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The meaning of the word amundsen-scott in a large encyclopedic dictionary. Antarctica Amudsen-Scott Polar Station (USA)

Reach South Pole dreamed by many, among them the French navigator Jean-Baptiste Charcot, a famous explorer of the Arctic and Antarctic (he died in 1936 during another expedition to Greenland).

Nansen also dreamed of being the first to reach the pole in Antarctica, intending to go to the southern polar seas on his beloved Fram. In 1909 Englishman Ernest Shackleton and his comrades penetrated into the very heart of the continent and were forced to turn to the coast just 100 miles from the Pole due to an acute shortage of food.

In October 1911, in the frosty Antarctic spring, two expeditions, Norwegian and British, rushed to the South Pole almost simultaneously. One was led by Roald Amundsen (1872-1928), a polar explorer who had already spent the winter on a ship in Antarctic waters at the end of the 19th century. And he managed to become famous in the Arctic, having overcome the labyrinth of the Canadian archipelago on the tiny boat “Yoa” in 1903-1906.

The second is Captain First Rank, Commander of the Order of Victoria, Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912). Scott was a naval officer who managed to command both cruisers and battleships in his time.

At the very beginning of the 20th century, he spent two years on the Antarctic coast, leading a research wintering camp. A small detachment led by Scott attempted to penetrate into the interior of the continent, and in three months they managed to advance almost 1000 miles towards the pole. Returning to his homeland, he began to prepare for the next expedition. When their ship "Tera Nova" was on the way to Antarctica, the British learned that the "Fram" was heading there at full speed with the Amundsen expedition on board and the goal of the Norwegians was the same South Pole!

The further competition went under the motto: “who will win?” Amundsen extremely skillfully chose the place of wintering and future launch - as much as 100 miles closer to the pole than Scott. On their route, which passed at an angle to the route of the British, Amundsen’s people did not encounter either terrible cold or deadly prolonged snowstorms. The Norwegian detachment carried out a round trip to much more short terms, without going beyond the short Arctic summer. And here we can only pay tribute to the organizer of the expedition.

And so, on January 17, 1912, Robert Scott and his comrades arrived at the geographic point of the South Pole. Here they saw the remains of someone else's camp, traces of sledges, dog paws and a tent with a flag - exactly a month before them, their rival reached the Pole. With his characteristic brilliance, without a single casualty, without serious injuries, following the route schedule he had drawn up almost to the minute (and, what looks absolutely fantastic, predicting the timing of the return to the coastal base with the same accuracy), Amundsen demonstrated another and far from my last achievement.

The following entry appeared in Scott’s diary: “The Norwegians were ahead of us. A terrible disappointment, and I feel pain for my faithful comrades. None of us could sleep as a result of the blow we received...”

The British detachment set off on the return journey, following from one intermediate warehouse with food and fuel to another. But they were stopped forever by the endless March snowstorm.

Their bodies were discovered more than seven months later by a rescue team that went out to search for them. Next to Scott's body was a bag containing diaries and farewell letters. There were also 35 pounds of samples collected during the route on the rocks framing the Antarctic glaciers. The British continued to carry these stones even when death was already staring them in the eye.

The last line in the diary was a phrase that later spread throughout the world: “For God’s sake, don’t leave our loved ones...”

Admitting to his wife that there was no chance of salvation, Robert Scott asked her to interest their son natural history, so that in the future he would continue his work as a traveler-naturalist. Dr. Peter Scott (he was not even a year old when his father set off on his last expedition) became an outstanding biologist and ecologist, one of the leaders of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources.

On the coast of the mainland near the base of the British expedition, on the top of a high hill facing the majestic ice Ross Barrier, a three-meter cross made of Australian eucalyptus rose.

On it is a gravestone inscription in memory of the five victims and the final words of the classic of British poetry: “Fight, seek, find and do not give up!”

Amundsen, having learned about the death of Scott and his companions, wrote: “I would sacrifice glory, absolutely everything, to bring him back to life. My triumph is overshadowed by the thought of his tragedy. It haunts me!”

Amundsen and Scott, Scott and Amundsen... Today at the very point that brought great victory one and a fatal defeat to the other, leads Scientific research Antarctic station, which was named Amundsen-Scott.

