Maintaining a research station on the world’s coldest, harshest, and most remote continent requires many things: a scientific mandate to give it purpose; a continuous influx and exchange of personnel to prevent isolation-induced burnout; constant structural maintenance and restocking and supplies; and, most importantly, the government support and funding to keep them operating.
By K. Schuk
Independent Cartographer
Lenin’s
bust, pointed in the direction of Moscow, at Pole of Inaccessibility Station in
January 2007. Source:H.Cookson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Southern_Pol_of_Inaccessibility_Henry_Cookson_team_n2i.JPG.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 3.0
Unported licence.
Maintaining a
research station on the world’s coldest, harshest, and most remote continent
requires many things: a scientific mandate to give it purpose; a continuous
influx and exchange of personnel to prevent isolation-induced burnout; constant
structural maintenance and restocking and supplies; and, most importantly, the
government support and funding to keep them operating. While the vast majority
of scientific research stations established since the end of World War II
persist to this day, there have been more than a handful of countries
that have shut down research stations. Some stations were properly dismantled;
others were simply abandoned to the elements.
Pole of
Inaccessibility (Polyus Nedostupnosti) (Soviet Union)
Perhaps the
most famous of all modern abandoned Antarctic stations is Pole of
Inaccessibility (Polyus Nedostupnosti), built by the Soviet Union in
December 1958 specificially at a location believed to be the most remote point
of Antarctica (whether
it actually is depends upon both how you measure and whether or not you include
the various ice shelves surrounding the continent). All edifices and
supplies were hauled
overland by tractor. While Pole of Inaccessibility initially gained infamy
for its rather short period of operation (the station only operated for 12 days
between 14-26 December 1958, being abandoned so quickly due to the realisation
that it was an unsafe location for permanent occupation), but it also became
famous for what was left behind: a radio transmitter and a four-person hut topped
with a statue of Lenin. A US expedition visited the
station in late 1964-early 1965, but otherwise the base remained untouched
until a
British-Canadian expedition reached the site via kite-powered sleds on 19
January 2007, finding the old hut buried in snow with only
Lenin’s bust visible above the snow. The view of Lenin’s visage stranded in
the Antarctic has since become a popular image across the Internet.
Druznaya/Komsomolskaya/Leningradskaya/Molodyozhnaya/Russkaya/Soyuz
(Soviet Union/Russia)
When it comes
to abandoned stations, the easy leader is the Soviet Union/Russia. In addition
to Pole of Inaccessibility, six other stations have been closed by either the
USSR or Russia. For five of these stations, closures came as a result of
funding cutbacks in advance of the collapse of the Soviet Union; they remain in
place awaiting new funding to reopen them. Five of the siz stations (Druznaya,
1987-95; Komsomolskaya,
1957-62; Leningradskaya,
1971-91; Russkaya,
1980-90; Soyuz,
1982-87) also had relatively short lifespans. Only Molodyozhnaya (1962-90),
the largest and most used of the stations, made it longer than two
decades. While Russia has stated its intention over the past seven years
to reopen Leningradskaya, Molodyozhnaya, and Russkaya, no direct actions have
been taken. The 2012 deployment of
the polar research ship Akademik
Tryoshnikov is an indication that these reactivation plans, although
delayed, are still on the table.
Molodyozhnaya Station as it sits today on the shores of
the Cosmonauts Sea/ Source: Google Map
Ellsworth
(United States/Antarctica)
Despite only
being in existence for five years, Ellsworth had
the distinction of being operated separately by two different countries. Named
for the American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, the station was established in
1957 at Gould Bay on
the Weddell Sea‘s Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. The base’s
establishment took place during the International Geophysical Year and most of the experiments and observation there were based around atmospheric
observations. At the end of 1958, the US handed control of the station over to
Argentina, which claimed the area as part of its massive Argentine land claim
(a claim that would be suspended in 1959 as part of the Antarctic Treaty).
Argentina continued the atmospheric observations, as well as ice shelf
studies, until closing the base in 1962. Being located an the ice shelf,
Ellsworth would eventually be subsumed by the ice.
World Park
Base (Greenpeace)
The only
non-governmental base on this list belongs to Greenpeace, who constructed a
base at Cape Evans on Ross Island in 1987 as part of a campaign to have the
signatory countries of the Antarctic Treaty declare the entire continent of
Antarctica a ‘world
park‘ in order to prevent potential commercial exploitation of Antarctica’s
resources. For five years, the environmental organisation maintained
a foothold on the island with no assistance from outside governments,
all the while decrying the environmental impact generated by the various
research stations around the continent. Following the signing of the Protocol
on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in October 1991,
Greenpeace declared victory and dismantled the base. Today, almost no visible
evidence is left of the base, although 5 tonnes of soil had to be removed to
prevent contamination; the organisation stating that up
to 30m3 of soil may have been contaminated with fuel. The
areas where soil had to be stripped away were then backfilled with sediments
taken from the nearby beach in order to prevent the loss of permafrost. As with
Vanda, the remediation process was successful.
Further
Reading
Daily Mail
(2007). British three reach pole of inaccessibility. 20 January 2007. Available
athttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-430167/British-reach-pole-inaccessibility.html.
Accessed 15 November 2013.
Greenpeace
(2011). 1991 – International Treaty saves the Antarctic from deadly threat. 12
September 2011. Available at http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/how-we-saved-antarctica/.
Accessed 14 November 2013.
Maritime
Professional (2012). Russian-buit Research Ship Antarctic Ready. 17 October
2012. Available athttp://www.maritimeprofessional.com/News/348564.aspx.
Accessed 16 November 2013.
Miklós, V.
(2013). 8 Abandoned Antarctic Whaling Stations and Bases that are Still
Amazing. io9, 7 April 2013. Available at
http://io9.com/8-abandoned-antarctic-whaling-stations-and-bases-that-a-471066973.
Accessed 16 November 2013.
Neumann, T.
(2007). Pole of Inaccessibility. Norweigian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of
East Antarctica. Available athttp://traverse.npolar.no/historical-traverses/pole-of-inaccessibility.html.
Accessed 16 November 2013.
Norwegian
Polar Institute (2011). The Pole of Inaccessibility. South Pole
1911-2011, 3 December 2011. Available athttp://sorpolen2011.npolar.no/en/diary/south-pole/2011-12-03-the-pole-of-inaccessibility.html.
Accessed 16 November 2013.
O’Neill, T. et
al. (2013). The Effectiveness of Environmental Assessments on Visitor
Activity in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica. In Müller, D.K., et al. (eds.), New
Issues in Polar Tourism: Communities, Environments, Politics, 87-110.
Springer: Dordrecht.
RIA Novosti
(2012). The Research Expedition Vessel “Akademik Tryoshnikov”. 2 February 2012.
Available athttp://en.ria.ru/infographics/20120302/171504606.html.
Accessed 16 November 2013.
Rothwell, D.R.
(1990). The Antarctic Treaty System: Resource Development, Environmental
Protection or Disintegration? Arctic 43(3): 264-191. Available
at http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic43-3-284.pdf.
Accessed 14 November 2013.
Russian
Antarctic Expedition (2013). Russian Antarctic Stations – overview. Available
athttp://www.aari.aq/stations/list_en.html.
Accessed 16 November 2013.
Source: BasementGeographer.com
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