17-19 NOVEMBER 2008--South Pole

The elevated Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station structure was dedicated last season. It now finally includes the dining area, lounges, a gym, medical, lab and computer spaces, offices and meeting rooms, and an emergency power plant, as well as berthing rooms for 154 people.

As an elevated station this is a 2-story structure with the "leading edge" facing the prevailing wind. The steel structure is elevated 10' above the initial graded snow surface, supported by many 24" heavywall pipe piles. These are designed to allow the structure to be jacked up in the future. The detailed design of the aerodynamic leading edge included some sophisticated wind tunnel studies so that the design could be optimized. The wind here is killer and the snow drifts beyond words...all of these building features are to eliminate the wind and snow build up.

The structure has a total floor area of about 65,000 SF; the PRIVATE rooms for winter over's are 9'-8"x 8' and the rooms for summer folks are 9'-8"x 6'--like mine shown here. Some of the rooms have (less-than 100% soundproof) demountable partitions so that couples can share a 2-person room. Many of these rooms include WINDOWS which were tested in CRREL's cold chambers for suitability at Pole's harsh temperatures. Another important feature of the station is that the emergency section of the station is isolated by thick insulation so that other portions of the facility can be winterized during emergencies when energy supplies are limited. Unlike the older housing sections of the domed station, this structure has been designed and built to provide lighting, heating/ventilation, and fire protection, all in full compliance with current US building and safety codes. The original plan was that this berthing capacity would eliminate the need for the labor-intensive summer camp which must be frequently excavated, dug out, and moved...but given the planned construction schedule for ICECUBE, the 10m telescope, as well as completion of the elevated station, summer camp may be with us for a few years yet. Of course when the original South Pole Station Dome was built, it was to house the HUGE crowd of 33 people (expanded to 40 when the Annex was added), everyone thought there would be no need for summer camp...yeah, right.

The power plant, supply areas, garage and fuel storage are in buried arches, reused from the original station--some of these are being jacked up a few feet to align with the new arches, but all of these will soon be buried again as they were before construction started. The buried portion of the station is connected to the elevated structure with a cylindrical stair tower with 94 steps, equivalent to the 4-story climb to the top which is all located in what is referred to as the "beer can" which is seen at the left of the station photo.

This United States Antarctica Program--National Science Foundation banner welcomes all visitors to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Here I am standing at the Geographic South Pole marker. Which is in a different location each year. Of course, the Geographical South Pole hadn’t moved. It was the ice sheet above it that had moved. The ice-sheet, which is about 3 kilometers thick at the South Pole, moves by about 9 meters each year, as it continues its relentless slide down to the coast. Each year, the folks at the South Pole Station on New Years Day place a specially machined marker at 90° south. Of course, the marker moves with the ice, so in a year's time, it's meters away from the South Pole. This was the 51st move of the South Pole marker since it was first set up in 1956. Along with the marker, on New Year's Day, the station staff also move a large board announcing both Amundsen's triumph and Robert Scott’s belated arrival a month later. Amundsen's quote reads: "So we arrived and were able to plant our flag at the geographical South Pole." Scott's words are full of regret: "The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected."

The 2008 Geographic South Pole Marker was placed at 6:30pm January 1st, 2008 in snow currently sitting over 90 South latitude. The 2007 Winterover Facilities Engineer Laura Rip designed the marker. The marker itself was crafted by 2007 Winterover SCOARA Machinist Derek Aboltins. This year, the marker is a round disc, with 54 notches along the circumference of the disc, for the 54 people who stayed at the South Pole during the winter of 2007. His image of the continent is resting on a reflective polished surface sunken just below the rim of the design where it can collect a thin layer of snow. Though some winterovers worried that the arcing 3D lines of longitude over the continent might create an image of being trapped beneath the sky, the shape truly symbolizes lines of longitude arcing around the Southern Sea and the seventh continent as well as the ever present heavens above the white plateau.

Not only is there a Geographic South Pole Marker, there is a Symbolic South Pole Marker. Which looks like the South Pole....go figure....striped wooden pole with a mirrored ball on top! This is surrounded by the flags of the Antarctic Treaty signatory states: these countries were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Mirror......mirror!