What are houses in Antarctica made of? Man on the Ice Continent - L.I.

Abstract of a series of articles

Asking questions is a purely childish activity. This “terror” is well known to every parent without exception. But let’s say frankly that when teenagers are given the task of asking questions consciously, especially to a famous person, and even with subsequent publication, the guys have to really strain their brains. Journalism is included in the program of the club of young polar explorers operating under the auspices of the Encyclopedia. The guys treat this unusual activity with respect and interest. And yet, every meeting with the person being interviewed is not an easy task for them. The interview takes place via the Internet and e-mail, and questions are formulated jointly.

Have you ever been scared? Yes, when I fell into a crack in a glacier. She was covered with snow and could not be seen. It’s good that it turned out to be narrow and I got stuck in it)))

Vladimir Kiryanov lives in St. Petersburg. He is a real polar explorer. He loves his job and writes books. Vladimir is sociable; he met the offer to answer a number of questions that the guys wanted to ask him with a bang. Thirteen-year-old students of the Moscow Cadet Corps - participants in the S. Pokrovsky Club of Young Polar Explorers "Central Pole" - took the polar wolf into serious use...
What kind of houses do people live in in Antarctica?
Our houses are brightly colored (red, orange).

Externally, the houses look like containers or construction cabins, but are made of insulated sandwich panels and have windows on the ceiling and sides. There are 1-2 people living in a room (there are two in each house). In the vestibule there is a toilet and washbasin.

What do polar explorers eat?
Products are brought from Cape Town (South Africa) by plane, weekly, according to our request (more than 200 items, including fresh fruits and vegetables).

What do you cook with?
On an electric stove (like at home, only more powerful).

What purification system does drinking water go through?
The water does not need to be purified. We melt the ice and get distilled water, to which we add vitamins, because drinking distillate in its pure form is harmful.

How is waste disposed of?
All garbage from Antarctica, including food waste and empty fuel drums, is removed by plane and ship. The barrels are pre-pressed in the form of “tablets” 15-20 cm thick (to take up less space during export).

Is there a home refrigerator in Antarctica?
Necessarily! It stores yoghurt, milk, butter - products that can freeze outside. But to prevent bread from going stale for a long time, it is better to store it in the cold (you can check it yourself).

Have you seen polar bears and how did you manage to become friends with penguins?
I saw a bear in Severnaya Zemlya (Arctic). And penguins are in Antarctica. It is not possible to make friends with them, although penguins are very curious and run towards people, mistaking them from afar for their fellow creatures.

What do penguins feel like?
Feathers are hard. And underneath there is soft and warm fluff.

Can a plane make a soft landing in Antarctica?
The small plane can land on skis (instead of wheels) on snow up to 50 cm deep. And large planes (IL-76) land only on hard ice.

Did the ice break under you?
No. In Antarctica, there is 500 m of ice (glacier) below us.

How do polar explorers hold ice together?
No way. In the Arctic, at drifting stations, polar explorers select an ice floe several meters thick in advance so that it does not melt for a long time. And in Antarctica, the ice is already thick and durable, although often with cracks up to 20 m deep.

What color is ice?
Grey, blue, light blue. Transparent. It all depends on its thickness and the angle of refraction of sunlight.

How do you get around in bad weather?
When there is a strong snowstorm, it is better to stay at home. But at the stations where polar explorers live, cables and ropes are stretched, or railings are made to hold on to when moving during a snowstorm and in the dark.

Have you seen the aurora and do they differ in color in different hemispheres?
Saw. The sparkles are slightly different in color. In the south there is more red.

How do you wash your clothes while on an expedition?
If you don’t have a washing machine or a vibrating laundry tablet, then just use it in a basin with soap and powder.

What household tricks do you use when living in Antarctica?
We make all sorts of devices to quickly dry shoes.

What do you do during your rest hours, do you miss home?
We miss it, of course, but now you can call home from almost anywhere using a satellite phone. In Antarctica we now have both e-mail and our 1st television channel (ORT).

How did you become a polar explorer?
I don't know myself. I went several times and really liked it.

How often have you been on an icebreaker?
Once I returned from Antarctica to Cape Town on an icebreaker, calling at other stations. I spent a whole month on it.

