Gondwana station

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Coordinates: 74 ° 38 ′  S , 164 ° 13 ′  E

Relief Map: Antarctica
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Gondwana station​
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Antarctic

The Gondwana station is a German polar research station in the Antarctic . It is named after the geological continent Gondwana and was built in 1983. The station is located on Terra Nova Bay in North Victoria Land on the Ross Sea .

description

The station is operated by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) with its headquarters in Hanover and was built to investigate the geology of the Transantarctic Mountains . The focus of the research is the beginning of the disintegration of the supercontinent Gondwana 180 million years ago .

Geoscientific land expeditions under the direction or participation of BGR under the name GANOVEX (German Antarctic North Victoria Land Expedition) have been carried out since 1979 . During the GANOVEX V expedition in 1988/1989, the Gondwana station was expanded into a summer station. Each 8 to 33 scientists work in sixteen 20- foot - ISO containers which connected a floor space of 200  m² arise. The overnight stays take place in Scott tents .

At GANOVEX IX, in 2005/2006 the 2500 m to 3200 m high, 150 km away from the station, the steep walls and plateaus protruding from the ice of North Viktorialand were explored with the help of two helicopters . Well-preserved fossil plants and insects were recovered and examined at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg , among others .

As part of the GANOVEX-IX expedition, the Edisto field camp was set up 200 km from the Gondwana station on the Edisto glacier at Cape Hallett near Cape Adare . The camp consisted of a kitchen tent, an office tent and a few Scott tents. On the glacier, the camp was particularly exposed to the extreme weather conditions of the Antarctic with snowstorms over 100  km / h , strong winds and snow drift. The task of the investigations at Cape Hallett was to record the magnetic radiation of the earth's surface with the aid of a probe that was pulled behind a Twin Otter at a distance of 30 m .

The station is the namesake for the neighboring Lago Gondwana .

Pictures from winter 2005/2006

  • Scott tent, was destroyed in storms on the Edisto Glacier.

  • The Gondwana station with tents for the expedition participants.

  • The station kitchen.

  • Each participant has their own mug.

Modernization in 2015 and 2016

As part of the construction expeditions MOGS3 (December 2015 - March 2016) and MOGS4 (November 2016), the Gondwana station was extensively renovated and expanded. A new technical and sanitary building was built, and the existing containers were renovated inside and out. In the course of this, a new seawater desalination plant, a snow melter and a fully biological sewage treatment plant were installed, and the energy supply was renewed. A photovoltaic system, together with a lithium battery storage system and two kerosene generators, forms the core of the power supply. With the help of an energy management system, the station's emissions could be reduced significantly through modernization. As a result of the modernization work, the station is environmentally and energetically up to date, so that it will be used as a research and logistics base for at least another 25 years.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elektro-Mechanik Meisl GmbH - modernization of the Gondwana station 2015–2016 Construction expedition in the Antarctic - Meisl modernizes research station
  2. ↑ Modernized Antarctic station "inaugurated" ( Memento from December 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) at ndr.de from December 5, 2016