Antarctic Science Lab On the Move to Escape Breaking Ice

The primary module of the British Halley VI analysis station is towed to its new location in a safer a part of the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

Credit score: British Antarctic Survey

A British scientific base in Antarctica is on the transfer to a brand new location, to keep away from being lower adrift by a crack in a floating ice shelf.

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) introduced on New Yr's Eve that the primary module of the Halley VI Analysis Station was towed by tractors to a brand new web site on the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica's Weddell Sea, 14 miles (23 kilometers) east of its former location.

The remaining seven fundamental buildings of the modular analysis base will likely be towed to the brand new web site over the approaching weeks, because the relocation workforce takes benefit of the 24 hours of daylight throughout the transient Antarctic summer time. [See Photos of the Antarctic Research Base Being Moved]

"It has been a really optimistic couple of days for the workforce," BAS officers posted on the group's Fb web page on Dec. 31. "Final evening they managed to efficiently tow the primary of the eight Halley modules to the brand new web site at Halley 6a."

A rising chasm within the ice southeast of the bottom threatens to chop the Halley VI base off from the primary ice shelf.

Credit score: British Antarctic Survey

The trendy Halley base is the sixth British analysis station of that title constructed on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf since 1956. Every of its fundamental modules is supplied with hydraulic legs and skis, however that is the primary time they've been moved for the reason that new base grew to become operational in 2012.

The Brunt Ice Shelf is often round 490 toes (150 meters) thick. However scientists have realized long-dormant chasm within the ice southeast of the bottom is now rising by greater than 1 mile (1.7 kilometers) every year, and threatens to finally lower the bottom off from the inland part of the ice shelf.

Surveys of the ice shelf have situated a brand new web site for the bottom, inland of the chasm, and preparations to maneuver the bottom buildings started final yr, in keeping with the BAS.

On the transfer

Now that the relocation of the Halley base is underway, BAS employees have just a few weeks left of polar summer time to finish the transfer.

"Every summer time season could be very quick — about 9 weeks," BAS operations director Tim Stockings stated in an announcement. "And since the ice and the climate are unpredictable, we've to be versatile in our method."

"We're particularly eager to attenuate the disruption to the science packages. We now have deliberate the transfer in phases — the science infrastructure that captures environmental knowledge will stay in place whereas the station's modules transfer," Stockings stated.

The BAS hopes to have the Halley VI base totally operational on the new web site by the 2017/2018 Antarctic summer time, when the environmental packages may also be relocated.

A view of the Halley VI base from the air. Eight movable modules present lodging and analysis amenities for as much as 70 scientists and employees.

Credit score: British Antarctic Survey

BAS communications supervisor Athena Dinar stated it will take as much as 15 hours for specialised tractors to tow every of the eight Halley modules over the 14 miles (23 kilometers) to the brand new web site. "It is going to be taken very slowly because the [operational] modules haven't been towed earlier than," she informed Dwell Science.

The eight fundamental Halley modules present lodging and analysis amenities for round 60 British scientists and help employees throughout the Antarctic summer time months, Dinar stated. Over the winter months, a number of employees members hold the bottom operational and the experiments working.

Watching the skies

Britain's Halley base has performed an vital position in research of the Earth's environment. Climate and atmospheric knowledge, together with measurements of ozone within the Earth's higher environment, have been collected for the reason that first base, Halley I, was established in 1956, in keeping with the BAS.

In 1985, scientists at Halley VI found Antarctica's "ozone gap" — a area of ozone-depleted air within the higher environment over the continent that worsens throughout the south-polar spring.

Subsequent analysis linked the Antarctic ozone gap to the buildup within the Earth's higher environment of chlorine-based chemical compounds, such because the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as soon as used as refrigerants and in aerosol cans. The invention led to the event of the Montreal Protocol, a world effort adopted in 1987 to get rid of the usage of CFCs and different ozone-depleting chemical compounds.

In addition to persevering with measurements of the ozone layer and different bodily processes within the environment, present analysis packages at Halley VI embody profiting from the bottom's location close to the South Pole to observe interactions between the photo voltaic wind and the Earth's magnetic fields, which might set off frequent shows of the aurora australis, or southern lights.

Authentic article on Dwell Science.

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