Sobral Scientific Base ( es, Base de Avanzada Científica de Ejército Alférez de Fragata Sobral, or simply ''Base Científica Sobral'' or ''Base Sobral'') was a permanent, all year-round and now only partially active
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 ...
base and scientific
research station named after Argentine polar explorer and scientist
José María Sobral
''Alférez de Navío'' José María Sobral (April 14, 1880 – April 14, 1961) was an Argentine explorer, geologist, naval officer and author who rose to prominence by participating in the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–1904) becomin ...
. It is located on the
Filchner Ice Shelf.
History
Sobral was founded with the goal of asserting Argentine sovereignty over the area while providing a launch platform for
that year's planned land expedition to the South Pole.
The establishment of the base required over three months of continuous work done in a then barely-known region under extreme environmental circumstances. More than of equipment were transported by
tractors over heavily cracked terrain that slowed and often halted the
tracked vehicles and sleds. The settling team went across a total of .
A
Cessna
Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...
plane from
Belgrano I
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 Liber ...
provided route reconnaissance.
[
Sobral was founded on 2 April; just a day after, operation leader ]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 ...
Gustavo Adolfo Giró Tapper
Gustavo is the Latinate form of a Germanic male given name with respective prevalence in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. It has been a common name for Swedish monarchs since the reign of Gustav Vasa.
It is derived from Gustav /ˈɡʊstɑːv/, a ...
sent a radio message to Buenos Aires urging his superior command to speed up launching of the expedition to the South Pole so it could be carried out in the first days of October; he argued that the recently surveyed route between Belgrano I
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 Liber ...
and the foothills of the polar plateau sector had very rough ice and, given the known instability of the Filchner Ice Shelf, the expeditionaires would find their path full of unknown obstacles.[
Thus, on 26 October 1965 a group of ten men left Belgrano I and a few days later arrived in Sobral, the last foothold before getting to the Pole, which they finally did on 10 December 1965.][ It was the first time in history that Earth's southernmost point was reached by land through the Weddell Sea.
By 1968 the slow drifting of the Filchner barrier was causing deep, often hidden crevices and structural stresses on the buildings. The base was thus closed on 28 October 1968 after three years of continuous service; it was quickly buried by falling snow. 15 years later, in November 1983, it was located and reopened by a six-men reconnaissance patrol after a 9-day trip traveling from ]Belgrano II
Belgrano II Base ( es, Base Belgrano II) is a permanent, all year-round Argentine Antarctic base and scientific research station named after General Manuel Belgrano, one of the Libertadores and the creator of the Argentine Flag. It is located on ...
on Ski-Doo bikes, with the mission of establishing a new connection route between both bases. The team performed maintenance, made meteorological measurements, and over 23 days surveyed the Diamond Mountains, a place never visited by humans before. After leaving written records in plastic tubes and having marked the base's placement with flags, they successfully returned to Belgrano II.
In 1997 another team reached the place but this time they could not find the buildings, covered under thicker ice. They left fuel tanks for future operations in the region.
On 10 October 2000 a six-men research expedition established a scientific camp at Sobral's emplacement and measured local ozone levels with a spectrophotometer. The temporary occupation was conducted by personnel belonging to Belgrano II and a technician from the National Antarctic Directorate
National may refer to:
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* Nation or country
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; since then, a new expedition is sent every year between September and December, where the lowest annual average concentration of ozone in Antarctica is recorded.
In order to reach the remote base this team must travel for distances up to over very rugged ice terrain filled with numerous cracks, which pose an often unpredictable threat.[ ]Snowcat
A snowcat (short for snow and caterpillar) is an enclosed-cab, truck-sized, fully tracked vehicle designed to move on snow. Major manufacturers are Pisten Bully (Germany), Prinoth (Italy) and Tucker (United States).
Snow groomers
A snow ...
heavy vehicles are used to cover half of the route; light vehicles like the Yamaha VK-540 II Ski-Doo are preferred for the rest.[ The party carries all the necessary equipment for a three-months stay, such as tents, fuel, supplies, survival kits, communication hardware and scientific instruments.][
]
Description
Sobral is the southernmost Argentine base ever established: it is south of Belgrano I, less than distant from the South Pole,[ from the Southern Ocean coastline, and from Ushuaia, the nearest port city.
Common tasks at the base include maintenance, logistic support for scientific projects, and search and rescue.
]
Scientific activities
Scientific research carried out at Sobral include meteorology, ionospheric observations and measurements of Earth's magnetic field.[ ]Stratospheric
The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air hi ...
ozone data obtained at the base complements the spectrometer
A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...
network located in Ushuaia, Marambio and Belgrano II.[
]
Climate
Because of its high latitude and elevation of above sea level, climatic conditions in the area are extreme: air is very dry, winds often exceed , atmospheric pressure is high and temperatures often fall below
The maximum registered temperature at Sobral was , and the minimum, on 14 April 1967.
See also
* Argentine Antarctica
* Crime in Antarctica
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
* List of Antarctic research stations
* List of Antarctic field camps
References
External links
Fundaciòn Marambio – Base Sobral
Dirección Nacional del Antártico
{{Antarctica
Sobral
Populated places established in 1965
Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf
1965 establishments in Antarctica