An iceport is a more-or-less permanent indentation in the front of an ice shelf, that can serve as a natural ice harbor. Though useful, they are not always reliable, as calving of surrounding ice shelves can render an iceport temporarily unstable and unusable.
Iceports have played a critical role in Antarctic exploration. For example, the Bay of Whales (discovered and named by Ernest Shackleton in the Nimrod in 1908) served as the base for several important Antarctic expeditions, including:
Norsel Iceport was used by the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition (NBSAE) to moor and unload the expedition ship Norsel in 1949. The NBSAE established Maudheim Station about 1 mile south of the iceport.
The term iceport was first suggested by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in 1956 to denote "ice shelf embayments, subject to configuration changes, which may offer anchorage or possible access to the upper surface of an ice shelf via ice ramps along one or more sides of the feature". [1]
Prior to the invention of the ice pier, U.S. ships participating in Operation Deep Freeze discharged cargo at temporary iceports in McMurdo Sound. At that time, freighters and tankers arriving with supplies and fuel were forced to dock as far away as 16 km from the harbor. Ships would moor alongside seasonal pack ice, where longshoremen would offload cargo onto large sleds. Snowcats and tractors would then be used to tow the freight over ice to McMurdo Station, a difficult and potentially dangerous operation.
U.S. Navy engineers constructed the first floating ice pier at McMurdo Station, Antarctica’s southernmost sea port, in 1973. [2] [3] Since that time, the use of iceports has declined but not been completely eliminated.
Iceports in Antarctica include:
Transport in Antarctica has transformed from explorers crossing the isolated remote area of Antarctica by foot to a more open era due to human technologies enabling more convenient and faster transport, predominantly by air and water, as well as land. Transportation technologies on a remote area like Antarctica need to be able to deal with extremely low temperatures and continuous winds to ensure the travelers' safety. Due to the fragility of the Antarctic environment, only a limited amount of transport movements can take place and sustainable transportation technologies have to be used to reduce the ecological footprint. The infrastructure of land, water and air transport needs to be safe and sustainable. Currently thousands of tourists and hundreds of scientists a year depend on the Antarctic transportation system.
The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
The McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand–claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as one of three United States Antarctic science facilities. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo. By road, McMurdo is 3 kilometres from New Zealand's smaller Scott Base.
The Transantarctic Mountains comprise a mountain range of uplifted rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land. These mountains divide East Antarctica and West Antarctica. They include a number of separately named mountain groups, which are often again subdivided into smaller ranges.
McMurdo Sound and its ice-clogged waters extends about 55 kilometres (34 mi) long and wide. The sound connects the Ross Sea to the north with the Ross Ice Shelf cavity to the south via Haskell Strait. The strait is largely covered by the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The Royal Society Range rises from sea level to 4,205 metres (13,796 ft) on the western shoreline. Ross Island, an historic jumping-off point for polar explorers, designates the eastern boundary. The active volcano Mount Erebus at 3,794 metres (12,448 ft) dominates Ross Island. Antarctica's largest scientific base, the United States' McMurdo Station, as well as the New Zealand Scott Base are on the southern shore of the island. Less than 10 percent of McMurdo Sound's shoreline is free of ice. It is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world.
Marie Byrd Land is the portion of West Antarctica lying east of the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and south of the Pacific Ocean, extending eastward approximately to a line between the head of the Ross Ice Shelf and Eights Coast. It stretches between 158°W and 103°24'W. The inclusion of the area between the Rockefeller Plateau and Eights Coast is based upon the leading role of the American Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd in the exploration of this area. The name was originally applied by Admiral Byrd in 1929, in honor of his wife, to the northwestern part of the area, the part that was explored in that year.
The Bay of Whales was a natural ice harbor, or iceport, indenting the front of Ross Ice Shelf just north of Roosevelt Island, Antarctica. It is the southernmost point of open ocean not only of the Ross Sea, but worldwide. The Ross Sea extends much further south—as far as the Gould Coast, some 200 miles (320 km) from the South Pole—but most of that area is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf rather than open sea.
Leverett Glacier in Antarctica is about 50 nautical miles (90 km) long and 3 to 4 nautical miles wide, draining northward from the Watson Escarpment, between California Plateau and Stanford Plateau, and then trending west-northwest between the Tapley Mountains and Harold Byrd Mountains to terminate at the head of the Ross Ice Shelf close east of Scott Glacier. It was discovered in December 1929 by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition geological party under Laurence Gould, and named by him for Frank Leverett, an eminent geologist at the University of Michigan and an authority on the glacial geology of the central United States.
The United States Antarctic Program is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the continent of Antarctica. Founded in 1959, the USAP manages all U.S. scientific research and related logistics in Antarctica as well as aboard ships in the Southern Ocean.
The Usarp Mountains is a major Antarctic mountain range, lying westward of the Rennick Glacier and trending N-S for about 190 kilometres (118 mi). The feature is bounded to the north by Pryor Glacier and the Wilson Hills. Its important constituent parts include Welcome Mountain, Mount Van der Hoeven, Mount Weihaupt, Mount Stuart, Mount Lorius, Smith Bench, Mount Roberts, Pomerantz Tableland, Daniels Range, Emlen Peaks, Helliwell Hills and Morozumi Range.
The Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1949–1952) was the first Antarctica expedition involving an international team of scientists. The team members came from Norway, Sweden and the British Commonwealth of Nations.
An ice pier is a man-made structure used to assist the unloading of ships in Antarctica. It is constructed by pumping seawater into a contained area and allowing the water to freeze. By repeating this procedure several times, additional layers are built up. The final structure is many metres in thickness, and strong enough to support container trucks. Operation Deep Freeze personnel constructed the first floating ice pier at Antarctica’s southernmost sea port at McMurdo Station in 1973. Ice piers have been in use each summer season since, at McMurdo's natural harbor at Winter Quarters Bay located at 77°50′S166°40′E. The harbor is positioned on the southern tip of Ross Island.
Atka Iceport, also known as Atka Bay, is an iceport about 10 miles (16 km) long and wide, marking a more-or-less permanent indentation in the front of the Ekstrom Ice Shelf on the coast of Queen Maud Land.
Quar Ice Shelf is the ice shelf between Cape Norvegia and Sorasen Ridge along the coast of Queen Maud Land.
Erskine Iceport, also known as Erskine Bay or General Erskine Bay, is an iceport about 3 nautical miles (6 km) wide and 6 nautical miles (11 km) long, which marks a more-or-less permanent indentation extending southeast into the seaward front of the extensive ice shelf fringing Queen Maud Land.
Norsel Iceport, also known as Norselbukta or Bukhta Nursel, is a small iceport in the front of the Quar Ice Shelf, along the coast of Queen Maud Land.
Godel Iceport is an iceport about 5 nautical miles (9 km) wide, which marks a more-or-less permanent indentation in the seaward front of the extensive ice shelf fringing the coast of Queen Maud Land.
Brockton Station was an American research (weather) station in Antarctica. It was built by the Seabees and operated by the US Navy during the summer months from October 1965 to February 1972. The station was located 300 miles southeast of McMurdo Station, near the center of the Ross Ice Shelf.
MV Norsel was a Norwegian sealing ship home ported in Tromsø. Launched during the final weeks of the Second World War as Lyngdalsfjord and only completed in late 1949, the ship sailed in both Arctic and Antarctic waters for more than 53 years until shipwrecking off the coast of Norway in 1992.
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