What are the names of houses in Antarctica? Russian Antarctica

Antarctic houses and villages

Snow drifts are one of the main natural factors that must first be taken into account when constructing and operating scientific villages in Antarctica. It should be noted, however, that intensive snow drifts do not occur throughout the entire icy continent. Thus, in the area of ​​the Antarctic Peninsula, where more than a third of all scientific stations are located, in the summer snowdrifts have time to melt and station buildings, as a rule, are completely free of drifts. In Central Antarctica, especially in the region of the cold poles and relative inaccessibility, snow drifts are not very intense, since very little snow falls in these places, wind speeds are low and snowstorms are rare.

The Soviet Vostok station, for example, built in December 1957, is still in the “over-snow” position. The drifts at this station are relatively small, and they can be easily eliminated: with the help of a bulldozer, polar explorers shovel snow from the station structures and carefully level it. Since the snow here does not melt and almost does not evaporate, in the vicinity of the station the surface of the snow desert gradually rises, and the station buildings find themselves at the bottom of an ever-deepening depression. Over time, it will be more and more difficult to clear the station buildings from snow, and eventually the depression at the bottom of which the station is located will become so deep that further fight against snow will require too much effort, and maintaining the station in such conditions will will apparently become impractical. But this situation will not come soon. The natural accumulation of snow in this area is only 6-7 centimeters per year, moreover, it becomes compacted in the lower layers and therefore, over the decade and a half that the station has existed, the snow level in its vicinity has risen by only 70-80 centimeters.

Closer to the periphery of the continent, snow drifts become more intense. They are especially large on the glacial slope, where strong winds constantly blow and snowstorms are very frequent. So, during the three years of its existence, the Pionerskaya station was covered with a layer of snow 6-8 meters thick. At the same time, on the coast at the foot of the glacial slope one can find places where, as a result of the manifestation of the so-called glaciological inversion, the accumulation of snow is insignificant, or even completely absent. There are quite large areas of bare ice and bedrock outcrops that form coastal oases. The snow that falls in these areas is carried away by strong winds, evaporates and partially melts in the summer. Further towards the sea, on ice shelves, the intensity of drifts increases again.

Of the foreign stations, the currently operating Argentine General Belgrano station (Filchner Ice Shelf), the South African SANAE (the coast of Dronning Maud Land), the English Halley Bay (Coats Land), and the American Amundsen-Scott (South Pole) are subject to strong drifts. Deep under the snow there are structures of now defunct stations: Baird on Mary Baird Land, Little America on the Ross Ice Shelf, Maudheim and Norway on the coast of the western part and King Baudouin on the coast of the eastern part of Queen Maud Land, Charcot on Earth Adele and several others.

Designs of station structures that would fully ensure normal, fairly comfortable life and favorable conditions for working for a long time with frequent and strong hurricanes and intense drifts have not yet been developed. However, a lot of experience has already been accumulated in the construction and operation of housing, office premises, as well as various other auxiliary structures, and certain ways to solve this problem are being outlined. One of the ways to solve the problem given to man by the nature of Antarctica is the construction of station structures on stilts. During the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, such structures first appeared in Mirny. These were warehouses for open storage of expeditionary property, which were wooden platforms mounted on poles dug into the snow. The wind, which freely blows through the space under the platforms, prevents the deposition of snow directly near the warehouse, and therefore it remains uncovered for a long time. Later they began to build residential buildings on poles. For the first time such houses appeared at Molodezhnaya station. These buildings were built on metal pipes installed vertically in the rocky soil of the oasis. The height of such a pile foundation is 2-2.5 meters, so that a person can freely walk directly under the house without bending. To build houses on poles, it is not at all necessary to level the construction site - it is enough to place the tops of the piles at the same level, and this greatly facilitates construction work.

The first such house was built at Molodezhnaya station in 1964. In 1972, 20 such structures had already grown here - a real village “on chicken legs”.

In 1968, Australia's Casey Station on Wilkes Land was built using the same principle. This station is one long building stretched across the direction of the prevailing winds. The area in which the station is located has an uneven topography, and the station building, raised above the ground, follows its curves, so that from a distance it resembles a huge caterpillar crawling along the uneven ground. This similarity is further complemented by the fact that the long building, curved in a vertical plane, standing on numerous “legs” - stilts, is enclosed in a streamlined casing, which, according to the designers, should provide the necessary aerodynamics of this unusual structure.

