Ellsworth Scientific Station ( es, Estación Científica Ellsworth, or simply ''Estación Ellsworth'' or ''Base Ellsworth'') was a permanent, all year-round originally

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, then

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

scientific

research station Research stations are facilities where scientific investigation, collection, analysis and experimentation occurs. A research station is a facility that is built for the purpose of conducting scientific research. There are also many types of resear ...

named after American polar explorer

Lincoln Ellsworth Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Lincoln Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, to James Ellsworth and Eva F ...

. It was located on Gould Bay, on the

Filchner Ice Shelf Wilhelm Filchner (13 September 1877 – 7 May 1957) was a German army officer, scientist and explorer. He conducted several surveys and scientific investigations in China, Tibet and surrounding regions, and led the Second German Antarctic Expeditio ...

. It was shut down in 1962 over safety concerns due to it being built on increasingly unstable ice, which produced fast deterioration of its superstructures and endangered both personnel and equipment.

History

Ellsworth Station was built by

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 ...

Seabee United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Force (NCF). The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the initial letters "CB" from the words "Construction Battalion". Depending upon ...

s under the command of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Finn Ronne, with the support of the

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

s USS ''Staten Island'' and USS ''Wyandot'', captained by

Francis Gambacorta Francis Michael Gambacorta (8 July 1913 - 1 December 2000) was a US Navy Captain. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Class of 1935 and served onboard submarines in World War II, receiving the Silver Star award for actions in Ja ...

. The originally planned site for the station was

Cape Adams Cape Adams is an abrupt rock scarp marking the south tip of Bowman Peninsula and forming the north side of the entrance to Gardner Inlet, on the east coast of Palmer Land in Antarctica. It was discovered by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition ...

, but when the terrain proved impractical due to huge ice cliffs, an alternate location on Gould Bay was selected, on the western coast of the

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha ...

over the Filchner Ice Shelf, and close to the Argentinean

Belgrano I Base Belgrano I Base ( es, Base Belgrano I) was a permanent, all year-round Argentine Antarctic base and scientific research station, located on Piedrabuena Bay on the Filchner Ice Shelf. It was named after General Manuel Belgrano, one of the Libert ...

. Part of the scheduled agenda for the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; french: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific ...

, Ellsworth Station was commissioned on 11 February 1957 and less than two years later, on 17 January 1959, was handed over to the Argentinean Antarctic Institute. Along with the handover, the United States government gave all the buildings, facilities, and existing food supplies while Argentina provided the logistical and administrative services necessary for the continued operation of the station. It was agreed that scientists of both countries would work together at the place in technical studies and scientific research. On 31 December 1959, the Argentinean icebreaker ARA ''General San Martín'' was heading to Ellsworth Station to exchange personnel deliver and consumables when it received a SOS signal from the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

–

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n exploration ship ''Polarbjorn'', which had gotten stuck in ice. The Argentineans managed to set the ship free so it could follow with its planned route along the coastline, However, the ''General San Martín'' was later unable to reach its own primary goal—located on the deepest recess of the Weddell Sea—due to unusually thick

pack ice Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.).Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Unlike fast ice, which is "fasten ...

on the target area. On 6 January 1962,

Frigate Captain Frigate captain is a naval rank in the naval forces of several countries. Corvette captain lies one level below frigate captain. It is usually equivalent to the Commonwealth/US Navy rank of commander. Countries using this rank include Argentina ...

Hermes Quijada Hermes José Quijada (16 September 1920 – 30 April 1973) was an Argentinian Navy-admiral, who was the pilot of the first airplane that had taken off from the Americas, and then landed at the South Pole. He was born in San Miguel de Tucumán. H ...

of the

Argentine Naval Aviation ) Gulf War , anniversaries = , decorations = , battle_honours = , commander1 = President , commander1_label = Commander-in-Chief , commander2 ...

, leading a two-plane flight of

Douglas C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...

s, made a stopover at Ellsworth Base before continuing to the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

. He became the pilot of the first airplane that had taken off from the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, and then landed at the

. Feasibility of the station came into question when structural problems caused by the unstable ice had the base half-sunken during most of the spring. To protect personnel and equipment, Ellsworth base was closed and all of its staff and equipment were evacuated on 30 December 1962, during the 1962–63 antarctic summer campaign. It continued to be inspected periodically by Argentinean exploration teams: it was eventually covered by snow and ice. The Filchner Shelf sector where it was located as split off a giant

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...

, and then it drifted through the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

, where the base's remains have been lost at sea.

Description

The original facilities at Ellsworth Station could house over 40 people.

Scientific activities

During its operational days a number of experiments and observations were carried out at Ellsworth, involving

ionospheric The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays a ...

riometry observations;

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

; human

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

; and surface and high-

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

, including

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

and

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

measurements. There was also active research involving

glaciology Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, climato ...

at the Filchner Ice Shelf, which was explored by several expeditions launched from the station. Some of these patrols reached the West Crevice on the huge barrier, completing the Ellsworth–Belgrano triangulation.

Climate

The area is a passage of

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For in ...

s directed towards the north: although they do not precipitate, they do produce strong winds exceeding which radically lower the

apparent temperature Apparent temperature, also known as feels like, is the temperature equivalent perceived by humans, caused by the combined effects of air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed. The measure is most commonly applied to the perceived outdoo ...

References

;Citations ;Articles * ;Books * *

External links