In this section we will digress a little from the topic of Antarctic military secrets. But let's not stray too far from them. Why? After all, outwardly completely peaceful Antarctic stations always kept many military secrets in their safes, 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. It is not surprising that in this century few people believe in its existence. Meanwhile, back in the last century, some information about it leaked into the Soviet press.

In 1955, several countries around the world began to organize scientific research expeditionary bases in West Antarctica. They were placed on the coast, usually far from each other; a relatively large “cluster” of stations from several countries was located only on Graham Land. Ten years later, a two-volume major work, “Atlas of the Antarctic,” was published in our country.

It contained hundreds of detailed maps, graphs, diagrams, and scientific articles, by reading which one could obtain interesting information about the relief, geological structure, continental glaciation and sea ice, climate, geophysical phenomena, vegetation 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, under a single program, 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 for the first time since the end of World War II. Later Poland and Czechoslovakia joined them. This map showed 42 scientific stations belonging to 12 countries. 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 exploring the coastline of the Antarctic ice sheet and especially in the most accessible part of the continent, 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 continent. 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 “treasure box.” And what minerals: coal, gold, silver, lead, iron, and most importantly, uranium! Moreover, it was recognized that the West Antarctic folded region was considered as a continuation of the metallogenic belt of the Andes with copper, molybdenum, tungsten, tin. When did they manage to conduct deep geological exploration? T

only in pre-war times! Beginning in the fall of 1948, the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile, as if by an unknown command, began vying with each other to declare their claims to certain areas of Antarctica.

The leadership of the USSR, which closely monitored the facts of foreign penetration into the Antarctic deserts, again became seriously worried. In February 1949, a general meeting of members of the All-Union Geographical Society was held in Leningrad, where the president of the society, L. Berg, presented a report “Russian discoveries in Antarctica and modern interest in it.” The resolution of this meeting stated that “any solution to 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 memoranda to the above countries on the issue of the Antarctic regime. It was also indicated here that the Soviet Union is equally attentive to Antarctica also because this continent and the adjacent islands are a convenient base for the most important meteorological observations, which are of extreme importance for the Northern Hemisphere. Most likely there were other reasons for this. Which? Apparently, we will not know about everyone soon. But we’ve already met something!

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 there was a single continent of Gondwanaland somewhere here. Similar charnockites had previously been found only in India.

But let's return to the Antarctic Peninsula.

The closest post-war polar stations to the Horst Wessel anthractic base were: the British Detail Island, Stonington Island, Horseshoe Island, Feryn Head and Rothera, and the Argentine General San Martin. I would like to consider the history of each of them in as much detail as possible, but all the information currently available had to be limited to data about the Argentine base “General San Martin”. The British bases Stonington Island (Base E) and Feryn Head (Base J) were closed in 1958. And, here’s information about the British bases “Detail Island” (Base W), “Horseshoe Island” (Base V) and “Rothera” remained closed.

The closest to “New Swabia” were: the Soviet “Lazarev”, the British “Hally Bay” and “Shackleton”, the Norwegian-South African “Norway”, the Norwegian-Swedish-British “Modheim”, the Argentine “General Belgrano” and “Ellsworth” , Belgian “King Baudouin”, Japanese “Showa”, West German “Georg von Neumaer”, 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 seemed to adjoin the right side of the New Swabia Land. From the Lazarev station, 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 inhabitants 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 letter designation: it was not possible to find anything about its creation and activities.

According to official documents, the British Shackleton base was established in January 1956 on the Weddell Sea coast at coordinates 77 degrees 59 minutes south latitude and 37 degrees 09 minutes west longitude, but was abandoned in January 1958. Valuable equipment and instruments were dismantled and transferred to Hally Bay station. The reasons that prompted the British to urgently close the station could not be established. But it was from here that British Antarctic explorer Vivian Fuchs planned to begin his transcontinental trek to the South Pole in November 1957.

This research station was a failure from the very beginning. The ship that delivered cargo for the station here left the contents of its holds on the sea ice due to the approaching storm. The storm that broke out destroyed a significant part of the building materials, coal, fuel, and one of the tractors. Chemicals for hydrogen production were lost, as a result of which British scientists at the station could not conduct aerological observations. Only a year later it was possible to bring everything necessary to the station.

The Norwegian-South African “Norway”, considered a British scientific station, was created in January 1957 at coordinates 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 Weddell Sea at coordinates 77 degrees 58 minutes south latitude and 37 degrees 48 minutes west longitude.

US Base Ellsworth (the seventh US station) was established on February 11, 1957, on the shores of the Weddell Sea east of Golden Bay, on the edge of the Filchner Ice Shelf, at latitude 76 degrees south and longitude 41 degrees 07 minutes west. Initially, it was planned to build it at the extreme southwestern point of the Weddell Sea, at the base of Graham Land, or more precisely, in the area of ​​Cape Adam. Until that time, not a single ship or 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 buildings.