History and present

The station is located at an altitude of 2835 above sea level, on a glacier that nearby reaches a maximum thickness of 2850 m (). The average annual temperature is about −49 °C; varies from −28 °C in December to −60 °C in July. Average wind speed - 5.5 m/s; Gusts up to 27 m/s were recorded.

Foundation of the station (1957-1975)

The original station - now called "Old Pole" (eng. Old Pole) - was founded in 1956-1957. an 18-man US Navy expedition that landed here in October 1956 and wintered there for the first time in Antarctic history in 1957. Because climatic conditions previously unknown, the base was built underground to overcome any worst weather conditions. The most low temperature in 1957 it was recorded at −74 °C (−102 °F). Surviving such low temperatures, combined with low humidity and low air pressure, is only possible with proper protection.

The station, abandoned in 1975, is covered with snow (like any structure at the South Pole) at a rate of 60-80 mm per year. Now it is buried quite deeply and is completely closed to visitors, since all the wooden floors have been crushed by the snow.

On January 4, 1958, the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition arrived at the station with the famous mountaineer Edmund Hillary. This was the first expedition in which it was used automobile transport, and the first to reach the Pole by land, after Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912. The expedition moved from the New Zealand station of Scott Base.

Dome (1975-2003)

An aerial photograph of Amundsen-Scott Station taken around 1983. The central dome is visible, as well as various containers and supporting buildings.

The main entrance to the dome is located below the snow level. Initially, the dome was built on the surface, but then gradually sank into the snow.

The aluminum unheated “tent” is a landmark of the pole. There was even a post office, a shop and a pub.

Any building at the pole is quickly surrounded by snow and the design of the dome was not the most successful. A huge amount of fuel was wasted to remove snow, and delivery of a liter of fuel costs $7.

The equipment from 1975 is completely outdated.

New scientific complex (since 2003)

The unique design on stilts allows snow not to accumulate near the building, but to pass under it. The sloped shape of the bottom of the building allows the wind to be directed under the building, which helps blow snow away. But sooner or later the snow will cover the piles and then it will be possible to jack up the station twice (this increases the service life of the station from 30 to 45 years).

Construction materials were delivered by Hercules aircraft from McMurdo Station on the shore and only during daylight hours. More than 1000 flights were made.

The complex contains:

11-kilometer low-frequency antenna for observing and predicting celestial and cosmic storms,
the tallest 10-meter telescope at the pole, rising 7 floors up and weighing 275 thousand kg
drilling rig (depth - up to 2.5 km) for studying neutrinos.

On January 15, 2008, in the presence of the leadership of the US National Science Foundation and other organizations, the American flag was lowered from the dome station and raised in front of the new modern complex. The station can accommodate up to 150 people in summer and about 50 in winter.

Activity

In summer, the station's population is usually more than 200 people. Most of the staff leave by mid-February, leaving only a few dozen people (43 in 2009) overwintering, mostly support staff plus a few scientists who maintain the station during the several months of Antarctic night. Winterers are isolated from the rest of the world from mid-February to the end of October, during which time they face many dangers and stress. The station is completely self-sufficient in winter period, is supplied with power from three generators running on JP-8 aviation fuel.

Research at the station includes sciences such as glaciology, geophysics, meteorology, upper atmospheric physics, astronomy, astrophysics, and biomedical research. Most scientists work in low-frequency astronomy; low temperature and low humidity polar air, combined with altitudes of over 2,743 m (9,000 ft), causes the air to be much clearer at some frequencies than is normal elsewhere, and months of darkness allow sensitive equipment to operate continuously.

Events

In 1991, Michael Palin visited the base during the 8th and final episode of his BBC television documentary Pole to Pole.

In 1999, while spending the winter, doctor Jerry Nielsen discovered that she had breast cancer. She had to give herself chemotherapy with drugs dropped in July and then was flown out after the first plane landed in mid-October.

In January 2007, the station was visited by a group of Russian high officials, including FSB chiefs Nikolai Patrushev and Vladimir Pronichev. The expedition, led by polar explorer Artur Chilingarov, took off from Chile on two Mi-8 helicopters and landed at the South Pole.

