Marble Point Explained

Marble Point
Settlement Type:Antarctic base
Flag Size:110px
Flag Border:no
Mapsize:270px
Pushpin Map:Antarctica
Pushpin Map Alt:Location of Marble Point in Antarctica
Pushpin Map Caption:Location of Marble Point Station in Antarctica
Pushpin Mapsize:270
Pushpin Relief:yes
Coordinates:-77.4333°N 163.8333°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:Location in Antarctica
Subdivision Name1:Marble Point
Antarctica
Subdivision Type3:Administered by
Subdivision Name3:United States Antarctic Program
Established Title:Established
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:Facilities
Marble Point Heliport
Icao:GC0079
Type:Private
Location:Marble Point
Victoria Land
Coordinates:-77.4131°N 163.6789°W
Pushpin Map:Antarctica
Pushpin Mapsize:270
Pushpin Map Caption:Location of airfield in Antarctica
R1-Surface:Gravel
Footnotes:[1]

Marble Point is a rocky promontory on the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica. The United States operates a station at the point. The outpost is used as a helicopter refueling station supporting scientific research in the nearby continental interior, such as the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Dependent upon the weather conditions at the time, helicopters are able to fly in and out of the station 24 hours a day during the summer research season.[2]

The station's remote location and adjoining frozen sea have largely discouraged tourism in the area. However, the Russian icebreaker conducts cruises in the Ross Sea and McMurdo Sound. In 1993, the icebreaker docked at fast ice offshore Marble Point. Tourists aboard helicopters launched from the icebreaker flew excursions into the McMurdo Dry Valleys.[3]

History

The way station at Marble Point is located on a narrow strip of land between Wilson Piedmont Glacier and the sea, about 50abbr=onNaNabbr=on from McMurdo Station. United States military forces built the camp on the western shores of McMurdo Sound in 1956 in conjunction with the forthcoming 1957–58 International Geophysical Year (IGY).

Preparation for IGY included constructing a hard-surface air strip at Marble Point. A VX-6 Otter airplane made Antarctica’s first wheels-on-dirt landing at Marble Point in 1957.[4] Aboard were U.S. Navy Admiral Dufeck and New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hillary.[5] A de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter aircraft crashed on take off at Marble Point, on January 04, 1959, taking the lives of two men. The plane was part of Operation Deep Freeze IV.

Contemporary Marble Point is staffed during the austral summer by a station manager, cook, and a "fuelie," a person who fuels helicopters (typically AStar and Bell 212's contracted by the United States Antarctic Program and Antarctica New Zealand, owned and operated by Petroleum Helicopters International). Hot meals and minimal overnight accommodations for 14 are available for pilots and personnel traveling to and from inland research operations.

Personnel rely upon melted snow for potable water. A bulldozer is used to scoop snow from nearby Wilson Piedmont Glacier. The snow is dumped into a hopper for melting and subsequent filtration.[6] Other facilities at the station include an automated weather station.

United States Antarctic Program workers conducted a concerted cleanup at the station during the 1989–1990 and 1990–1991 summer research seasons.[7] Fuel spills are known to have occurred in the area. As late as 2001, spills more than 40 years old were still visible.[8] Contemporary operations include the collection of human waste at the station, which is collected and transported to McMurdo Station.

Re-supply

Each austral summer, a United States Coast Guard icebreaker busts a ship channel to Marble Point in order to deliver helicopter fuel. The ship usually can reach within about NaNabbr=onNaNabbr=on from the beach. Fuel is then pumped ashore. Formerly, personnel pumped the aviation fuel into 20,000 gallon bladders for storage. However, the fuel bladders were replaced with steel tanks.[7] Contaminated soil is present at Marble Point from fuel spills which occurred between 1957 and 1963.[9]

Support personnel re-supply the camp annually via a convoy of over-the-ice vehicles from McMurdo Station. Drivers maneuver 15-ton Delta cargo vehicles equipped with large balloon-type tires over a more than 50-mile ice road. Alternatively, vehicles towing snow sleds are used to transport cargo. Drivers also deliver food, construction equipment, and scientific equipment that is staged at Marble Point for subsequent airlift to field camps.

Flags placed approximately every quarter mile mark much of the ice road to Marble Point. Drivers carry global positioning devices as navigational aids during the seven-hour journey. Waste materials (including human waste) from Marble Point and garbage dropped off from inland research stations are back-loaded to McMurdo Station for disposal.[10] The supply season runs from mid-October to late November or early December.

See also

External links

-77.4333°N 213°W

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Marble point . Great Circle Mapper . August 13, 2018.
  2. http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/oldissues99-2000/99_1128/marblepoint.html "Gas, food and lodging: Marble Point serves up warmth and good cheer"
  3. http://www.quarkexpeditions.com/qf/index.shtml First Ever Voyages for Expedition Travel
  4. Web site: VXE6history . 2022-11-26 . www.vaq34.com.
  5. Web site: NOAA Photo Library/NOAA Corps Collection/Antarctica/Historical/corp2834 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20061004030559/http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/corps/corp2834.htm . Oct 4, 2006.
  6. Web site: Marble Point . 2022-11-26 . davecarpenter.tripod.com.
  7. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/stis1992/opp93081/opp93081.txt "Storage Tanks–Marble Point,"
  8. Web site: Relations (unipr@waikato.ac.nz) . Communications and External . 2001-10-08 . Antarctic research jigsaw piece in global puzzle: University of Waikato . 2022-11-26 . www.waikato.ac.nz . en-NZ.
  9. https://web.archive.org/web/20060930153924/http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/international/IDP_NV/Issue20.html "Impact of fuel spills on Antarctica soils"
  10. http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/oldissues2000-2001/2000_1105/truckin.html "Truckin’ on thick ice"