González Videla Antarctic Base Explained

Videla Station
Official Name:González Videla Station
Settlement Type:Antarctic base
Flag Size:110px
Flag Border:no
Mapsize:350px
Pushpin Map:Antarctica
Pushpin Map Alt:Location of Videla Station in Antarctica
Pushpin Map Caption:Location of Videla Station in Antarctica
Pushpin Mapsize:300
Pushpin Relief:yes
Coordinates:-64.824°N -62.8571°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:
Subdivision Type1:Location in Antarctica
Subdivision Name1:Waterboat Point
Graham Land
Subdivision Type3:Administered by
Subdivision Name3:Instituto Antártico Chileno
Established Title:Established
Named For:Gabriel González Videla
Elevation M:6
Population As Of:2017
Population Footnotes:[1]
Population Blank1 Title:Summer
Population Blank1:15
Population Blank2 Title:Winter
Population Blank2:0
Blank Name Sec1:Type
Blank Info Sec1:Seasonal
Blank1 Name Sec1:Period
Blank1 Info Sec1:Summer
Blank2 Name Sec1:Status
Blank2 Info Sec1:Operational
Blank Name Sec2:Activities
Website:Chilean Antarctic Institute

González Videla Base is an inactive research station on the Antarctic mainland at Waterboat Point in Paradise Bay. It is named after Chilean President Gabriel González Videla, who in the 1940s became the first chief of state of any nation to visit Antarctica. The station was active from 1951–58, and was reopened briefly in the early 1980s. Occasional summer visits are made by Chilean parties and tourists.

On the north edge of the station there is a sign identifying Waterboat Point as an official historic site under the Antarctic Treaty.

This was the place where the smallest ever wintering-over party (two men) spent a year and a day in 1921-1922. The two men, Thomas Bagshawe and M.C. Lester, had been part of the British Imperial Expedition, but their particular project, which involved flying a number of aircraft to the South Pole, was aborted. Nevertheless, they decided to stay over for the winter and made their shelter in an old whaling boat they found on this site. Their time was not wasted, however, because Bagshawe wrote the first scientific study of penguin breeding development. Today the gentoo penguins, probably descendants of the ones he studied, nest in the ruins of the whaleboat shelter.

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Notes and References

  1. catalogue . Antarctic Station Catalogue . August 2017 . . 978-0-473-40409-3 . 47 . 16 January 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221022102847/https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61073506e9b0073c7eaaf464/t/611497cc1ece1b43f0eeca8a/1628739608968/COMNAP_Antarctic_Station_Catalogue.pdf . 22 October 2022 . live.