Images of

ANTARCTICA

The Dome

Photos © 2004 Seth White

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When I stepped off the plane after landing at Pole, the very first thing that I noticed was the dome. Not the sophisticated (and impressive) new station, not the blast of cold dry air, not the noise of the LC-130 propellers, but the dome. After all, it's probably the most recognizeable and unique structure in Antarctica. This is what people associate with the South Pole, and I'm no exception. It's been the main station building since 1975, when it replaced the "old pole" station built in 1956. So here it is, as seen from the top of the Skylab building.

Another shot with my "wide angle" lens. When I bought my Canon G3 during Winfly 2003 at McMurdo, I obviously had to buy it mail order. So I found a place, called them up, and bought it. I also wanted wide angle and telephoto lenses, so I got a pair of those at a pretty good price. When the package arrived, however, I was pretty disappointed in the lenses. What they sold me were some knock-off lenses instead of the actual Canon lenses designed for use with this camera. I got kind of a weird feeling from the fast-talking sales guy (in NYC) on the line, but I figured a wide angle lens for the G3 is a wide angle lens for the G3, right? Wrong. This "wide angle" lens does indeed give you a wider field of view, but the combination of the lens and barrel adapter actually limit the field of view since they cut off the corners. So after you zoom in a little bit to get the corners of the rectangular display illuminated, you end up with just about the same field of view as the stock camera itself. Kind of defeats the purpose, you know? I have since seen the actual Canon lenses and they are much better...guess I'll have to cough up the $ for those sometime. Anyhow, here is the entire dome, with the corners cut off, from the top of Skylab again.

Here is a view of the dome and Skylab, with the new station in the background. Skylab is an interesting and unique building in its own right. It has 4 floors, three of which are occupied by scientific labs and one which is a nice lounge. A couple of the science groups that I worked for last year at McMurdo also have instruments in Skylab, and they are also at Pole right now. So I was able to poke around Skylab and will make a little page for it sometime soon.

Another view of the dome and new station, again from the top of Skylab. Sadly, the dome's days are numbered. The new station will house all of the facilities currently there, and eventually, the dome would get covered in snow. The "old pole" station is still here, but is being slowly crushed under 35 feet of snow. The same fate eventually awaits the dome, so they are going to somehow dismantle it and ship it out. There are various ideas on how to preserve it - perhaps even making a museum out of it back in the US, but the hard part is how to take the thing apart and get it off the continent. But even though its ultimate fate is yet to be decided, it's due to be gone by 2006. I really hope it can be 'gently' removed and reconstructed somewhere, but the logistics and costs of moving it will determine what happens to it. We'll see...

2/8/04: By the way, I have since learned that the dome is indeed going to be dismantled "gently" and reconstructed back in the US as a museum. The Old Pole station is, of course, not so fortunate. It, along with Scott's last campsite and his depots, will eventually end up inside an iceberg floating out to sea. The original South Pole station is now located in the dark sector. The ice moves about 10 m per year, but after ~50 years the station is definitely a lot farther than 500 m away from the pole itself. To my eye it looks to be more than 1 km. Al and I were talking about this while he was showing me around the dark sector, and the only conclusion one can draw is that the original station was built a good ways away from the actual pole. Wonder why?

Another view of the dome and Skylab, this time from the other (downwind) side.

Although the snow level has gradually risen over the years, the wind has kept the immediate area around the dome (and Skylab) relatively clear. A little moat exists around each building, and the snow is sculpted around the edges.

This is the backside of the dome again, with a little tube coming up as an emergency exit.

I was walking through the moat surrounding the dome and this caught my eye. On the outside of each joint of the dome, there is this circular piece of aluminum with a piece of carpet underneath. I would guess this is some sort of weatherproofing cover for the (many) fasteners which hold each joint together. Was this a last minute thing?

2/8/04: The other day I got an email from Bill Spindler, who was a 1977 Pole winterover and has a great South Pole site (click on 'links' from my homepage). The carpet, he tells me, was put in at each node to keep the granular snow from leaking into the dome. Evidently it worked well...I love low-tech solutions.

Around the dome the drifts completely isolate you from the rest of the world. Just you and the dome. This picture turned out particularly nice.