Experience in operating houses on “chicken legs” has shown that they are subject to much less damage than conventional structures standing directly on the ground. However, passing unhindered under houses, snow is deposited and accumulates in the form of a plume at a considerable distance from the building. Thus, when building villages from such houses, their layout is crucial. In other words, houses must be placed on the territory of the village so that there are no buildings in the places where snow plumes will form. This condition is easily met when the station consists of several houses, or, like Casey, just one house. When constructing large Antarctic settlements, this task becomes more complicated, especially if the construction site is small. Solving this problem would be completely impossible if it were not for the amazing constancy in the direction of the winds blowing on the coast and the glacial slope. If the winds, accompanied by snow drifts, blew from different sides of the horizon, houses would have to be located very far from each other (300-400 meters) and such villages would be very scattered.

By the end of winter, so much snow still accumulates on the territory of Molodezhnaya that if it is left untouched, then all of it will not melt during the short Antarctic summer and a significant part of it will remain until the next winter. And this, sooner or later, will lead to the fact that the station buildings will be completely covered with snow, and on the surface of the oasis, which was previously freed from snow every year, snowfields will appear, and then an ice cover. Therefore, snow plumes have to be bulldozed to speed up their melting. Thus, the very design of the houses on “chicken legs”, which were built on Molodezhnaya, does not exclude the possibility of drift and then glaciation of the village. In those areas where snow drifts are more intense and the snow does not melt even in the summer, building houses on stilts, apparently, does not make much sense at all.

Another direction for constructing stations in an area of ​​intense snow drifts is to deliberately go under the snow and immerse station structures in the snow in advance. This means that if there are no protruding buildings on the surface that retain snow during snowstorms and drifting snow, then the accumulation of snow in this area, as in natural conditions, will remain relatively insignificant. And although the snow thickness above the roofs of such a station will increase every year, its operation will be possible for some time. This is what the Americans did when building their new Baird station.

The prefabricated residential buildings and scientific pavilions of the old Baird Station, built in 1957, were gradually covered with snow and within five years were in such a state that their further operation became difficult and even dangerous. Therefore, in 1962, a new Baird station was built approximately 10 kilometers from the old station. Unlike the old scientific village, whose buildings were placed on the surface of the snow, all the main structures of the new station were immediately built under the snow. Earth-moving machines specially brought into the depths of Antarctica dug trenches about 6 meters deep and 8 meters wide in the snow, at the bottom of which the station buildings were placed. Then the trenches were covered from above with arched metal ceilings, which were soon covered with snow. Thus, the trenches turned into tunnels. The main tunnel, 200 meters long, stretches from north to south.

On both sides it ended with inclined open exits. Perpendicular to it on both sides there are several more tunnels ranging from 100 to 400 meters in length. These tunnels housed living quarters, a diesel power plant, scientific laboratories, a garage and other office premises. Only ventilation and exhaust pipes, radio antenna masts, as well as towers where equipment for observing auroras and aerological sounding were installed, and a pavilion for releasing balloons with radiosondes remained sticking out above the snow surface.

This station served for 10 years. Work on it was stopped in 1972 due to the fact that its further operation also became very difficult and even dangerous. In addition, the United States intended to open a new Siple station in West Antarctica.

What is the reason for the failure with the Baird station? Although this station was specially built under snow with the goal of minimally changing the natural conditions of snow accumulation on its territory, the benefits of the project were not realized. Under natural conditions, about 30-40 centimeters of snow accumulate in this area over the course of a year. It would seem that over the 10 years of the station’s existence, the thickness of the snow cover on its territory should have increased by 3-4 meters. This is exactly what happened in the vicinity of the station. However, during this time the station area itself was covered with a layer of snow 10-12 meters thick! This increased accumulation of snow is explained by the fact that the inclined exits from the tunnels remained open and, during frequent snowstorms and almost constant drifting snow, were naturally covered with snow. In addition, the tunnels began to become overgrown with snow and from the inside, far from the exits, frost began to form intensively on the walls and ceiling. It also had to be cleaned off and raked outside. Snow was removed from the tunnels by bulldozers, and soon a large snowy hill appeared on the station territory, which was called “Mount Baird”. The height of this snow heap by 1972 reached 25 meters. Thus, the main idea behind the design of the new Baird station was nullified. On the territory of the station, people themselves created a powerful snow retention...