TV show aired on September 6, 2007 Man Made National Geographic Channel with an episode about the construction of a new building here.

November 9, 2007 program Today NBC, with co-writer Ann Curry, reported via satellite phone, which was broadcast on live from the South Pole.

On Christmas Day 2007, two base employees got into a drunken fight and were evacuated.

In popular culture

The station has featured prominently in a number of science fiction television series, including the film The X-Files: Fight for the Future.

Station at the South Pole called Snowcap Base was the site of the first Cybermen invasion of Earth in the 1966 series Doctor Who The Tenth Planet.

In film White mist(2009) takes place at Amundsen-Scott Station, although the buildings in the film are completely different from the real ones.

Time zone

At the South Pole, sunset and sunrise are theoretically visible only once a year, at the autumn and spring equinoxes respectively, but due to atmospheric refraction, the sun remains above the horizon for more than four days each time. There is no solar time here; there is no daily maximum or minimum height of the sun above the horizon. The station uses New Zealand time (GMT +12 hours or +13 hours in summer time) as all flights to McMurdo Station originate from Christchurch and therefore all official travel from the poles passes through New Zealand.

The discovery of the South Pole - a centuries-old dream of polar explorers - at its final stage in the summer of 1912 took on the character of an intense competition between the expeditions of two countries - Norway and Great Britain. For the first it ended in triumph, for others - in tragedy. But, despite this, Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott, who led them, forever went down in the history of the exploration of the sixth continent.

The first explorers of the southern polar latitudes

The conquest of the South Pole began back in those years when people only vaguely realized that somewhere on the edge of the Southern Hemisphere there should be land. The first of the navigators who managed to approach it was sailing in the South Atlantic and in 1501 reached the fiftieth latitude.

This was the era when accomplishments Briefly describing his stay in these previously inaccessible latitudes (Vespucci was not only a navigator, but also a scientist), he continued his journey to the shores of a new, recently discovered continent - America - which today bears his name.

A systematic exploration of the southern latitudes in the hope of finding an unknown land was undertaken almost three centuries later by the famous Englishman James Cook. He managed to get even closer to it, reaching the seventy-second parallel, but his further advance to the south was prevented by Antarctic icebergs and floating ice.

Discovery of the sixth continent

Antarctica, the South Pole, and most importantly - the right to be called the discoverer and pioneer of ice-bound lands and the fame associated with this circumstance haunted many. Throughout the 19th century there were continuous attempts to conquer the sixth continent. Our navigators Mikhail Lazarev and Thaddeus Bellingshausen, who were sent by the Russian Geographical Society, the Englishman Clark Ross, who reached the seventy-eighth parallel, as well as a number of German, French and Swedish researchers took part in them. These enterprises were crowned with success only at the end of the century, when the Australian Johann Bull had the honor of being the first to set foot on the shores of the hitherto unknown Antarctica.

From that moment on, not only scientists, but also whalers, for whom the cold seas represented a wide fishing area, rushed to the Antarctic waters. Year after year, the coast was developed, the first research stations appeared, but the South Pole (its mathematical point) still remained out of reach. In this context, the question arose with extraordinary urgency: who will be able to get ahead of the competition and whose national flag will be the first to fly at the southern tip of the planet?

Race to the South Pole

At the beginning of the 20th century, attempts were made repeatedly to conquer this inaccessible corner of the Earth, and each time the polar explorers managed to get closer to it. The climax came in October 1911, when the ships of two expeditions at once - the British, led by Robert Falcon Scott, and the Norwegian, led by Roald Amundsen (the South Pole was an old and cherished dream for him), almost simultaneously headed for the shores of Antarctica. They were separated only by a few hundred miles.

It is curious that at first the Norwegian expedition did not intend to storm the South Pole. Amundsen and his crew were heading to the Arctic. It was the northern tip of the Earth that was in the plans of the ambitious navigator. However, on the way, he received a message that he had already submitted to the Americans - Cook and Peary. Not wanting to lose his prestige, Amundsen abruptly changed course and turned south. Thus, he challenged the British, and they could not help but stand up for the honor of their nation.

