers, but lately its team has consisted of 15-20 explorers. And the function of managing all Russian bases in Antarctica was transferred to the more modern Progress station.
The Vostok-1 station was founded on May 18, 1957 in the interior of Antarctica, 620 kilometers from the Mirny base. But already on December 1, the facility was closed, and the equipment was transported even deeper into the continent, to a place that eventually became known as the Vostok station (its date of birth is December 16, 1957).
Vostok became the most famous Soviet and Russian Antarctic station thanks to the record low temperature recorded there in 1983 - minus 89.2 degrees Celsius. It was "beaten" only thirty years later - in December 2013 at the Japanese station Fuji Dome, where a temperature mark of minus 91.2 degrees was noticed.
At the Vostok station, aero-meteorological, geophysical, glaciological and medical studies have been and are being carried out, where they study "ozone holes" and the properties of materials at low temperatures. And at a depth of three kilometers, it was under this station that the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica was discovered, which received the same name - Vostok.
The place where Vostok is located is one of the most severe from the weather point of view. The events of Vladimir Sanin's heroic books "72 degrees below zero", "Newbie in Antarctica" and "Trapped" take place at the station. According to these works, popular feature films were shot in Soviet times.
Pole of inaccessibility - the most remote station
The Pole of Inaccessibility Station, which existed for just under two weeks in December 1958, went down in history for two reasons. Firstly, it is located at the point of the same name in Antarctica, the most distant from the coast of the continent. The opening of the object in this place was the answer of the Soviet polar explorers to the appearance of the American base "Amundsen-Scott" at the South Pole.
Secondly, the "Pole of Inaccessibility" was decorated with a bust of Lenin, mounted on top of the pyramid that crowned the station building. This figure still rises above the icy plains of Antarctica, even when the structure itself is covered with snow.
Novolazarevskaya - polar station with a sauna
Replacing the station "Lazarev" closed in 1961, "Novolazarevskaya" thundered throughout the Soviet Union, which became a legendary event, when the doctor Leonid Rogozov performed a unique operation - he cut out an inflamed appendicitis himself.
"While you're here in the tile bath
Wash, bask, warm yourself, -
He is in the cold with his own scalpel
It cuts out the appendix- Vladimir Vysotsky sang about this human feat.
And in 2007, Novolazarevskaya again appeared on the front pages of Russian newspapers and news sites. The first and still the only Russian banya in Antarctica was opened there!
Bellingshausen - polar station with a church
"Bellingshausen" is not just a Russian research station in the southern latitudes, it is the spiritual center of Russian Antarctica. After all, on its territory is the Church of the Holy Trinity, brought there disassembled from Russia in 2004.
Since Bellingshausen is located in close proximity to the Chilean, Uruguayan, Korean, Brazilian, Argentinean, Polish and Peruvian stations, the employees of the latter regularly go to services in a Russian church - there are no others nearby.
Youth - the former "capital" of Antarctica
For a long time, Molodyozhnaya station was considered the capital of Soviet Antarctica. After all, it was the largest object of its kind. About seventy buildings, lined up in the streets, functioned at the base. There were not only residential complexes and research laboratories, but also an oil depot and even an airfield capable of receiving such large aircraft as the IL-76.
The station has been in operation since 1962. Up to 150 people could live and work on it at the same time. But in 1999, the Russian flag was lowered, the once year-round base was first completely mothballed, and in 2006 it was switched to a seasonal mode.
Progress is the center of the Russian presence in Antarctica
Now the main Russian polar station is Progress. It was opened in 1989 as a seasonal one, but over time, it “built up” the infrastructure and became permanent. In 2013, Progress opened a new wintering complex with a gym and sauna, exercise equipment, modern hospital equipment, tennis and billiard tables, as well as living rooms, research laboratories and a galley.Bonus
Academician Vernadsky - a British gift to Ukrainian polar explorers
After the collapse of the USSR, Russia claimed ownership of all the former Soviet stations in Antarctica, refusing Ukraine's bid to gain control of one of them. However, in 1996, the former Soviet republic got its own base on the southern continent. Great Britain handed over to Kyiv its station "Faraday", which after the "change of citizenship" received the name "Academician Vernadsky".
In addition to scientific activities, Ukraine also conducts commercial activities at Akademik Vernadsky. This facility houses the only bar in Antarctica where employees of nearby foreign stations gather for gatherings, as well as a souvenir shop (the Ukrainian base is one of the centers of polar tourism).
There is also a chapel of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir - the southernmost religious building in the world (the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity is located a little to the north).
