Antarctica’s Research Stations
Please be aware that images of Antarctica are currently
only available in Google Earth so the Google Maps links below will
not work. To view the sights in this post you will have to
View in Google Earth.
Although Antarctica’s official population is zero, there is
usually between 1,000 to 4,000 people living and working on the
mostly uninhabitable continent.
These people are representatives of the 30 countries which
operate year-round or summer research stations at various
locations, many of which are now viewable in Google Earth. Today
we’re going to look at a few of these stations.
Russia’s
Mirny station was established during the 1st Soviet Antarctica
Expedition and one of the buildings has CCCP (Russian for USSR)
painted on its roof.
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Australia’s
Casey station is a collection of colourful buildings
established in 1959. The headquarters at Casey (known as the “Big
Red Shed”) are likely the largest building on Antarctica.
Casey station also has a http://www.aad.gov.au/asset/webcams/casey/default.asp webcam,
and you can see a typical day on Antarctica by watching the
fantastic http://www.aad.gov.au/webcams/casey/timelapse.mpg time lapse
video of yesterday’s shots.
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Antarctica has at least 20 private airports for the coming and
going of all the staff, and at the UK’s
Rothera Research Station we can see the snow-covered 900m
runway.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_stations_in_Antarctica
Wikipedia lists 64 currently active stations, so there’s no
doubt much more to be found on Antarctica.
Thanks: bruv, Gearthhacks & http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Number/239900 Rebay
Tags: , Antarctica, Research, Stations