They were designed for the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, where they were tested. These are typical shield-type houses. Each shield is approximately 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. The inside of the residential houses was lined with thin metal sheets reminiscent of aluminum.

Each house had up to five rooms. Its layout depends on the need, because the partitions are thin five-millimeter plywood sheets, and the arrangement can be changed as desired. 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 quite simple: two beds with spring nets and microporous rubber mattresses, two metal wardrobes, two bedside tables and several chairs.

Each such house has two exits - one main and one spare. The main exits of each house lead into a tunnel that connects all the houses and runs along the entire village.

Service buildings are exactly the same, but they do not have partitions and, of course, furniture.

39 people remained at the station, including 10 scientists, the rest were American sailors. The famous polar explorer Finn Rone was left as the head of the Ellsworth station. After the end of the International Geophysical Year, the Elsworth station was transferred to the Argentines.

The Belgian station "King Baudouin" was established on the Princess Ranhilda Coast ice shelf near the Soviet Antarctic station "Lazarev".

The Japanese Showa station was established in the mid-1950s at coordinates 69 degrees 00 minutes south latitude and 39 degrees 35 minutes east longitude. Three American-style panel-type residential buildings were assembled here. In the fourth room there were two electric generators. In 1974, 18 polar explorers spent the winter at this Antarctic station, established on Ongul Island (Lützow-Holm Bay, Prinz Olav Coast). The Japanese built their station at the very edge of Queen Maud Land.

It was separated from the nearest Soviet station “Molodezhnaya” by only 300 kilometers, and from “Novolazarevskaya” - almost 1,000 kilometers. On the ledges of the rocky cliffs of Ongul Island, barrels and various equipment were stacked, cars were parked, and a little further, in the depths, bright red houses could be seen. During the winter, large snow drifts formed around the houses. The polar explorers were replaced by the icebreakers Soya and Fuji.

From Showa Station to the aforementioned Yamato Mountains it is about 300 kilometers. But the Japanese were frequent visitors to the mountain range, named after their beloved Motherland. True, at first, they had to fly over the coastal nunataks deep into the Ayuttzow-Holm Bay. Then, turning south, “crawl onto the dome,” or, more simply, fly along the ice dome over the Antarctic desert. In good weather this was not a problem, but Antarctica has never been known 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 base "Georg Forster" were most likely created as a kind of counterbalance to each other.

The Indian scientific station "Dakshin Gangotri" was created in 1983-1984 in the Schirmacher oasis, 18 kilometers from the "Novolazarevskaya" station.

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 in Great Britain, Argentina, Chile and the USA on the Antarctic Peninsula (aka Graeme Land). In fact, they were located “on each other’s heads,” but then we had no idea that our recent allies in World War II knew about the dead cities of an extraterrestrial civilization and the Antarctic Nazi bases.

The first Soviet scientific stations in Antarctica were created in 1955 by our polar explorers during the International Geophysical Year. Then the Complex Antarctic Expedition (CAE) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, consisting of several scientific teams, arrived in Antarctica to carry out scientific work. Its marine group had six detachments: aerometeorological, hydrological, hydrochemical, marine geology, hydrobiological and hydrographic.

And the coastal group includes four scientific teams: aerometeorological, geological-geographical, complex geophysical and aerial photography. It was the polar explorers of the AE who assigned the first two Antarctic stations the names of the ships of Thaddeus Bellingshausen, and the third - “Sovetskaya”.

Three ships were allocated to the expedition. Diesel-electric ships of 12.5 thousand tons each - “Ob” and “Lena”. The first of these icebreaking ships was used for oceanographic research, the second - as a transport. The third was a small 500-ton ship, Refrigerator No. 7, which was mainly used to deliver perishable goods. 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, Gas-47 light all-terrain vehicles and various types of vehicles. There were up to 50 sled dogs.

All Soviet stations were created in the sector allocated to us by the Special Committee of the International Geophysical Year. They were constructed from materials delivered on board diesel-electric ships. When choosing specific locations for scientific stations, they were guided mainly by considerations of convenience of approaches from the sea, the possibility of unloading ships and the desire to place an observatory and a residential settlement on a rocky surface, which is not so abundant on the coast of Antarctica, or, in extreme cases, on an area of ​​stationary 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. For the first wintering in Mirny, 92 polar explorers remained, led by the head of the AEC, Mikhail Somov. Already this wintering showed that those who designed future residential and storage facilities for polar explorers made a serious mistake. They relied on the fact that in Antarctica precipitation falls only in the form of snow, and did not take into account that it also rains.

The rains that fell in the summer of 1957 forced Soviet polar explorers to experience for themselves what a leaking roof means. But more than one traveler who has been here has written about Antarctic rains. But such is the Russian character: until you experience it, you won’t understand. Only after residential buildings became uncomfortable and damp were houses with gable roofs built.