His rival Robert Scott, before committing himself research activities, long time served as an officer in Her Majesty's Navy and gained sufficient experience in command of battleships and cruisers. After retiring, he spent two years on the coast of Antarctica, taking part in the work of a scientific station. They even made an attempt to break through to the Pole, but having advanced a very significant distance in three months, Scott was forced to turn back.

On the eve of the decisive assault

The teams had different tactics for achieving the goal in the unique Amundsen-Scott race. Main vehicle The British were Manchurian horses. Short and hardy, they were perfectly suited to the conditions of polar latitudes. But, besides them, travelers also had at their disposal the traditional dog sleds in such cases and even a completely new product of those years - motor sleighs. The Norwegians relied in everything on the proven northern huskies, who had to pull four sledges, heavily loaded with equipment, throughout the entire journey.

Both faced a journey of eight hundred miles each way, and the same amount back (if they survived, of course). Ahead of them awaited glaciers, cut by bottomless cracks, terrible frosts, accompanied by blizzards and blizzards and completely excluding visibility, as well as frostbite, injuries, hunger and all kinds of deprivation inevitable in such cases. The reward for one of the teams was supposed to be the glory of discoverers and the right to hoist the flag of their power on the pole. Neither the Norwegians nor the British doubted that the game was worth the candle.

If he was more skillful and experienced in navigation, then Amundsen was clearly superior to him as an experienced polar explorer. The decisive transition to the pole was preceded by wintering on the Antarctic continent, and the Norwegian managed to choose much more for it. appropriate place than its British counterpart. Firstly, their camp was located almost a hundred miles closer to the end point of the journey than the British, and secondly, Amundsen laid out the route from there to the Pole in such a way that he managed to bypass areas where the most severe frosts raged at this time of year and incessant snowstorms and blizzards.

Triumph and defeat

The Norwegian detachment managed to complete the entire intended journey and return to the base camp, meeting it during the short Antarctic summer. One can only admire the professionalism and brilliance with which Amundsen led his group, following with incredible accuracy the schedule he himself had drawn up. Among the people who trusted him, there were not only no deaths, but even no serious injuries.

A completely different fate awaited Scott's expedition. Before the most difficult part of the journey, when there were one hundred and fifty miles left to the goal, the last members of the auxiliary group turned back, and the five English explorers themselves harnessed themselves to the heavy sledges. By this time, all the horses had died, the motor sleds were out of order, and the dogs were simply eaten by the polar explorers themselves - they had to take extreme measures to survive.

Finally, on January 17, 1912, as a result of incredible efforts, they reached the mathematical point of the South Pole, but terrible disappointment awaited them there. Everything around bore traces of the rivals who had been here before them. The imprints of sledge runners and dog paws could be seen in the snow, but the most convincing evidence of their defeat was the tent left between the ice, above which the Norwegian flag fluttered. Alas, they missed the discovery of the South Pole.

Scott left notes in his diary about the shock that the members of his group experienced. The terrible disappointment left the British in complete shock. They all spent the next night without sleep. They were burdened by the thought of how they would look into the eyes of those people who, for hundreds of miles along the ice continent, freezing and falling into cracks, helped them reach the last section of the path and undertake a decisive, but unsuccessful assault.

Catastrophe

However, no matter what, we had to gather our strength and return. Eight hundred miles of return lay between life and death. Moving from one intermediate camp with fuel and food to another, the polar explorers catastrophically lost strength. Their situation became more and more hopeless every day. A few days later, death visited the camp for the first time - the youngest of them and seemingly physically strong, Edgar Evans, died. His body was buried in the snow and covered with heavy ice floes.

The next victim was Lawrence Oates, a dragoon captain who went to the Pole, driven by a thirst for adventure. The circumstances of his death are very remarkable - having frozen his hands and feet and realizing that he was becoming a burden to his comrades, he secretly left his accommodation at night and went into impenetrable darkness, voluntarily dooming himself to death. His body was never found.

There were only eleven miles left to the nearest intermediate camp when a snowstorm suddenly arose, completely excluding the possibility of further advance. Three Englishmen found themselves captive in ice, cut off from the rest of the world, deprived of food and any opportunity to warm themselves.

The tent they pitched, of course, could not serve as any reliable shelter. The air temperature outside dropped to -40 o C, respectively, inside, in the absence of a heater, it was not much higher. This insidious March blizzard never released them from its embrace...