This is the other side of the dome, the main entrance. A lot of snow has to be removed at the start of the season to clear an opening to this door after the winter's accumulation. In fact the sound of bulldozers pushing snow around is the most familiar sound I hear at Pole. At McMurdo, it's the hum of the power plant. But here bulldozers seemingly run 24-7 in their neverending task of moving snow. There is a more-or-less constant wind here of about 10-15 knots (I have been told the 50 year high is about 35 knots) and this wind slowly and inexorably builds up inconvenient drifts. In fact a crew went out to the ceremonial pole area, moved the flags aside, grated that area flat, then replaced the flags again. Why, I asked them? To keep the surface smooth and to eliminate starting points for drifts. This is certainly true, as I had a hell of a time with drifts along the Arrival Heights road at McMurdo last summer. Incidentally, the road this year is clear as can be, even in the little depression where the worst drifts formed. It has been a much warmer (and less stormy) summer, and much more dirt is exposed around McMurdo than last summer. The operations crews have even had a much easier time scraping the hillsides for fill dirt, as evidenced by the larger mountains of soil behind the station.

Another view of the main entrance. This entrance takes you through a short archway, with other archways leading off to the right and left as you walk in.

To your left is the 'biomed arch', which mainly houses the biomedical facilities. This is where I went to get some drugs to help with the flu I had when I arrived, and I suppose I was one of the last patients to be seen in this location. The medical facilities are being moved to the new station as I write this. The medical areas in the new station are large, and will definitely be a step up from the current facilities.

The sign outside the door at the biomed building.

To your right as you walk into the main entryway is another archway. From here you can walk through passageways to various nearby arches which house old and new garages, the old and new power plants, and other buildings. The passages also lead you to the bottom of the 'beer can', which is the silver cylinder connected to the new station. This is a typical corridor as you walk through one of the arches. There are mazes of arches and tunnels under the snow at Pole, an 'arch' being a metal semi-cylinder which may be completely buried by snow, and a 'tunnel' being an actual tunnel dug through the snow. The arches are mostly accessible by anyone, but in general you need to have a reason to go down into the tunnels. They are quite small and in fact are considered confined spaces. I haven't been down into the tunnels, but there are miles of them running everywhere under the snow. There are also little hatches popping up out of the snow all over the place, most of which I would guess lead down to tunnels.

In one of the buildings on your way through the arches from the new station to the dome, there is a gym building. This is it - a half basketball court, a climbing wall, ping pong table, and other stuff are in here.

Continuing through the main entryway to the dome, this is the first set of buildings inside the dome itself. All buildings inside the dome are modular orange structures. The one with the sloped roof is the fire shack, with the annex on the right and the greenhouse sitting directly above. To the left of the fire shack is a building which houses science offices and a computer lab on the first floor, with berthing on the second floor.

On your left as you walk in is this little flower garden someone put together. Nice touch. The building behind used to house the galley, but the new station galley is now up and running. This building now houses the bar, a weight gym, and a little area used for presentations. This is also where you go to get beer. To acquire beer, you pay for it at the store and then come over here to pick it up. Totally unrelated aside: I was eating lunch the other day when these two guys started making their way around the tables with a rock in a bag. They came over to me and asked if I wanted to check out a meteorite they had found. Sure, cool, you bet. They had just gotten back from this year's meteorite hunt and had found something like 850 of them in a month or so. These two grown men, bearded, grizzled, and fresh from the field camp, were walking around like kids with a new toy. I think they enjoy their jobs! Antarctica is the best place in the world for finding meteorites. The reason is simple - they are easy to spot against the ice. There are certain ice fields where meteorites are more likely to get exposed, so once you determine where such a place is you just drive around on a snowmobile looking for dark spots. A great job, no doubt.

This is the view looking back toward the main entrance.

Scattered around the dome are various piles of supplies, food, and equipment.

Again looking back toward the main entrance, the greenhouse is the little hut on the top left and the second floor berthing (above the science offices) is on the right. Because Pole runs 24-7, there are always people sleeping in each of the various dorms. Walking up on the roof toward the greenhouse can be somewhat noisy and can disturb people sleeping right next door. So people put mattresses on the walkway toward the greenhouse. You are also advised not to slam doors in this building and keep your voices down. It's pretty quiet inside the dome and people don't generally yell when they're in the open here. However, there is often a booming bass sound coming from the building where the bar is.

Speaking of which, the building on the left is the one with the bar, gym, and presentation area.

I was amazed at how much unused space there is inside the dome. The buildings inside only go up two stories at most, and much of the 'floor space' is also empty. I would have thought things would be packed more densely inside here.