At the same time, the first inland station was built on the high-mountain Antarctic plateau - “Pionerskaya”. The construction of this station, as well as the creation of a station in the Banger oasis, was not initially included in the plans of the AEC, but already during the expedition it was decided 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 “New Swabia” and the Central Woltath mountains. Only Soviet stations are located near the Davis Sea, and Nazi stations are located near the Addell Sea. Moreover, to the west of Mirny, during aerial reconnaissance, an island was discovered that was extremely similar in shape to Drigalsky Island. Are these coincidences random? Unfortunately, no one has yet clearly answered this question.

To create our station, we used the premises available on the sleigh of the tractor train, and building material delivered from Mirny by plane. At the same time, the sleigh was moved so that the auxiliary rooms protected the housing from the wind. A space was created between the sleds, which was quickly turned into a connecting vestibule, with the help of which one could easily get into any room of the station. Due to difficulties with the delivery of fuel, it was decided that only four people, led by Alexander Gusev, would remain here for the winter.

In the mid-1970s, over 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 continent, in the region of the geomagnetic pole, 1410 kilometers from Mirny ( "East").

The first Comprehensive Antarctic Expedition of the Soviet Union (CAE) took place in 1955-1956. Behind it, in 1956-1958, were the second and third, respectively. Subsequently, 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 under the leadership of Mikhail Somov, consisting of 70 people of various specialties, landed on the shore of the Davis Sea, 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 service buildings, illuminated and heated by electricity; In addition to the power plant, there was a mechanical workshop, garages, hangars and warehouses. The mainland group was divided into six special units. The air squad under the command of Ivan Cherevichny began work with five aircraft and two helicopters.

In addition to the main base, the village of Mirny, by the end of 1956, two of our stations were organized: 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, participant in the Belgian Antarctic expedition of 1897-1899.

The second Soviet Antarctic expedition, led by Alexei Treshnikov, replaced the first in December 1956. It arrived at the Sixth Continent again on the Ob and Lena, as well as on the passenger ship Kooperatsiya and consisted of two sea 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 had 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 Mirny to the Ob, and back to those who arrived at the Ob. By January 10, 1957, the Kooperatsiya with the main scientific staff arrived at the Mirny roadstead, which had to be met and led through the ice with the help of an icebreaker. The last one to arrive (not to the fast ice, but to the ice barrier) was the Lena.

Unloading ships onto the ice barrier is a difficult and dangerous operation. But this is the only possible way of unloading, when all the fast ice is torn off and carried by the wind into the sea. For the first AEC, such unloading went well. But this time people died during unloading. Hundreds of tons of broken ice fell aboard the Lena and into the water, dragging people with it. Two were killed, and seven people who fell overboard were seriously injured, but were rescued. The dead were buried on Hasuel Island, which is the first to meet Soviet ships arriving at Mirny.

Each CAE starts with a ship. Those enrolled in the expedition (usually called registered), that is, those who have successfully passed the medical examination, received a sailor’s passport, warm clothes, and filled out numerous forms (including even a will), are sent to Antarctica on expedition ships. Until the mid-1970s, diesel-electric ships Lena, Navarin, and Ob sailed to the Sixth Continent almost every year. White comfortable motor ships “Kooperatsiya”, “Mikhail Kalinin”, “Estonia”, “Nadezhda Krupskaya” also came here. Fuel was delivered by oil tankers. Expeditionary ships were used - the floating laboratories "Professor Wiese" 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 some of the Soviet winterers were transferred by plane to save time, it is only 10 days. Il-18 and An-10 aircraft with landings in Central Asia, India, Burma, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand also took approximately 10 days. True, the flight time here was only 48 hours.

The second CEA, to carry out the scientific program of the upcoming International Geophysical Year, left 188 people for the winter in Mirny, which was 96 people more than the year before.

Treshnikov's winterers created several scientific stations that brought the Soviet Union closer to the South Pole. So, they built an intermediate base for the 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, ships with members of the Third Expedition (now SAE), led by E. Tolstikov, arrived at the Mirny roadstead. On board the Ob, future winterers delivered equipment for the new Sovetskaya inland station, new Penguin-type all-terrain vehicles and modernized aircraft of the Antarctic detachment. The meeting was joyful, but unexpectedly, during the transfer of business, the American icebreaker Burton Island arrived at the Mirny roadstead with... the deputy commander of the 43rd operational unit of the US Navy, Captain Gerald Ketchum.

Yes, yes, the same one who recently headed the “Windmill” operation - it put an end to 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. Together with him, Burton Island officers and expedition scientists arrived at our oldest Antarctic station, including: the head of the Wilkes station, biologist Carl Ackland, the head of the Hallet station, geographer James Shear, the glaciologist from Wilkes Richard Cameron, the oceanographer Star, commander of the arriving icebreaker Braningham.

