Antarctica

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• See also Arctic Exploration

Geology

Antarctica is home to one of the highest volcanoes in the world.

Mainland scientists and interests of countries

Everyone who wants to explore Antarctica lives under the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959. In 1991, countries signed the so-called Madrid Protocol, which regulates the activities of Antarctic expeditions in terms of ecology. By early 1998, it had been ratified by all advisory parties to the Antarctic Treaty and entered into force. In fact, it serves as a legal barrier that does not allow activities on the mainland that are not justified by the scientific program and violate the ecological status of the reserve. If the Antarctic Treaty is not limited to a time period, then the Madrid Protocol expires in 2048.

However, the governments of different countries are not waiting for the end of the term and the conversation about the belonging of the sectors of Antarctica is being raised now.

Officially, Antarctica is no mainland, the territory of scientists. And at the same time, it is included in the zone of interests of dozens of states. In early 2020, Argentina presented a new map, which includes the "Argentine" sector of the continent. China plans to build ten polar stations, and their own map of the ice mainland is replete with new toponyms: Confucia Peak, Shanghai Plateau, Panda Glacier.

2024: Launch of a new Vostok station complex for ₽1 billion

in Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute early December 2024, he announced the commissioning of a new wintering complex with an area of ​ ​ 3 thousand square meters at the Vostok station in Central. To Antarctica Construction the facility, funded from the federal budget and funds, Leonid Mikhelson ended in a record five years. More here

2023: Russia launches first heavy aviation airfield in Antarctica

In November 2023, the Russian Zenit airfield in Antarctica began receiving international flights. As part of the first of them, the plane delivered scientists and polar explorers from India, China, Russia and South Africa from Cape Town. Read more here.

2022: MTS provided the Internet station "Novolazarevskaya" in Antarctica

MTS PJSC "" on March 23, 2022 announced the provision of the standard by the network. NB-IoT Antarctic station Novolazarevskaya Technologies will help to carry out remote monitoring of the state of sea ice, increase the efficiency of scientific research by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and the safety of the station. More. here

2021: Start laying the first underwater internet cable to Antarctica

At the end of November 2021, the Desarrollo País Association, the Chilean telecommunications regulator Subtel and the current authorities of the Magallanes region in southern Chile signed an agreement to carry out work on a large-scale project to lay an underwater Internet cable to Antarctica. The length of the new line will be about 1 thousand km, the estimated cost and timing of the project to lay the line to Antarctica has not yet been announced.

An internet cable will connect the small Chilean city of Puerto Williams and King George Island, the largest of the South Shetland Islands, on which there are several research stations owned by, To Argentina,, Brazil,, To China,, and Peru To Poland. Russia To Uruguay Chile South Korea The signed agreement provides for technical, legal, economic and financial assessments, this will also be preceded by a period of consultations with the participation of industry experts.

The laying of the first underwater Internet cable to Antarctica has started

It should be noted that Puerto Williams has every chance of becoming the starting point of the project. This city and port is located on the island of Navarino, Tierra del Fuego archipelago, on the banks of the Beagle Canal. The existing network infrastructure here is part of the Fibra Optica Austral project, which provides for the laying of more than 4.6 km of fiber optic lines in Patagonia, a region in South America. This should make it easier to connect a new underwater line.

The beginning of the study of the conditions for the first underwater fiber optic cable confirms Chile's leading position on the continent and our efforts to put the region at the center of communications and science interests for the sake of the progress of all mankind. As a government, we are determined to formulate a project and make a strategic contribution to solving the problems of the international community and expand scientific cooperation, "said Chilean Minister of Transport and Communications Gloria Hutt.

The Chilean authorities realize that this will not be easy and not cheap, since the thousand-kilometer line will require large investments, but believe that in the long term it will pay off and will provide a big step forward for Chile in international affairs, since Magallanes will connect Antarctica with the rest of the world.^[1]

2020

Russia will re-preserve the Antarctic station "Russian"

Russian is a Soviet and Russian Antarctic station located in West Antarctica on the coast of Mary Baird Land, at a small outlet of bedrock at Cape Berks. The height of the station above sea level is 134 meters. Despite the fact that the station began to be built in 1973, due to extremely difficult ice conditions and frequent hurricane winds, the station was opened only in February 1980. Initially, the station's buildings consisted of shield wooden houses of the PDKO type. In 1984, the rebuilding of the station began, and in 1984-1985 two buildings of aluminum panels on metal foundations were built at the station. The station was mothballed in 1990.

"This is the most poorly studied area of our planet," says Vyacheslav Martyanov, head of the long-term planning and investment projects department of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, "the only station on the entire Pacific coast of Antarctica that closes almost the entire Pacific Ocean. The place is very complex and at the same time unique - the center of the Pacific region of Antarctica. Atmospheric circulation, oceanology, geology - there is a continuation of the Pacific Ring of Fire with its volcanoes... Wherever you look, everything is very interesting from the point of view of science[2]

The wintering status of the station is returned according to the Antarctic development program, approved by the Russian government back in 2010. Now the scientific and expeditionary vessel Akademik Tryoshnikov is going to Antarctica.

The budget of the Russian Antarctic Expedition was increased to about one and a half billion. Additional funds were allocated primarily for the voyage of the ship.

