Bunger Hills, also known as Bunger Lakes or Bunger

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

, is a coastal range on the

Knox Coast Knox Coast, part of Wilkes Land, is that portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between Cape Hordern, at 100°31′E, and the Hatch Islands, at 109°16′E. History The coast was discovered in February 1840 by the U.S. Exploring Expedition (18 ...

Wilkes Land Wilkes Land is a large district of land in eastern Antarctica, formally claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, though the validity of this claim has been placed for the period of the operation of the Antarctic Treaty, ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, consisting of a group of moderately low, rounded

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...

, overlain by

morainic A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

drift Drift or Drifts may refer to: Geography * Drift or ford (crossing) of a river * Drift, Kentucky, unincorporated community in the United States * In Cornwall, England: ** Drift, Cornwall, village ** Drift Reservoir, associated with the village ...

and notably ice free throughout the year, lying south of the

Highjump Archipelago The Highjump Archipelago is a group of rocky islands, rocks and ice rises in Antarctica, about long and from wide, lying generally north of the Bunger Hills Bunger Hills, also known as Bunger Lakes or Bunger Oasis, is a coastal range on the Knox ...

. The reasoning behind the minute amount of ice in the area is still relatively unknown and remains under intense debate amongst scientists today. The Bunger Hills are located with its center at , stretching from 65°58'S to 66°20'S and from 100°20'E to 101°28'E. The Bunger Hills are marked by numerous

melt pond Melt ponds are pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer. The ponds are also found on glacial ice and ice shelves. Ponds of melted water can also develop under the ice. Melt ponds are usually darker tha ...

s and are nearly bisected by an east-west trending Algae Lake (also known as Lake Figurnoye). Mapped from air photos taken by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Operation Highjump Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The opera ...

(1946-1947) and named by the

United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...

(US-ACAN) for

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

David E. Bunger,

, plane commander of one of the three USN OpHjp aircraft which engaged in photographic missions along most of the coastal area between 14 E and 164 E. David E. Bunger and members of his crew landed their airplane on an unfrozen

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

here in February 1947. The Bunger Hills are surrounded by glaciers. On the southeast the Bunger Hills is bordered by the steep slopes of the Antarctic ice sheet, on the south and west by outlet glaciers, and on the north by

Shackleton Ice Shelf Shackleton Ice Shelf is an extensive ice shelf fronting the coast of East Antarctica from 95° E to 105° E. It extends for an along-shore distance of about , projecting seaward about in the western portion and in the east. It occu ...

, which separates the area from the open sea. The ice-free area measures , according to some sources even (though these latter values include a marine area not covered by continental ice or the

). The topography is characterized by rugged hills, and there are many freshwater and salt lakes. The largest and deepest lake, Algae Lake (Lake Figurnoye) is long and up to deep. The leader of Operation Highjump, Admiral Richard E. Byrd stated that the Bunger Hills was ‘…one of the most remarkable regions on earth. An island suitable for life had been found in a universe of death.’

Cape Hordern Cape Hordern is an ice-free cape, overlain by morainic drift, at the northwest end of the Bunger Hills in Antarctica. It was probably sighted from Watson Bluff () by A.L. Kennedy and other members of the Western Base Party of the Australasian Antarc ...

is an ice-free cape, overlain by morainic drift, at the western end of the Bunger Hills. It was first observed by members of the western party of the Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914), who were unable to reach it due to heavy crevassing on the

Denman Denman may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places * Denman Glacier, near Antarctica * Denman Shire, New South Wales, Australia ** Denman, New South Wales, a town in the Hunter Valley of Australia * Denman Island, one of the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Can ...

and Scott

Glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

Stations

The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

built a scientific station by the name of '' Oazis'' (Оазис) in the center of the area at , starting October 15, 1956, with two buildings for eight people. The station was handed over to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

on January 23, 1959, and was renamed '' A. B. Dobrowolski Station'' (named after

Antoni Dobrowolski Antoni Dobrowolski (October 8, 1904 – October 21, 2012) was a Polish educator, teacher and Holocaust survivor. At the time of his death in 2012, Dobrowolski was the oldest known survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Dobrowolski was born ...

). It continued to be occupied for a few weeks only thereafter. On February 22, 1979 (with preparations starting February 18) the station was reactivated for a short time, but an overwintering attempt failed, and the occupants had to be evacuated to

Mirny Station The Mirny Station (russian: Мирный, literally ''Peaceful'') is a Russian (formerly Soviet) first Antarctic science station located in Queen Mary Land, Antarctica, on the Antarctic coast of the Davis Sea. The station is managed by the Ar ...

( to the west) on March 17. The concrete pillar erected by the First Polish Antarctic Expedition at Dobrowolski Station in January 1959 for gravity measurements, and the magnetic observatory at the station with plaque in memory of the opening of Oazis Station in 1956, are recognized as Antarctic Historic Sites. The Soviet Union became interested in the Bunger Hills again in the late 1980s, and built a new station - Oazis 2 - a few hundred metres to the west of Dobrowolski. The station was used for summer visits up to the mid-1990s. About west-northwest of Dobrowolski, at ,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

has maintained the summer-only station Edgeworth David Base, named after

Edgeworth David Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David (28 January 1858 – 28 August 1934) was a Welsh Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer. A household name in his lifetime, David's most significant achievements were discovering the major Hunter V ...

, since 1986.

References

External links

Russian site about Oasis Station and Bunger Hills Area
{{WikidataCoord, display=title Mountain ranges of Antarctica Oases of Antarctica

Stations

See also

References

Further reading

External links