Posthumous lines

Six months later, when the tragic outcome of the expedition became obvious, a rescue group was sent to search for polar explorers. Among the impassable ice, she managed to discover a snow-covered tent with the bodies of three British explorers - Henry Bowers, Edward Wilson and their commander Robert Scott.

Among the belongings of the victims, Scott's diaries were found, and, what amazed the rescuers, bags of geological samples collected on the slopes of rocks protruding from the glacier. Incredibly, the three Englishmen stubbornly continued to drag these stones even when there was practically no hope of salvation.

In his notes, Robert Scott, having detailed and analyzed the reasons that led to the tragic outcome, highly appreciated the moral and strong-willed qualities of the comrades who accompanied him. In conclusion, addressing those into whose hands the diary would fall, he asked to do everything so that his relatives would not be left to the mercy of fate. Having dedicated several farewell lines to his wife, Scott bequeathed to her to ensure that their son received an appropriate education and was able to continue his research activities.

By the way, in the future his son Peter Scott became a famous ecologist who devoted his life to protecting the planet’s natural resources. Born shortly before the day when his father set off on the last expedition of his life, he lived to a ripe old age and died in 1989.

caused by tragedy

Continuing the story, it should be noted that the competition between two expeditions, the result of which for one was the discovery of the South Pole, and for the other - death, had very unexpected consequences. When the celebrations on the occasion of this undoubtedly important geographical discovery, the congratulatory speeches fell silent and the applause ended, the question arose about the moral side of what happened. There was no doubt that indirectly the cause of the death of the British was the deep depression caused by Amundsen's victory.

Direct accusations against the recently honored winner appeared not only in the British, but also in the Norwegian press. A completely reasonable question was raised: did Roald Amundsen, experienced and very experienced in exploring extreme latitudes, have the moral right to involve the ambitious, but lacking the necessary skills, Scott and his comrades in the competitive process? Wouldn't it be more correct to invite him to unite and implement his plans with common efforts?

Amundsen's riddle

How Amundsen reacted to this and whether he blamed himself for unwittingly causing the death of his British colleague is a question that remains forever unanswered. True, many of those who knew the Norwegian explorer closely claimed that they saw clear signs of his mental turmoil. In particular, evidence of this could be his attempts at public justification, which were completely out of character for his proud and somewhat arrogant nature.

Some biographers are inclined to see evidence of unforgiven guilt in the circumstances of Amundsen's own death. It is known that in the summer of 1928 he went on an Arctic flight, which promised him certain death. The suspicion that he foresaw his own death in advance is aroused by the preparation he made. Not only did Amundsen put all his affairs in order and pay off his creditors, he also sold off all his property, as if he had no intention of returning.

The sixth continent today

One way or another, he discovered the South Pole, and no one will take this honor away from him. Today, large-scale scientific research is being conducted at the southern tip of the Earth. In the very place where triumph once awaited the Norwegians, and the greatest disappointment for the British, today there is the Amundsen-Scott international polar station. Its name invisibly unites these two intrepid conquerors of extreme latitudes. Thanks to them, the South Pole on the globe is perceived today as something familiar and quite within reach.

In December 1959, an international treaty on Antarctica was concluded, initially signed by twelve states. According to this document, any country has the right to conduct scientific research throughout the continent south of the sixtieth latitude.

Thanks to this, today numerous research stations in Antarctica are developing the most advanced scientific programs. Today there are more than fifty of them. Scientists have at their disposal not only ground-based means of monitoring environment, but also aviation and even satellites. The Russian Geographical Society also has its representatives on the sixth continent. Among the operating stations there are veterans, such as Bellingshausen and Druzhnaya 4, as well as relatively new ones, Russkaya and Progress. Everything suggests that great geographical discoveries do not stop today.

A brief history of how brave Norwegian and British travelers, defying danger, strove for their cherished goal, only in general outline can convey all the tension and drama of those events. It is wrong to consider their fight only as a struggle of personal ambitions. Undoubtedly, the primary role in it was played by the thirst for discovery and the desire, built on true patriotism, to establish the prestige of his country.