When a sufficiently thick layer of snow accumulated above the tunnels, the arched ceilings could not withstand the increased load and sagged. They hung over the roofs of houses, and the distance between them and the roofs began to decrease alarmingly. Over the course of a year, the ceiling vault of the tunnel dropped by 1.5-2 meters. It was clear that, having fallen on the roofs of the houses, the snow would crush them like matchboxes. I had to cut out the curved arched ceilings and start fighting the onslaught of snow. With the help of axes and saws, the snow above the roofs was periodically cut off, and thus free space was maintained between the roofs of the houses and the ceiling vault of the tunnels.

The failure with the Baird station especially clearly showed what the consequences of breaking the rule are: the more you dig, the more you skid. Indeed, was it worth the effort to install station structures in trenches, hoping to preserve the natural regime of snow accumulation, in order to then create “Mount Baird”, which sharply increased snow accumulation, which led to an emergency situation and, ultimately, the destruction of the station.

Analyzing the experience of creating stations on the surface of the ice sheet in an area of ​​intense snow drifts, it is not difficult to come to the conclusion that the main thing is not how the station will be built - on the surface or in tunnels, but in strict adherence to the rules of its operation, which do not allow the creation of various structures, which would help retain snow on its territory. Apparently, it is still more expedient to build such stations on the surface of the snow cover, but with the expectation that they will soon be covered, and therefore all station structures should be adapted for operation in a snowy position, like a submarine, which is adapted for swimming above water , and underwater. The buildings of such stations must have increased strength; they must be connected to each other in advance by covered walkways of sufficient strength, etc. After the station is built, a gentle snowy hill forms above it. And if the inhabitants of the station do not create structures on the surface of the hill that help retain snow, then its accumulation above the station will become small, and perhaps stop completely for some time. And only when the level of snow in the vicinity of the station, as a result of natural accumulation, becomes equal to the top of the hill, the previous natural regime of snow accumulation characteristic of the given area will be restored on the territory of the station. If such conditions had been met during the construction and operation of the Baird station, it would have been under a 12-meter layer of snow no sooner than in 50-60 years.

It must be said that living in rooms buried in the snow-firn layer has its advantages. Such rooms are easier to heat, since they are sheltered from the strongest hurricane winds. Any building located on the surface experiences shaking during hurricanes, and a person living in such a house feels like being in a train carriage traveling along the tracks of a large railway junction with many switches. In addition, hurricanes are accompanied by strong noise effects. The roar, whistle and howling of the wind do not allow people to sleep until they get used to it, just as a miller gets used to the noise of a working mill. Houses with “chicken legs” shake and make noise especially strongly. The inhabitants of houses covered with snow experience none of this. Even the strongest hurricanes make themselves known only with weak, muffled sounds and the barely audible rustling of snow rushing madly across the surface. Therefore, in winter, when hurricanes and blizzards rage especially often, the air temperature is low and it is dark almost around the clock, the inhabitants of snow-covered houses feel more comfortable. In summer the situation changes somewhat. At this time, the weather is often good, sunny, and relatively little windy; it is light all day long, which is why dwellings in the snow seem gloomy.

In the future, when the need arises to create large structures on the Antarctic ice sheet, they will apparently also build in the snow-firn layer. Giving free rein to your imagination, you can imagine multi-storey structures going tens of meters deep into the snow and firn, with snow-covered passages and lifts, transport tunnels, water supply and sewerage systems and other devices that provide comfort for their inhabitants. However, so far in these areas, after the unsuccessful experience with the Baird station under snow, stations are designed mainly on the surface of the snow cover.

This is, for example, what the new Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole, opened in January 1975, looks like. All buildings of this station are connected by covered corridors. A special room is provided for parking vehicles and their repair. The main residential and office premises are located in three two-story buildings, covered with a huge dome.