Then more than a hundred more sailors from Burton Island visited Mirny. The crew of this armed icebreaker (1x27-mm universal gun and 4x40-mm machine guns), specially built for work in the Antarctic, consists of only 234 people. Thus, every second of the American crew visited the Soviet station on January 29, 1958. What curiosity! And previously there seemed to be no interest.

Before the Soviet winterers had time to see off their American colleagues, on January 31, the Australian expedition ship Tala Dan, heading to Mawson station, arrived at the Mirny roadstead. Once again, the guests wanted to get acquainted with the Soviet Mirny station. Our management has cordially reopened all station premises. The guests toured Mirny, its laboratories and facilities.

The Australians inspected in particular detail the new Penguin all-terrain vehicles, which were converted from armored personnel carriers. Not the least role in developing the curiosity of foreign colleagues was played by the fact that on the bright orange bodies of the new cars, in addition to 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, albeit 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 even more so for Soviet winterers. But both the Americans and Australians were alarmed!

From 1960 to 1990, the USSR conducted more than 20 expeditions to explore Antarctica, maintaining about 10 permanent polar stations here. At the same time, several previously opened scientific stations were mothballed, but are fully ready to receive polar explorers. "Oasis" was mothballed at the end of 1958, "Pionerskaya" and "Sovetskaya" - at the beginning of 1959. In 1968, the Soviet Bellingshausen station was established on Waterloo Island (South Shetland Islands archipelago) near the Antarctic Peninsula.

And at the beginning of 1971, on the banks of the Ots, the Leningradskaya station. If we do not consider these mothballed stations as reserve 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.

***

From the book by Sergei Kovalev „ Mysteries of the Sixth Continent” .

Evidence of the resilience of the human spirit, capable of withstanding such harsh conditions of the southernmost continent of the planet, stations in Antarctica are literally and figuratively oases of warmth in the endless icy expanses of the continent. Antarctica is explored by 12 countries, and almost all have their own bases - seasonal or year-round. In addition to scientific research work, Antarctic stations perform another, no less honorable and difficult task - receiving polar tourists. Whether as part of an Antarctic cruise or on the way to the South Pole, travelers have a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the life of polar explorers, live for several days in tent camps and take exciting excursions through the nearby expanses of Antarctica.

The main attraction of Union Glacier is the amazingly beautiful runway that receives multi-ton “Silts”.

Amundsen-Scott Station

Amundsen-Scott Station is the most famous Antarctic station. Its popularity is due to one simple fact: the station is located exactly at the South Pole of the Earth, and upon arriving here, you actually perform two tasks - to stand at the pole and get acquainted with polar life. In addition to its unique location, Amundsen-Scott is also known for being the first base in Antarctica, founded 45 years after Amundsen and Scott reached the South Pole of the planet. Among other things, the station is an example of high-tech construction in extremely difficult Antarctic conditions: the temperature inside is room temperature, and jack piles allow the Amundsen-Scott to be raised as it becomes covered with snow. Tourists are welcome here: planes with travelers land at the local airfield in December - January. A tour of the station and the opportunity to send a letter home with a South Pole stamp are the main features of the base.

Vostok station

The unique Russian Vostok station, founded in 1957 among the pristine snow-white expanses of inner Antarctica, unfortunately does not accept tourists. To put it bluntly, there are no conditions for frivolous entertainment here: the pole is about 1,200 km away, the highest temperature during the year is just under -30 °C, as well as a total lack of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air due to the location at an altitude of almost 3 km above sea level - these are just some of the details of her difficult life. However, the exclusivity of this place makes us talk about the station even beyond the possibility of visiting it: it was here that the lowest temperature in Antarctica was recorded - minus 89.2 °C. The only way to get to Vostok station is by signing up as a volunteer at the Institute for Arctic and Antarctic Research - so let’s dream for now...

Union Glacier Station

Strictly speaking, Union Glacier is not a station, but a tent base, operating only in the warm season. Its main purpose is to serve as a home for tourists arriving in Antarctica with the help of an American company through the Chilean Punta Arenas. The main attraction of Union Glacier is the amazingly beautiful runway that receives multi-ton “Silts”. It is located directly on impressively thick blue ice, which does not even need to be leveled - its surface is so perfectly smooth. The logical name “Blue Ice” once again convinces you that you are in Antarctica - where else on the planet can a plane easily land on ice like that! Among other things, at Union Glacier tourists will find individual tents and utility modules, a canteen and toilets - by the way, the rules for using them invariably act as the main photographic attraction of the station.

