The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica

Features—Life on the Ice

A last glimpse of the sun from the South Pole Station before it set on March 23 at 2:31 AM for the next six months.

Good Night

The sun set at the South Pole Station on March 23 at 2:31 a.m. for the next six months. It will return on Sept. 21, 2013. The 44 winter-overs will conduct science and maintain the station facilities during the dark winter months when the temperatures can drop below minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Up, Up and Away
It took an extra four days, but McMurdo Station closed the doors on the 2012-13 summer field season on March 9, 2013 when a New Zealand Royal Air Force B-757 departed with 62 passengers, leaving 143 people to winter-over at the U.S. Antarctic Program's largest research station.

Tip of the Tongue
A large iceberg broke off from the Erebus Ice Tongue at the end of February. The iceberg is currently floating in McMurdo Sound where the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station is located on Ross Island.

Tragedy in Antarctica
The Antarctic community mourned the loss of three men who were killed when their de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter crashed in the Transantarctic Mountains last week. A memorial service at the South Pole Station was one of several acts of remembrance that took place.

Return to Tradition
As tradition dictates, on New Year's Day the geographic South Pole marker was moved to its freshly surveyed position, and the new brass-and-copper plaque that tops the marker was revealed.

Good Night

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