Orcadas Base is an Argentine base in
Antarctica| style="border-top:solid 1px #ccd2d9; padding:0.4em 1em 0.4em 0; vertical-align:top;" | 14,000,000 km
2 280,000 km
2 13,720,000 km
2 |-! style="border-top: solid 1px #ccd2d9; padding: 0.4em 1em 0.4em 0; vertical-align: top;...
, and the first permanent base in the area defined by the
Antarctic Treaty SystemThe Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ATS, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all land and...
. It is located on
Laurie IslandLaurie Island is an island in the Antarctic Circle, the second largest of the South Orkney Islands. The island is claimed by both Argentina as part of Argentine Antarctica, and the United Kingdom as part of the British Antarctic Territory...
, one of the
South Orkney IslandsThe South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean. The Orkneys have been part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962, and prior to this the islands were a Falkland Islands Dependency...
(Spanish: Islas Orcadas del Sur), at 4 meters above sea level and 170 meters from the coastline. The nearest port is
UshuaiaUshuaia may refer to the following:*Ushuaia, a city in Argentina.**Ushuaia Department, an administrative division**Ushuaia River**Ushuaia International Airport**Colegio Nacional de Ushuaia, National School of Ushuaia....
, which is 1,502 km away. The base has 11 buildings and four main topics of research: continental glaciology, seismology, sea-ice-zone glaciology (since 1985) and meteorological observations (since 1903).
In 1903 Dr
William S. BruceWilliam Speirs Bruce was a London-born Scottish naturalist, polar scientist and oceanographer who organized and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition...
's
Scottish National Antarctic ExpeditionThe Scottish National Antarctic Expedition , 1902–04, was organised and led by William Speirs Bruce, a natural scientist and former medical student from the University of Edinburgh. Bruce had spent most of the 1890s engaged on expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic regions, and by 1899 was...
established
Omond House, a meteorological station on Laurie Island.
Orcadas Base is an Argentine base in
Antarctica| style="border-top:solid 1px #ccd2d9; padding:0.4em 1em 0.4em 0; vertical-align:top;" | 14,000,000 km
2 280,000 km
2 13,720,000 km
2 |-! style="border-top: solid 1px #ccd2d9; padding: 0.4em 1em 0.4em 0; vertical-align: top;...
, and the first permanent base in the area defined by the
Antarctic Treaty SystemThe Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ATS, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all land and...
. It is located on
Laurie IslandLaurie Island is an island in the Antarctic Circle, the second largest of the South Orkney Islands. The island is claimed by both Argentina as part of Argentine Antarctica, and the United Kingdom as part of the British Antarctic Territory...
, one of the
South Orkney IslandsThe South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean. The Orkneys have been part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962, and prior to this the islands were a Falkland Islands Dependency...
(Spanish: Islas Orcadas del Sur), at 4 meters above sea level and 170 meters from the coastline. The nearest port is
UshuaiaUshuaia may refer to the following:*Ushuaia, a city in Argentina.**Ushuaia Department, an administrative division**Ushuaia River**Ushuaia International Airport**Colegio Nacional de Ushuaia, National School of Ushuaia....
, which is 1,502 km away. The base has 11 buildings and four main topics of research: continental glaciology, seismology, sea-ice-zone glaciology (since 1985) and meteorological observations (since 1903).
In 1903 Dr
William S. BruceWilliam Speirs Bruce was a London-born Scottish naturalist, polar scientist and oceanographer who organized and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition...
's
Scottish National Antarctic ExpeditionThe Scottish National Antarctic Expedition , 1902–04, was organised and led by William Speirs Bruce, a natural scientist and former medical student from the University of Edinburgh. Bruce had spent most of the 1890s engaged on expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic regions, and by 1899 was...
established
Omond House, a meteorological station on Laurie Island. During the expedition, however, the crew became stuck in the ice and, unable to sail off, were trapped in the station for the winter.
Bruce left the station in December of that year for
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
to fix the ship, leaving a few men to continue keeping observations.
Since February 22 1904, Argentina has kept a permanently populated base there, one of six Argentine permanent bases in Argentina's
claim to AntarcticaArgentine Antarctica is a sector of Antarctica claimed by Argentina as part of its national territory. The Argentine Antarctic region, consisting of the Antarctic Peninsula and a triangular section extending to the South Pole, is delimited by the 25° West and 74° West meridians and the 60° South...
, and the first permanently inhabited base in Antarctica.
Orcadas was the only base on the islands for 40 years until the British established a small summer base. It also had the first radiotelegraph in the continent (in 1927). The 11 buildings of the base house up to 45 people during the summer, and an average of 14 during winter.
External links