Antarctic Research Station "Vostok"

Earth's Pole of Cold
(from the series "On the outskirts of the planet")

Vostok station- Russian Antarctic research station, the only one currently used by Russia inside the continent. Named after the sailing sloop "Vostok", one of the ships of the Antarctic expedition of 1819-1821. As a unique research station, it was founded on December 16, 1957 during the 2nd Soviet Antarctic Expedition. For a long time, V.S. Sidorov was the head of the station.

The climatic conditions in the station area are among the most difficult on Earth. They are characterized by very severe frosts throughout the year. The lowest temperature on the planet of all meteorological stations in the 20th century was recorded here: -89.2 degrees C (July 21, 1983). The warmest summer day at Vostok station during its entire existence remains the day of December 16, 1957. Then the thermometer recorded 13.6 degrees below zero. The area was called the Earth's Pole of Cold. The thickness of the ice cover under the station is 3700 m.

Severe frosts contribute to almost zero air humidity in the station area. The average annual wind speed is about 5 m/s, the maximum is 27 m/s (almost 100 km/h). The altitude of Vostok is 3488 meters above sea level, which causes an acute lack of oxygen. Due to the low air temperature in the station area, its pressure drops faster with altitude than in mid-latitudes, and it is calculated that the oxygen content in the atmosphere in the station area is equivalent to an altitude of five thousand meters. Air ionization is greatly increased. The partial pressure of gases also differs from that in the air we are used to. And the acute lack of carbon dioxide in the air in these places leads to disruptions in the breathing regulation mechanism.

The polar night lasts from April 23 to August 20, 120 days a year, which is just under 4 months, or a third of the entire year. Only two months a year the average monthly air temperature exceeds -40 degrees C and four months - -60 degrees C. From March to October there are severe frosts, and only in November do relatively comfortable conditions begin.

Acclimatization to such conditions lasts from one week to one to two months and is accompanied by dizziness and flickering in the eyes, pain in the ears and nosebleeds, a feeling of suffocation and a sharp increase in blood pressure, loss of sleep and loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, pain in the joints and muscles , weight loss from three to five (cases up to 12 are known) kilograms.

The average temperature of the warmest months, December and January, is -35.1 and -35.5 degrees C respectively, which is equivalent to a cold Siberian winter. The average temperature of the coldest month, August, is -75.3 degrees Celsius, sometimes falling below -88.3 degrees Celsius. For comparison: January 1892 in Verkhoyansk (the coldest on record in Russia) had an average temperature of -57.1 degrees C. The coldest daily maximum temperature is -52 degrees C; in May, the temperature during the entire measurement period did not rise above -41.6 degrees C. There is practically no precipitation here. The average annual precipitation is only about 18 mm.

The Vostok research station is located 1253 km from the South Pole, 1410 km from the Mirny station and 1260 km from the nearest sea coast. It is almost impossible to get to the station in winter, which means polar explorers cannot count on outside help. Delivery of goods to the station is carried out by plane (in the summer, relatively warm period) and by sleigh-caterpillar train (at other times) from the Mirny station. Vladimir Sanin described in detail the difficulties of delivering cargo in this way in his books “Newcomer in Antarctica” and “72 degrees below zero.”

"Vostok" is located near the South geomagnetic pole of the Earth and is one of the most suitable places for studying changes in the Earth's magnetic field. Usually there are 40 people at the station in the summer - scientists and engineers. In winter, their number is reduced to 20. For more than forty years, Russian specialists have been conducting research here on hydrocarbon and mineral raw materials, drinking water reserves; carry out aero-meteorological, actinometric, geophysical and glaciological observations, as well as special medical research; are engaged in studying climate change, researching the “ozone hole”, the problems of rising water levels in the World Ocean, etc. Here in the mid-1990s, as a result of drilling glacial deposits (first with thermal drilling projectiles, and then with electromechanical projectiles on a load-carrying cable), it was discovered unique relict Lake Vostok (the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica). The lake is located under an ice sheet about 4000 m thick and has dimensions of approximately 250x50 km. The estimated area is 15.5 thousand sq. km. Depth more than 1200 m.

On the night of April 13, 1982, as a result of a fire, the main and backup diesel generators completely failed, and the station remained without power. 20 people spent a heroic winter for 8 months, keeping warm with homemade potbelly stoves running on diesel fuel, until a sleigh-caterpillar train with a new diesel-electric installation arrived from Mirny. Interestingly, the station is located at approximately the same distance from the equator as the cities of Longyearbyen and Barentsburg on Spitsbergen in the Northern Hemisphere, where the absolute minimum temperature is only -46.3 degrees C, the absolute maximum is +17.5 degrees C, and average annual temperature -14.4 degrees C. This difference is created by the special climate of Antarctica.

