Guo Kun (; September 1935 – 3 April 2019) was a Chinese polar explorer. He led China's first expedition to

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 cont ...

in 1984–1985 and participated in seven Antarctic expeditions in total. He led the construction of China's first two Antarctic bases, the Great Wall Station in 1985 and the Zhongshan Station in 1989, and served as Director of the

Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration The Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (), often abbreviated as the CAA (previously the Chinese Antarctic Administration of the State Antarctic Research Committee), is a Beijing-based agency of the People's Republic of China's State Ocea ...

Early life and career

Guo was born in September 1935 in Laishui County,

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...

, Republic of China. After graduating from the Harbin Institute of Military Technology in 1962, he initially worked in

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 no ...

and

atmospheric sounding Atmospheric sounding or atmospheric profiling is a measurement of vertical distribution of physical properties of the atmospheric column such as pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind direction (thus deriving wind shear), liquid water content, ...

. In 1976, he was transferred to the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) and later joined the newly established

under the SOA.

First Antarctic expedition and the Great Wall Station

In 1984, China organized its first scientific expedition to Antarctica, and Guo was named the leader of the 591-member expedition team. The team departed

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

on 20 November 1984 on two ships, the ''Xiang Yang Hong 10'' and the ''J121'', and arrived at King George Island off the coast of Antarctica on 30 December. A main part of their mission was to construct China's first Antarctic base, the Great Wall Station. As the ''Xiang Yang Hong 10'' was not an

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 ...

, the team had to leave before the end of the Antarctic summer and had only a short window of opportunity to complete their mission. Under Guo's supervision, the team worked 16 to 17 hours a day in often severe weather conditions, and completed the construction in only 40 days. The station was opened on 14 February 1985. In 2012, the Antarctic Treaty System designated two sites at the Great Wall Station erected by Guo's team as

Historic Sites and Monuments in Antarctica A Historic Site or Monument (HSM) is a protected location of historic interest on the continent of Antarctica, or on its adjacent islands. The list of historic sites was first drawn up in 1972,

: the station's No. 1 Building and a monolith with the Chinese inscription: "Great Wall Station, First Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition, 20 February 1985".

Zhongshan Station

Four years later, Guo led another expedition to Antarctica, with the mission to establish China's second base. The team set out from Qingdao in November 1988 on the ship ''Jidi''. After reaching

Prydz Bay Prydz Bay is a deep embayment of Antarctica between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast. The Bay is at the downstream end of a giant glacial drainage system that originates in the East Antarctic interior. The Lambert Glacie ...

in Antarctica, the ship encountered a major

icefall An icefall is a portion of certain glaciers characterized by relatively rapid flow and chaotic crevassed surface, caused in part by gravity. The term ''icefall'' is formed by analogy with the word ''waterfall'', which is a similar phenomenon of ...

in the night of 14 January 1989. She missed being directly hit by ice by just two or three meters, and became trapped by icebergs for seven days. Many team members wrote their wills and were ready to die. Luckily, the icebergs shifted on the seventh day and temporarily created a 30-meter-wide opening, and Guo's team seized the opportunity to escape from the trap. The opening lasted for just two hours before closing again. The team proceeded to construct the Zhongshan Station at Prydz Bay in only 28 days, which opened on 26 February 1989.

Later career

Guo spent most of his career planning for and participating in Antarctic expeditions, seven in total. He also helped equip the research vessels ''Jidi'' and ''Xue Long'', served as Director of the

, and attended international conferences on polar research.

Health and death

In his old age Guo lost the ability to walk, likely because of the extended amount of time he had spent under extreme polar conditions. He died on 3 April 2019 in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, at the age of 83.

References