In places where station buildings are not threatened by snow drifts, Antarctic scientific villages are not much different from villages on other continents. As a rule, houses are built from prefabricated structures, since they have to be delivered to the icy continent by ship.

At Soviet stations, standard prefabricated houses designed for the northern regions have recently become widespread. The design of these houses is convenient in that buildings of various sizes and for various needs can be assembled from standard parts. The house, consisting of one module, has a size of 4X8.6 meters. Such modules can be expanded as many as you like. The largest house of this design was built in Antarctica on Molodezhnaya. It consists of 9 modules. Its length is more than 35 meters, and its area exceeds 300 square meters. This house houses the radio center of the main base of Soviet Antarctic expeditions.

New modular houses made from aluminum panels are versatile. They are equipped for scientific laboratories and housing, they house power plants and warehouses, they are used as wardrooms, outpatient clinics, canteens, workshops and for many other needs.

Now the largest settlements on the ice continent are the American McMurdo base on the Ross Peninsula and the Soviet Antarctic Meteorological Center Molodezhnaya on Enderby Land. These villages occupy a significant area and consist of dozens of different structures built on ice-free rocky soil. Since there is no serious threat of snow drifts on the Ross Peninsula, houses in McMurdo are built on conventional foundations. For the same reason, the village of McMurdo is more compact; the houses here are close to each other and form real streets. Living conditions in this Antarctic town are peculiar, but in general they are not much different from conditions in modern cities. The village has water supply and sewerage, and an automatic telephone exchange. From the very first years of the village’s existence, there has been a church in it, for which a separate building was built. On the shore of the bay there are berths for unloading ships. Motor roads lead from them to the village. Roads also extend towards airfields located in the vicinity of the village on the surface of the ice shelf and fast ice.

Fuel for the diesel power plant, land transport vehicles and aviation is stored in large tanks located on the outskirts of the village. It is delivered to McMurdo by tankers and pumped to storage facilities through a pipeline system.

The Soviet Antarctic meteorological center Molodezhnaya is located in other, less favorable natural conditions. Hurricane winds blow here more often, carrying masses of snow from the ice sheet. Therefore, the layout of the village in order to avoid heavy snow drifts cannot be as compact as in McMurdo. The Molodezhnaya scientific village is much younger than the American base. In 1975 he was only 13 years old. Station facilities are located on an area of ​​about one square kilometer. The central part of the village is a street of two rows of houses. There are living quarters, a wardroom and dining room building, a clinic, scientific laboratories and other office premises here. On the northern outskirts of the village, behind a wide ravine that stretches from Lake Glubokoe to the sea, a garage with a mechanical workshop, a transmitting radio station and a new diesel power station have been built. In the same area there is a fuel tank connected by a pipeline to the power plant. On the southern side of the village there is a radio receiving center building, a complex of structures for a rocket sounding station and a number of other premises. From here there is a road to the south, up to the ice sheet, where an airfield is located at a distance of 4-5 kilometers from the village. To the west of the village, on the seashore, there are containers in which the main supply of fuel is stored.

The scattered nature of the village creates its own inconveniences for its inhabitants. In bad weather, especially during the polar night, during winter hurricanes, when houses are drowned in a thick stream of snow mixed with sand and even rubble, it is difficult to get to places of work and to the dining room. However, such a layout of the Antarctic scientific town is necessary and is determined by its specifics. In addition to fire safety considerations, the placement of individual objects at a considerable distance from each other is also dictated by the peculiarities of the operation of scientific equipment and radio stations. Thus, the pavilion where precise observations of the Earth’s magnetic field are carried out should stand alone and as far as possible from iron structures. The magnetic pavilion itself is built entirely from non-magnetic materials. The transmitting radio station, if it is powerful enough, should be located away from the receiving radio center, as it creates strong interference. Far from the radio stations, it is necessary to build an ionosphere sounding station. They also don’t “get along” at close range.

After Molodezhnaya and McMurdo, the largest Antarctic settlement is the Soviet Mirny Observatory.

