Deserted Places: Antarctica

Showing posts with label Antarctica. Show all posts

Thursday, January 19, 2017

The remains of Pegasus in Antarctica

The eerie picture of a huge plane half buried by snow in Antarctica is what remains from Pegasus, a Lockheed C-121J Super Constellation, operated by U.S. Navy that crash-landed on October 8th, 1970. Pegasus was on a flight from Christchurch, New Zealand to McMurdo Station, the largest research station of Antarctica with a population of over 1,200 people during summer months. McMurdo is operated by the United States and built on land claimed by New Zealand. Non of the 80 people on board the plane were hurt.

While weather predictions were favorable when Pegasus departed Christchurch, by the time it arrived to Antarctica, visibility had deteriorated to zero as blowing snow made the white ice runway invisible. On the second attempt to land, the right main landing gear hit a snow bank and separated. Then the right wing broke off, with the airplane sliding through the snow.

Pegasus was abandoned where it landed as it would have been impossible to be repaired on site. After the accident, the airstrip was named Pegasus Field after the C-121 that crashed nearby. Pegasus Field closed down after the last flight departed on December 8, 2016. In early 2017, it was replaced by a new airstrip serving McMurdo Station, Phoenix Airfield.

Source

SEE ALSO: More abandoned airplanes and airports around the world // More abandoned places in Antarctica // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
For more deserted places, LIKE US on Facebook and FOLLOW US on twitter

(Click here for the full post)

Mike Willis/panoramio.com

Ben Bachelder/flickr.com

sandwich/flickr.com

Ben Bachelder/flickr.com

jeffreydonenfeld.com

Click here for the full post »

Thursday, October 22, 2015

A sunken yacht in Antarctica

From April 7th, 2012 and for about a year, the Brazilian research vessel Mar Sem Fim ("Endless Sea") could be seen under the freezing shallow waters of Maxwell Bay in Antarctica.

It all started when the 76-ft boat, owned by Brazilian journalist João Lara Mesquita, struck the ice while carrying a crew of four researchers filming a documentary. As the ship began to sink, the crew was rescued by Chilean Navy. For the next months, the ship could be seen from the surface, under 9 meters (30 feet) of water.

A year later, the owner João Lara Mesquita returned to the site to save the ship. The vessel was surfaced using inflated buoys and was then towed back to the shore. After a year covered in sea water, Mar Sem Fim was deemed beyond repair.

For more deserted places, LIKE US on Facebook and FOLLOW US on twitter

(Click here for the full post)

ruschili.35photo.ru

sometimes-interesting.com

Click here for the full post »

Monday, November 3, 2014

The ruins of Deception island

View on Google Maps

The Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula. The island is the caldera of an active volcano with its waters being warmer than those in the surrounding area while its horseshoe shape provides a great shelter for ships.

For these reasons, in 1912 the Hektor Whaling Company was issued with a license to establish a shore-based whaling station, one of the many that were popping up in Antarctica. Whale oil was on high demand as it was used in oil lamps and to make soap and margarine. Approximately 150 people worked at the station during the austral summer, jamming whale carcasses into huge iron boilers to extract over 140,000 barrels of whale oil.

With the discovery of substitutes for whale oil such as kerosene and vegetable oils, the use of whale oils declined. Whale oil prices dropped during the Great Depression of the 1920s, and the factory operations were abandoned by 1931. Everything was left untouched on the island for a decade until a British warship destroyed the oil tanks and some remaining supplies in order to ensure it could not be used as a German supply base. The British finally establish a scientific base in 1944 but they had to abandon it by 1969 due to volcanic activity.

Today, the island is a tourist destination and there are 2 summer only scientific stations, an Argentinian and a Spanish. A lot of ruins and abandoned facilities from the sealing and scientific stations of the past can still be found on the island.

Source