On February 13, 1956, the first Soviet scientific station began operating in Antarctica, on the coast of the Davis Sea. She was named after the legendary Russian sloop Mirny, whose crew first saw the mysterious southern polar continent in January 1820. This date is considered the beginning of regular Soviet and Russian exploration of the Antarctic. Over 50 years, 17,327 polar explorers worked on the sixth continent as part of domestic Antarctic expeditions. Science ships, transport ships and airplanes have made hundreds of voyages to the shores of Antarctica.

The beginning of the unloading of equipment was overshadowed by the death of 20-year-old tractor driver Ivan Khmara, who was transporting equipment for the station from ship to shore. The ice could not stand it, the tractor and trailer fell into the icy water and sank at great depths. At this time, the cameraman was filming the work of polar explorers. Footage of the tragic death of Ivan Khmara ended up in the archive and was first shown in 1977 in the documentary series “Our Biography”.

Fragment from the documentary film "Our Biography" (1977), from the collection of the State Film Fund.

Now there are five Russian polar stations operating on the sixth continent - Mirny, Vostok, Novolazarevskaya, Progress and Bellingshausen; as well as two seasonal field bases - Druzhnaya-4 and Molodezhnaya. The Russian government does not ignore the icy continent. The corresponding order of the executive authority approved the program of activities of the Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE) for the next five years.

The upcoming five-year cycle of RAE activities provides for the reactivation of the previously closed Molodezhnaya, Leningradskaya and Russkaya stations and their transfer to the category of seasonal field bases. Modern automatic meteorological and magnetic variation stations will be installed at these stations, which will make it possible to regain control of the situation along almost the entire perimeter of the Antarctic continent. Their introduction into operation will strengthen the role of air transportation. For this purpose, in addition to the snow-ice airfield at Novolazarevskaya station, it is planned to build a runway for Il-76 aircraft.

The number of the expedition - the seasonal part - is increasing to 120 people. The 50-year history of domestic Antarctic research is inextricably linked with the development of our country, its economic condition and foreign policy. Having arrived in Antarctica in early 1956, our state confidently and firmly established itself there, carrying out comprehensive scientific programs for the benefit of human progress, reports Roshydromet.

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 Waterloo Island not far from the Russian polar station Bellingshausen. The temple was built in Russia, stayed there for a year, and then was dismantled and transported to Antarctica. The temple was reassembled on site in 2 months.

The temple can accommodate up to 30 people at a time; a wedding ceremony was even held here. The abbot of the temple changes every year, along with other researchers.

Church of the Snows.

Non-denominational Christian chapel, one of the southernmost churches in the world. Belongs to the American Antarctic station McMurdo, located on Ross Island. Despite its location, it was destroyed by fire twice.

In winter, the church is attended by 200 parishioners, and in summer, the parish grows to 1000 people.

The Church of the Snows tries to meet the needs of adherents of any religion. The Rev. Michael Smith even performed Buddhist and Bahai ceremonies.

Catholic chapel in an ice cave at Belgrano II station.

The southernmost church in the world is located in an ice cave in the Argentine polar region of Belgrano II. Day and night here alternate at intervals of 4 months, and the southern aurora can be seen in the night sky.

Church of St. Francis of Assisi.

The Esperanza research station, where the Church of St. Francis is located, is considered by Argentines to be their southernmost city, although it does not amount to 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, where several Argentines were born.

Chapel of St. Ivan Rylsky on Livingston Island.

An Orthodox church built at the Bulgarian polar station, founded by four explorers in 1988.

Despite the asceticism, there is even a real bell, donated by the former Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria, who once worked at the station as a doctor.

Chilean Chapel of Santa Maria Reina de la Paz.

This may be the only church in the world built from shipping containers. Located in the largest civilian settlement in Antarctica, Villa las Estrellas. Families of workers from the Chilean military base, to which the settlement belongs, live here year-round. Up to 80 people stay here for the winter, and 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 Luján.

The chapel is located at another Argentine Antarctic station, Marambio. At the time of construction, this was the first airfield in Antarctica, and it is still used very often. Thanks to 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.

Whalers' 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 declined steadily 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.

Antarctica is home to many scientific polar stations and bases from various countries where scientific (including biological, geographical, geological and meteorological) research is conducted.
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 is a Soviet, Russian Antarctic station. It was discovered by Vladislav Gerbovich on January 18, 1961. The average annual air temperature in the station area is 11°C, minimum 41°C, maximum +9.9°C. It conducts research in meteorology, geophysics, glaciology, and oceanology.