An indispensable attribute of every Antarctic village is a power plant. The engines roar incessantly, replacing each other, and the mechanics go on duty. They closely monitor the operation of diesel engines and generators, monitor load changes and regulate the distribution of generated electricity between consumers. A power plant in a modern Antarctic village is one of the most important and necessary facilities. Electricity is used to heat and light rooms, cook food, and drive machines in the workshop. Without electricity, radio stations cannot operate. Most scientific instruments are also powered by electricity. Without it, radars, computers, numerous recorders and recorders of various natural phenomena that are monitored at Antarctic stations cannot operate.

Power plants in Antarctica appeared, apparently, at the same time as radio stations. Thus, already in 1912, the main base of the Australian Antarctic Expedition of D. Mawson, Cape Denison Station, was equipped with two generators (DC and AC), which were driven by a kerosene engine. The participants of this expedition used radio equipment for the first time in Antarctica. Although with great difficulty, they maintained contact with Australia through an intermediate radio station on Macquarie Island.

What does the energy economy of Antarctic stations look like at the present time? In all Antarctic villages on the icy continent, electricity is generated mainly from imported fuel. However, Antarctica has its own energy resources. They are huge and will undoubtedly be used in the future. For example, on the coast, where almost all scientific stations are located, there is a huge amount of wind energy. There is information in the literature that wind energy was used in 1949-1951 at the Modheim station of the Norwegian-Swedish-British expedition, where a wind power plant operated. In 1962, during the work of the Seventh Soviet Antarctic Expedition, a small wind-electric unit of the VE-2M2 type with a power of 160 watts was installed in Mirny. Its testing showed the suitability of such installations for operation in Antarctic conditions.

In the summer half of the year, a large amount of solar energy falls on the surface of the icy continent. Solar energy is known to have been used at Australia's Davis Station, where it powered a desalination plant. Like other continents, Antarctica has large reserves of energy in the form of underground heat, which is especially convenient for use in areas of modern volcanism.

However, the use of natural energy resources in Antarctica has not yet become widespread; Despite the high cost of electricity generated by diesel generator sets, they are preferred, firstly, because of their reliability and, secondly, because in Antarctica the need for electricity is still relatively small.

The total capacity of power plants operating on the icy continent is currently only about 10,000 kilowatts. At Soviet Antarctic stations, the total power plant capacity in 1975 was slightly less than 2,600 kilowatts, which is more than one-quarter of the capacity of all power plants in Antarctica.

At each power plant of Soviet stations, 3 diesel generators are installed, and at Molodezhnaya - even 4, which makes it possible, if a working diesel generator breaks down, to immediately put another one into operation without interrupting the supply of electricity to consumers, and to repair the broken one or replace it with a new one in a calm environment . In addition, each Antarctic station has an emergency power plant, which is provided in case a major accident causes the entire main power plant to fail.

Power plant capacity at Soviet Antarctic stations (1975)

To operate power plants, a significant amount of diesel fuel must be imported to Antarctica. So, to power the Molodezhnaya power station during the year, more than 1,500 tons are needed, Mirny - about 500 tons, and Vostok - 120-130 tons. In addition, fuel is also needed for ground transportation equipment and aircraft. In previous years, fuel was delivered to Antarctica in barrels, but now fuel tanks have been built in Mirny and Molodezhnaya, which are filled with fuel from tankers coming here.

Housing and clothing

Most Antarctic settlements are created in the most favorable places on coastal cliffs and islands. This is where our stations “Molodezhnaya”, “Mirny”, “Novolazarevskaya”, “Leningradskaya”, “Bellingshausen”, “Russkaya”, “Progress”, the American “McMurdo” and “Palmer”, the Australian “Mawson”, “Progress” are located. Casey”, “Davis”, Japanese “Seva”, etc. But stations were often built on ice shelves. Over the years, the Norwegian-Swedish-British wintering station “Modheim”, the Belgian one “King Baudouin”, the Soviet one “Lazarev”, and several American stations “Little America” operated on these floating ice formations over the years. All of them were abandoned over time, buried under snow or carried away by currents along with icebergs. This fate recently befell our seasonal base “Druzhnaya”, located on the Filchner Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea.

1. Landscape with Adelie penguins

2. Alien from the Australian expedition

Some polar observatories have settled in the central part of Antarctica. These are, first of all, stations at the poles: our “Vostok” - on the geomagnetic and the American “Amundsen-Scott” - on the geographical.

