The German Research Station

from the Ray I. Doan Photographic Collection

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The 'Neumayer' German Research Station in Antarctica

There was a German Research Station near the first Emperor Penguin rookery we visited. If you wanted to go they would fly us over for a visit with the helicopters. I wasn't sure I wanted to take the time away from Emperor Penguin photography but I decided to go anyway and I found it very interesting.

The Station was amazingly elaborate but when you were inside the working/living quarters it seemed just like a modern office complex you might find anywhere. The station was 12 years old, at the time I visited, and it was designed for a 15 year life. It was built of large, half round Quonset hut type structures. It was built on top of the ice but when I visited it was completely under the ice. I was told this came about as a combination of melting into the ice and being covered with snow.

The ice the station was built on was 600 feet thick and it was floating over water 600 feet deep. This ice was moving out to sea at a rate of 150 to 300 feet per year. There was a long ramp of ice that allowed access down into the station. Inside the outer shell there were the insulated working/living units that were much like manufactured homes. These units had air space all around them. Each of the four wings was used for different purposes had a different setup.

One wing seemed to be mainly for the storage of equipment, Snow Cats being the principle big items. Another wing had trash storage units the size of 18 wheel trailers and huge fuel storage containers for diesel fuel. All the trash was compacted and hauled out by the supply ship at the end of the year. One wing had the living and working areas. The fourth wing had, to my amazement, two huge air conditioning/refrigeration units the size of 18 wheel trailers. It seemed quite improbable to me that you would need air conditioning in Antarctica where your entire environment is ice.

I learned that the purpose of the refrigeration units was to keep the inside of the structures below freezing. This was to reduce the melting and sinking into the ice that would much reduce the life of the station.

There were nine men at the station who had been there almost a year doing weather and earthquake research. Several years before they had a nine woman crew. They have never had a mixed crew of men and women.

Their earthquake research is mainly the operation of a seismograph that can be used as one point in the triangulation to determine the epicenter of an earthquake. The weather research consists of recording daily Antarctic weather and research on the Ozone hole. Every crew member wares a UV dosimeter whenever he goes outdoors and they keep careful track of their total UV exposure over the course of the year they spend at the station.

The day we visited was a beautiful clear day without a cloud in the sky. They told us not to think of that kind of weather as normal. They said they'd had total white outs for the previous nine days before our arrival.

When we visited their once a year supply ship, with a new crew, was due within a few weeks. They have to haul in all of the new supplies over the ice with the snow cats. Their Ice Breaker gets as close as it can but it doesn't break any 600 ft. thick ice. They have never evacuated a man during his year stay and they thought it would not be possible to get anyone in or out during the winter.

Their staff included a doctor who also doubled as the dentist. They said that dental problems seemed to be the biggest health problems on the station. They had a very complete medical facility which our staff in fact used. Our ship's doctor came over with the fellow who had broken his leg during the Drake Crossing passage. Our ship had X-ray equipment, but for some reason it wasn't functioning, so they X-rayed him at the German Research Station.

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This page was last updated: March 15, 2008