Bellingshausen station

Bellingshausen is a Soviet, Russian Antarctic station on Waterloo Island (King George). Named after Thaddeus Bellingshausen. Founded by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition on February 22, 1968. 2009 - The wintering crew of the 54th expedition continues to work autonomously in Antarctica, 15 people, station chief Kutsuruba A.I. At Progress station - planned hydrobiological studies in the waters 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 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 served as the head of the station several times. 2009 - The wintering crew of the 54th expedition continues to work autonomously in Antarctica, 12 people, station chief A.V. Turkeev. 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. The management base of the Antarctic expedition is located in Mirny, from where all operating Russian Antarctic stations are controlled. Vladislav Gerbovich was the head of the Mirny station on several occasions. 2009 - The wintering crew of the 54th expedition continues to operate autonomously in Antarctica, 32 people, station chief V.A. Bondarchuk. At Mirny station, continuation of planned repair work to prepare marching equipment and sleigh-caterpillar traverses. Vertical sounding of the ionosphere has been resumed after the repair of the Bison ionosonde. Weather: air temperature from -4 C to -25 C, wind up to 25 m per second.

Progress station

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 in 2003 it was resumed. At the 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 crew of the 54th expedition continues to work autonomously in Antarctica: 25 people, including 7 contractor builders, station chief A.V. Panfilov.

Antarctica

Antarctica- a continent located at the South Pole of the globe, opposite 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 close proximity to it. The mainland was discovered by our compatriots: Bellingshausen and Lazarev. Before this, Antarctica was talked about only in theoretical terms: some assumed that it was part of South America, others 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. The two well-equipped ships had a difficult journey ahead of them. One of them, the sloop Vostok, was commanded by Bellingshausen, the other, named Mirny, was commanded by Lazarev. Many decades later, the first Soviet Antarctic stations would be named after these ships. On 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 spoke about the discovery of the mainland. And this was not a matter of a sense of false modesty: they understood that final conclusions could only be made by “stepping overboard the ship” and conducting research on the shore. It was impossible to form even an approximate idea of ​​the size or outline of the continent. This took many decades. Bellingshausen and Lazarev The first to set foot on solid Antarctic soil were Christensen (ship captain from Norway) and Carsten Borchgrevink (naturalist). In accordance with the 1959 convention, Antarctica does not belong to any individual state. Only scientific work is allowed there.

Antarctica today

For more than ten years now, 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 began during the International Geophysical Year - IGY (1957-1959); dozens of countries have united to accomplish 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 continent.
The IGY ended, and research had almost just begun - it became clear that studying Antarctica would take not a year, not five, but decades.
The work is led and planned by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. To prevent disputes between the countries studying Antarctica about the rights to own the continent, in 1959 they concluded an agreement: all territorial claims in Antarctica were “frozen” for thirty years, the continent was declared free for scientific research, 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 instruments and cameras on airplanes photographed the continent from the air.
Hundreds and thousands of articles, brochures, and books have been written about the results of expeditions.
To ensure that research materials are 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, gravity acceleration, and the structure of the ionosphere over Antarctica. Geological maps allow us to judge the rocks and history of the formation of the continent in ancient times. There are historical maps, on them 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, like Antarctica. Ice covers more than 95% of the area here. The Antarctic ice sheet is a giant dome. Its height in the center is 4 thousand m above sea level. The steepness of the slope near the coast is greater than in the inland areas. The glacier's profile resembles a mathematical curve - half an ellipse cut along the long axis. This is due to the property of ice - fluidity: ice slowly spreads from the center to the edges. And since snow constantly falls 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 m above sea level.

The ice sheet of Antarctica has the shape of a semi-ellipse in cross-section.

Why don’t the mountains come to the surface in the center of Antarctica? Maybe they are not there at all? Maybe central
Are the areas a vast plain below sea level, like Greenland?
So the question arose: is Antarctica a continent? It was possible to answer it only by penetrating deep into the ice.
Sled-caterpillar trains moved towards the center of the continent along the ice dome. Powerful tractors, in the body-houses of which scientists lived and worked, pulled heavy sleighs with loads. They were faced with dangerous cracks in the glacier, hidden by snow bridges, blizzards and frosts. The rarefied air of the highlands and lack of oxygen suffocated not only people, but also car engines.
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 carry out explosions.
In this case, the seismic sounding method was used: the wave from the explosion ran through the ice to the bottom - to the boundary with the rock - and, reflecting from it, returned to the surface. Instruments measured time

The glaciation of Antarctica can be represented as four huge spreading domes: three in the western part of the continent and one in the eastern part. The East Antarctic dome is two domes that seem to have merged, and the rise between their centers is the ice divide.