The design features of Antarctic buildings, many signs of life and everyday life of polar explorers strongly depend on the natural landscape in which a particular station is built. This is what, for example, our main polar village looks like - the Molodezhnaya aerometeorological center, located on the coast. Even from aboard the ship, a strip of dark brown hills, surrounded on all sides by glaciers, attracts attention. There, among the low humpbacked rocks, the station is located. Already from a distance the presence of a person is given away by radio antenna masts. And from the shore, from the nearest hillock, a panorama of the station opens before your eyes. From the height of the hill you can count about two dozen houses on stilts, shaped like matchboxes. Most of them lined up in the center of the village, forming the main street, the rest were scattered on the rocks in the distance.

“Molodezhnaya” stretches a kilometer and a half in length, and if you include the airfield and gas storage facility within its boundaries, it will be a good 3 km. The station has a cheerful, festive look. The houses are painted in bright rich colors - red, blue, blue, yellow, green. The design of the buildings is unusual. The houses are raised above the rocks to a height of two meters. You can walk freely under them.

Houses on stilts on other continents are usually built either in swampy areas in areas flooded with water, or on frozen soils, as we have in Siberia, so that the permafrost does not thaw and the soil does not sag. And here, in Antarctica, and perhaps only on this continent, to protect ourselves from snow drifts. Buildings placed directly on rocky ground or ice are quickly covered by snowstorms. This fate befell many Antarctic stations in the past. The first houses of Mirny have long been buried under a many-meter layer of snow. And houses on stilts are not afraid of snowstorms. Snow, driven by hurricane winds, sweeps under houses and does not linger near buildings.

The wardroom building is the central one at the station. There is a dining room, a library, films are shown, meetings and evenings are held. People come here after work to play a game of chess or billiards, just sit and talk. This is a kind of polar club. On the facade of the wardroom, the USSR banner and, as a rule, one or two more foreign flags are mounted on flagpoles. Foreign scientists almost always live and work at the Soviet station.

Some of the houses on Molodezhnaya are built from arbolite slabs, compressed sawdust and cement, an inexpensive material. However, under the pressure of temperature changes and constant vibrations caused by winds, wood concrete slabs crack. New buildings are sheathed on the outside with aluminum, on the inside with a plastic coating, and in between there is a thermal insulation gasket. The thickness of such walls is about 20 cm. Ready-made house blocks are imported to Antarctica; the builders just have to install the pile foundation and assemble the house. Our other stations are also being reconstructed according to the “Molodezhnaya” type. In Mirny, where the area of ​​rock outcrops is limited, two-story houses on stilts were built.

Buildings of original designs were also erected at foreign stations. At the American Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole, the houses are hidden under a huge metal sphere - a kind of roof. At the Japanese Showa Station, some of the houses are connected by passages. The Australian Casey station looks like a curved caterpillar - an attempt to architecturally “fit” into the uneven rocky terrain of the Antarctic oasis. When you get acquainted with the stations of England, Germany, South Africa, India, located on ice shelves and buried under a multi-meter layer of snow, a comparison with a submarine involuntarily comes. Each country makes its own contribution and its experience in the construction of Antarctic bases.

To the same extent as their homes, polar explorers try to adapt their clothing to the harsh conditions of Antarctica. Samples of polar, so-called climatic clothing are constantly being improved. The clothing of our polar explorers, as a rule, deserves high praise primarily due to natural materials: leather, wool, fur, although tailoring leaves much to be desired. Clothes made of synthetic materials are widely used on foreign expeditions. The outerwear of polar explorers is usually catchy and bright. If necessary, this helps to quickly find a person in the snowy desert. But of course, the main requirement for clothing is that it be light, warm, and comfortable.

Depending on the season, the location of the station, and the type of work performed, clothing changes and certain innovations are introduced into it. For example, at the Vostok station at the planet’s cold pole in winter, special protective masks are sometimes used when working outdoors.

Housing When I describe the external decorations at the entrance, I mean a private cottage house in one of the small cities or in the suburbs of a metropolis. Just twenty years ago, this was exactly what the American dream home was like. Then the rich inhabitants of the cities moved out of their