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Antarctic Exploration
U
nloading stores at a
scientific station.
Almost a ton of food
is needed for each
person for a year.
S
cientific stations
are run all year in
Antarctica. Their studies
have shown how
important Antarctica
is to our well being.
The IGY ran from mid-1957 to
December 1958. Twelve countries
opened stations in Antarctica or on
nearby islands. The US chose the
South Pole. An entire station was
brought in by aircraft in 1956. It took
84 flights to fly in all the materials and
equipment. Nobody had stood at the
South Pole since Scott and Amundsen
sledged there. The next person to
arrive came 44 years later by airplane.
The USSR chose the Pole of
Inaccessibility for one of their stations.
This is the hardest point in Antarctica
to reach. They used tractor trains to
bring in the materials for their station.
The tractors took several weeks to
travel the 870 miles (1,400 km) from the
coast. Dozens of tractors went in a line
together, sometimes nearly a mile long.
They called their station Vostok. The
coldest temperature in the world, –128°F
(– 89°C), was later recorded there.
The Antarctic Treaty
The IGY was a great success. Nations
worked together as never before. Then,
in 1961 an agreement called the
Antarctic
Treaty
was reached.
Scientists could explore Antarctica
without worrying about land claims.
Nobody minded who found or saw
what, and military operations are banned.
This ideal situation has
continued in the decades since.
As the needs of scientists
changed, stations have opened or been
abandoned. In 1993 there were 48
scientific stations in the Antarctic.
These stations were run by 20 different
nations. By 2015, those numbers has
risen to more than 75 stations manned by
30 countries.