spent by her on this run. The wave propagation speed was 3800 m/sec. By multiplying the speed by the time and dividing in half, the thickness of the ice was obtained. Gravimetric measurements (precise 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, USA and England used a new sounding method - radar: radio waves “transparent” the ice and are reflected from the boundary where the ice comes into contact with the bedrock.
Scientists from different countries covered a total of more than 50 thousand km, determining the thickness of the ice at 10 thousand points. Based on all these measurements, a map of the subglacial relief of Antarctica was created for the first time (see color insert).
It turns out that an extremely complex topography is hidden under the ice cover: powerful mountain ranges more than 3 thousand meters above sea level, and vast plains, the thickness of the ice above which reaches 3-4 thousand meters.
The ridges, by right of discoverers, were named by Soviet scientists after the Russian academicians Gamburtsev, Vernadsky and Golitsyn. The plains were named Western, Eastern and Schmidt.
It became clear that Antarctica in the past, before glaciation, was a large continent with mountains and valleys, rivers, lakes and inland seas. Ice (according to various sources, the ice sheet appeared from 30 to 1 million years ago) covered 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 melts, the level of the world's oceans will rise by about 60 m.
And if the ice of Antarctica is evenly distributed over the other continents, it will cover them with a layer of 170 m.
Research has shown that under the enormous weight of ice, the earth's crust in Antarctica dropped by an average of 500 m, and subcrustal material was squeezed out along the edges of the continent, possibly causing an uplift of the ocean floor or outlying mountains. If before the exploration of Antarctica the existence of the continent was questioned, now it has even been measured.

Seismogravimetric research routes.

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 a recording oscilloscope.

This is important for understanding the movement of the earth’s crust of the northern continents, which in the past were also subject to powerful glaciation.
No less important are studies of the so-called ice sheet budget. How much snow and ice melts in Antarctica? If more snow falls than ice melts, then Antarctica is growing, but if it’s the other way around, then the glacier is shrinking, and then the sea level may rise. After all, it is enough for the ocean to rise just a few tens of centimeters to cause big troubles for people: protecting the coast from the advance of the sea, we will have to build up dams and piers. Glaciological measurements showed that the budget is more or less in equilibrium.
Special observations were carried out in Antarctica over the temperature of the glacier. Drilled wells made it possible to place thermometers at depths of up to 350 m. The results were unusual. As a rule, the temperature of ice or earth 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 may be two reasons: one is due to the fact that the ice moves from the center, cold areas, 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.
By knowing the temperature at different depths, we can learn a lot about climate. Throughout the year, the temperature changes: warmer in summer, colder in winter, even within one day it is not constant. At a depth of 15-20 m in dense snow, these fluctuations die out, and a constant average annual temperature remains here. Ice measurements at this depth show, for example, that the average annual temperature at Vostok station is minus 56°; this coincides with the observations of meteorologists.
Vostok station is now considered the pole of cold - the lowest temperature on Earth was recorded here (August 1958), -88.3°. But research by glaciologists showed that the lowest temperature on Earth should have been at a point with coordinates 82°2" 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°, and when the lowest temperature was recorded at Vostok station, the air temperature in this place reached 95-100° below zero.
Although the cold pole is determined by meteorological data, it would be more fair to consider it the indicated point discovered by glaciologists.
The hypothesis about bottom melting is interesting. In the central part of Antarctica, where the ice thickness reaches 3500-4000 m, the glacier melts from below due to 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 perhaps is squeezed out to the edge along valleys, such as, for example, the MGG 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 1,700 m in the area of ​​the Byrd station and discovered water gushing up the well. Now it will be possible to test the correctness of the hypothesis about bottom melting.
It was assumed that the oases discovered in Antarctica - ice-free land areas - also owe their origin to heat flows from the earth's crust. However, oases are no different 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 smaller angle here than in the tropics, they still strongly heat the dark rocks . The snow-white glacier reflects up to 90% of sunlight. It is enough for a dark spot or stone to appear on the snow, and melting begins immediately around it and under it. Therefore, although a lot of snow falls in the oases in winter, in summer it quickly melts, forming lakes.
In addition to the ice sheet, in Antarctica there are huge ice shelves that are afloat. They arise from sea ice or the emerging edge of a continental glacier. Falling snow increases the thickness of these glaciers from above. They melt from below, washed away by sea water. But sometimes the opposite phenomenon occurs in ice shelves - they melt from above and freeze from below. In one such glacier, near the American McMurdo station, fish and algae melt on the surface, which were frozen into the glacier from below several hundred years ago.

Ice mass budget diagram for Antarctica. Precipitation falling on 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 and float to the north. Under the influence of heat flow from the depths 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

Over the course of ten years, geologists examined and mapped the structure of almost all the peaks emerging to the surface. Although this is only a few percent of the area of ​​Antarctica, they were nevertheless able to reconstruct its geological history. The eastern part of Antarctica is a platform. It arose in the Proterozoic era, as part of the ancient continent of Gondwana. In the Paleozoic, there were strong mining processes in West Antarctica; several times it fell below sea level. There are signs that there was glaciation in Antarctica during the Mesozoic era, which subsequently disappeared. Once upon a time, the continent 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 iron and base metal ores, mica and coal, fluorite and rock crystal. Scientists believe that there must be diamonds in Antarctica.
The complete aseismicity of Antarctica still remains a mystery. Over all these years, not a single seismic station in 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.