“Antarctica is a continent in the center of Antarctica, with an area of 13,975 km2, including 1,582 km2 of ice shelves and islands” - this is the meager scientific description of the small white spot at the very bottom of the globe. But what is Antarctica really? This is an icy desert with unbearable conditions for living beings: temperature in winter from −60 to −70°C, in summer −30 to −50°C, strong winds, ice blizzard... In East Antarctica there is the Earth's pole of cold - 89.2° below zero there!

The inhabitants of Antarctica, such as seals, penguins, as well as sparse vegetation, huddle on the coast, where in the summer the Antarctic “heat” sets in - the temperature rises to 1-2°C.

In the center of Antarctica is the South Pole of our planet (the word “southern” will seem like a joke to you if you suddenly find yourself here). Like everything unknown and difficult to reach, the South Pole attracted people, and at the beginning of the 20th century there were two daredevils who dared to reach it. This is Norwegian Roald Amundsen(1872-1928) and Englishman Robert Scott(1868-1912). Just don't think that they went there together. On the contrary, each of them strived to become the first, they were rivals, and this incredibly difficult campaign was a kind of competition between them. For one he brought glory, for another he became the last... But first things first.

It all started with equipment, because the correct calculation when we're talking about about such, as we will now say, extreme travel, it could cost people their lives. An experienced polar explorer, and also a native of a northern country, Roald Amundsen relied on sled dogs. Unpretentious, hardy, covered with thick hair, huskies had to pull sledges with equipment. Amundsen himself and his companions intended to travel on skis.

Motor sleigh of Scott's expedition. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Robert Scott decided to use the achievement scientific progress- a motor sleigh, as well as several teams of shaggy, short ponies.

And so in 1911 the journey began. On January 14, Amundsen's ship Fram reached its final starting point - Whale Bay on the northwestern coast of Antarctica. Here the Norwegians had to replenish supplies and move to the southeast, into the desolation and ice of Antarctic waters. Amundsen sought to enter the Ross Sea, which cuts deeper than others into the continent of Antarctica.

He achieved his goal, but winter began. Going to Antarctica in winter is tantamount to suicide, so Amundsen decided to wait.

In the early Antarctic spring, on October 14, Amundsen and four comrades set off for the Pole. The journey was difficult. 52 huskies pulled a team of four loaded sleds. When the animals were exhausted, they were fed to their more resilient comrades. Amundsen drew up a clear schedule of movement and, surprisingly, almost did not violate it. The rest of the journey was covered on skis, and on December 14, 1912, the Norwegian flag was already flying at the South Pole. The South Pole has been conquered! Ten days later, the travelers returned to base.

Norwegian flag at the South Pole. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Ironically, Robert Scott and his companions set out for the Pole just a few days after Amundsen's return, not knowing that the South Pole had already been conquered. On the way, it became clear how poorly equipped the expedition was. Due to the severe frosts, the engines of the new-fashioned sleighs broke down, horses died, there was a shortage of food... Many of the participants returned to the base, only Scott himself and his four comrades stubbornly continued their journey. The unbearable cold, the icy wind knocking down, the blizzard clouding everything around so that the satellites could not see each other, had to be overcome by brave researchers obsessed with one goal: “To get there first!”

Hungry, frostbitten, and exhausted, the British finally reached the South Pole on January 18. Now imagine what their disappointment was, what a disappointment there was - pain, resentment, the collapse of all hopes when they saw the Norwegian flag in front of them!

Robert Scott. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Broken in spirit, the travelers set off on their way back, but never returned to the base. Without fuel and food, they died one after another. Only eight months later was it possible to find a tent covered with snow, and in it bodies frozen in the ice - all that remained from the English expedition.

Although no, not all. The only witness to the unfolding tragedy was also found - the diary of Robert Scott, which he kept, it seems, until his death. And there remains an example of true courage, an unbending will to win, the ability to overcome obstacles, no matter what.

The meaning of the word AMUNDSEN-SCOTT in the Bolshoi encyclopedic dictionary

AMUNDSEN-SCOTT

(Amundsen-Scott) (Pole)

American inland polar station (since 1957) in the South geographic pole, at an altitude of 2800 m.

Large encyclopedic dictionary. 2012