I found a ladder on the backside of the bar building and climbed up to the roof. On the roof were piles of old equipment, stores, and fresh footprints...so I figured it was OK. Here is a view looking down toward the fire shack and the science/berthing building. Last winter, the staff was given the choice to either live in the dome or the new station. I feel pretty fortunate to be here at this time, and be able to see both the old and the new. Too bad you can't explore the original 'old pole' station. Well, on occasion people still climb down there and do unauthorized tours. But it is pretty dangerous, and they are wise enough not to post pictures on the internet...

Me, looking out over the dome buildings.

Yet more of the scenery inside the dome.

Hanging from the dome walls are little lights such as this one, along with layers of frost and ice. The dome isn't really a cheerful place, but it's not at all depressing either. It's completely unique and fascinating, and I like it.

This is a little .avi file I took showing the lay of the land inside the dome. It's 6 MB in size.

The insides of most of the dome's buildings are pretty routine. Offices, computers, equipment, dorms, a gym, communications, storage, etc. But I found the second floor of the Comms building interesting. The station store is here, a TV lounge, and a library. And inside the library are various historical items hanging on the wall. This is a picture commemorating the 50th anniversary of Adm. Richard Byrd's historic first flight over the South Pole in 1929, signed by various dignitaries. Late last year at McMurdo, they showed the original movie taken during Byrd's expedition where he did this famous flight to the Pole from his base at Little America, close to where Amundsen had his camp Framheim. Also shown was Ponting's original movie filmed during Scott's last expedition. Riveting stuff.

Nearby is a letter from Byrd, talking about Scott and Amundsen and what each of them meant to him. This last page is actually signed by Byrd.

This one I found most interesting - a picture from Amundsen's arrival at the Pole, signed by Olav Bjaaland. Bjaaland was one of the five Norwegians who reached the Pole in 1911, and in fact was probably the first one since he was the guy skiing ahead of everyone and giving the dogs a person to follow. He lived the longest of them all, and signed this picture in 1961. When he met Vivian Fuchs, who was the first person to cross the continent during the Trans-Antarctic Expedition during the IGY, his remark when Fuchs was describing the Pole was "sounds like it hasn't changed much". I read Amundsen's account of the journey, and he gives portraits of each of his team members. Bjaaland was a world champion skier and a general badass. I didn't expect to see a signed picture from this guy just hanging around in the library. By the way, there are also signed letters from Presidents Ford and Eisenhower here.

Some more interesting stuff on the library wall.

After the library is a TV lounge, followed by the station store/post office and another office. Outside the store is this display case with some of the old markers from the geographical pole. The ice on which the station sits will move about 10 meters per year, so on January 1 of each year the pole will be re-surveyed and a new marker will be placed on a pole driven into the snow. The design changes each year, and in recent years these things have become works of art. In a related note, someone stole the 2003 marker just before I arrived. Now THAT is pretty damn low. Theories abound on station as to whodunnit, with the most likely scenario being that one or more members of an expedition who skied to Pole this year took it when they left. There were also some tourists camped out near the pole (i.e. people who paid big bucks to fly in for a while), so it could have been one of them. Of course it could have been somebody who works here, but nobody on station wants to believe that one of "us" would have done it. It's even more of a shame because last year's marker was an excellent design involving several pieces of different metals. Maybe it'll show up on Ebay somewhere down the line....

This is the post office area. On the left there is a variety of commemorative stamps you can use on your mail before you send it. The door on the left is the station store...a unique shopping experience. The stuff they sell inside is pretty good and reasonably priced, but people here generally keep their shopping excursions to a minimum. The reason is that the whole process can be excruciatingly slow. Many of the items in the store don't have tags, and thus cannot be scanned. In this case, the clerk will have to hunt and peck on the computer screen to find the item amongst a variety of oft-misleading categories. For example, a metal CD case I bought was listed under "stickers". But say the item you want to buy does actually have a tag on it...this doesn't mean it will scan. Many of the items just aren't listed in the store's computer. And then, even if your item has a sticker and does scan, it's still slow going. The clerks are very friendly and pleasant, but they definitely have a sense of leisure when ringing you up. I was repeatedly warned about the waiting time in the store when I got here, but the first time I went in, it was pretty much a snap since I was the only person there. The second time, I was in line for 30 minutes with only 5 people ahead of me. The crowning moment was when the lady in front of me had a stack of postcards and was bound and determined to get the perfect combination and variety of stamps to a) fill the postage for her cards and b) have the total add up to just under the $20 she had with her. Aieeee!!!!