For thirty years of being empty, the station became an ice hut. The Antarctic expedition went there in 2006 and 2008. The picture of destruction struck even experienced polar explorers: the diesel power station was completely covered with snow, the glass was squeezed out, the premises were clogged on the roof with ice, and breaks formed in the roof itself. Polar explorers hollowed out ice, repaired the roof, but in 2019 the picture appeared the same...

Located in the most inaccessible sector of Antarctica, the Russkaya station opens up unique opportunities for scientific research, and there are no other stations in the area. Hydrometeorological, geophysical and hydrological observations were and will be carried out here again, and in addition, space weather calculations will be made. The fact is that towards the Earth there is a constant flow of so-called solar electric jets - energetically charged particles that are reflected by the magnetosphere of our planet. There are especially many in the Antarctica area.

But first of all, "Russian" is needed to implement the space program.

- We need to install equipment that would record the movement of satellites over the giant water area - the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, - Vyacheslav Martyanov is convinced. - In this region there are only three places where you could install equipment for working with the GLONASS system: Hawaiian Islands, Easter Island and Russkaya station. For our country, only it is available.

There are four of them in the world: Russian GLONASS, American GPS, European Galileo Galilei and Chinese BeiDou (Satellite Communications and Navigation). Each country chooses its own geoid - the mathematical figure of the Earth - with the least distortion in its territory. Therefore, the GPS system produces serious inaccuracies when it comes to Russia.

- In any country there are state secrets. So, in some areas of the United States, GPS does not work for foreign aircraft. Or the system developers, if desired, can programmatically introduce a floating error, which, unlike constant, is very difficult to track. That is why a domestic system based on a suitable geoid is important to us, "says Valery Lukin, head of the 1991-2017 Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE).

The accuracy of satellite data on the location of an object gives an error in diameter of 15 meters. For aviation and other applied areas, this is too much, every centimeter matters there.

- To increase accuracy, it is necessary to use the DKM (differential correction and monitoring) system - its stations track the satellite signal and calculate corrections, thanks to which the accuracy of the GLONASS system data becomes much higher. Now such systems are at Bellingshausen, at Novolazarevskaya, at Progress, in the future we plan to install DKM at Mirny. And you definitely need to put it on the "Russian" in order to close the chain, - says Vyacheslav Martyanov.

GLONASS There are 24 satellites working in, two more remain in hot reserve - they are in space, and if necessary, they can be turned on at any time.

According to Valery Lukin, the orbit along which satellites move depends on the attraction of the Earth, which varies in different areas. This is due to the difference in the distribution of masses of igneous rocks under the Earth's crust. In order to calculate the geographical coordinates of a specific object, it is necessary to constantly check and make corrections to the position of satellites in orbit.

If the Americans have a huge number of military bases around the world, where they install stations for DKM systems, then our situation is different, "says Valery Lukin. - For a long time, Roscosmos tried to agree on their location with various countries of the Southern Hemisphere in South America, Africa, Australia... but somewhere political regimes are unstable, somewhere we were refused, and as a result, Antarctica turned out to be the only suitable location for such stations. And in order to provide observations in the Pacific sector, it is necessary to revive the Russkaya station.

The Russian government allocated 3.5 billion rubles to launch the new wintering complex of the Vostok station

More than 3.5 billion will be allocated for the commissioning of the new wintering complex of the Russian Antarctic station Vostok. rubles The corresponding order was signed by Governments of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin^[3] of^[4]

Work on the new complex was completed in August. Its area is 1900 square meters. meters. The facility consists of 133 modules, including living quarters, laboratories, garages. In the seasonal period, 35 people can live there, in the wintering period - 15.

The allocated funds will be used to transport the facility around Antarctica, its installation and commissioning.

For another 74 million rubles, it is planned to purchase equipment for the Mirny Antarctic station to replace equipment that failed during a summer fire.

Сборка блок-модулей нового зимовочного комплекса российской антарктической станции «Восток» закончена на Опытном заводе construction structures in the Leningrad region. Photo: Roshydromet

1965

Icebreakers push an iceberg to free the passage in McMurdo Sound. Antarctic, 1965.

1954: Transantarctic Expedition

Tucker Sno-Cat hung over a crevice during the Transantarctic Expedition, 1954.

1929

Antarctic expedition member George Black plays with sled dog puppies, harnessing them to a small sled, 1929.

1912

Meteorologist Cecil Madigan after taking readings from instruments, Antarctica, 1912.

1911: Robert Scott's expedition to the South Pole

View of Mount Erebus. Robert Scott's expedition to the South Pole, 1911.

Inside the Iceberg, British Antarctic Expedition, 1911

1908: Ernest Shackleton's second expedition to the Antarctic

Penguins listen to the gramophone on a warm summer day during Ernest Shackleton's second expedition to the Antarctic, 1908.

40 million hp: Demarcation of Australia and Antarctica

40 million years ago (during the Cenozoic era), the demarcation of Australia and Antarctica occurred.

125 million hp: East Gondwana split into Indigaskar and Australo-Antarctica. The emergence of the Indian Ocean

125 million years ago, East Gondwana split into Indigaskar and Australo-Antarctica, between which the Indian Ocean began to form.

150 million hp: The beginning of the collapse of Gondwana in the southern hemisphere

150 million years ago (Mesozoic) Gondwana broke up into two parts: western (Africa, Arabia and South America) and eastern (Australia, Antarctica, Madagascar and Hindustan), the border of which was the Mozambique Strait.

Notes