Have you ever been scared?
Yes, when I fell into a crack in a glacier. She was covered with snow and could not be seen. It’s good that it turned out to be narrow and I got stuck in it)))

How is electricity generated at the stations?
Each station has a 100 kilowatt diesel generator (powered by diesel fuel). It heats the entire station. Now solar panels are being increasingly used, and at some stations - wind generators.

What fuel is used for machinery?
Gasoline and diesel fuel. And for airplanes - aviation kerosene.

What is the most popular transport in Antarctica?
All-terrain vehicle. It's on tracks, so it goes everywhere.

Have you swam in the Arctic Ocean?
Yes, when I was a student in practice, on Severnaya Zemlya. And once - in Antarctica in a lake among ice floes (at Epiphany).

Kiryanov Vladimir Yurievich was born in 1956 in the city of Lomonosov, Leningrad region. After graduating from Leningrad State University (Faculty of Geography), from 1978 to 2002 he worked in Kamchatka at the Institute of Volcanology and the Institute of Volcanic Geology and Geochemistry. He studied volcanic eruptions in Kamchatka and in other areas of the world (Japan, Nicaragua, Hawaii, Mexico, Italy, Iceland, etc.). Author and co-author of more than 50 scientific articles. Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences.

In addition to his main job, over the years he was a co-owner of the travel company Alfa Tour, worked as deputy director for ecology in the Kamchatka branch of the Canadian gold mining company TVX Gold, and taught at the Kamchatka Pedagogical Institute. I have a license as a hiking guide. Since 2002, he has lived in St. Petersburg and works for the INTAARI company, which provides logistics support for international projects and expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic. In the Arctic in 1976, he worked for more than four months as a placer gold panner during industrial practice on the island. October Revolution (Severnaya Zemlya archipelago), At the same time I visited the village. Dixon, village Khatanga and Norilsk. In 2005, as part of the preparation for an international expedition, I was in Chukotka. He worked for several seasons in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. In 2010 and 2012, he provided logistical support to Swedish geological expeditions in Taimyr. For the last nine years, from 2 to 4 months a year, he worked in Antarctica, at the airfield of the Russian Antarctic station Novolazarevskaya as the head of the airfield. In 2006, on board the R/V Akademik Fedorov, he visited the Mirny and Progress stations. He made working visits to the Russian Bellingshausen station and international Antarctic stations in Great Britain, Germany, India and Chile. Vladimir Kiryanov is an associate professor at St. Petersburg State University, teaching the course “Volcanism” at the Faculty of Geology. Member of the Russian Interregional Writers Union, author of several fiction books.

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Many people mistakenly believe that researchers in Antarctica are cut off from civilization and communicate only with penguins. In fact, polar explorers spend their free time from work the same way as at home: watching TV, working out on exercise machines, washing in the bathhouse, exchanging letters by e-mail, and even going to church. The head of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, Deputy Director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute Valery Lukin spoke about how life is in Antarctica.

There is no money for research

Currently, our government allocates 1 billion rubles, or $30 million per year, for Antarctic research. To some, this figure may seem huge, but in fact it is not. For comparison: the budget of the American Antarctic research program is $265 million per year, the Japanese one is $160 million, and the German one is $120 million. So far we are in sixth place, after Great Britain and China. “The money allocated by the government goes to salaries of employees, the purchase of climate clothing, boiler meals, insurance, and medicines,” says Valery Lukin. — Stations require fuel and consumables: oils, electrodes, spare parts. Money is also needed for year-round operation of research vessels, for aviation fuel, for operational communication services, as well as for expensive air tickets.”

This is what the border of Vostok station looks like. Photo: AARI

In addition to the above amount, the government allocates money for capital construction and the purchase of new equipment. In 2012, a new ship and Progress station were built with these funds. But in 2013, polar explorers did not receive a single ruble for investment projects: this means that this season it will not be possible to purchase new medical equipment, scientific instruments, communications and transport. This year, the budget did not allocate funds for the study of glacial Lake Vostok, although it is on this research that Russia’s global prestige and the degree of our influence in Antarctica depend.

Polar explorers conduct research using this equipment. Photo: AARI

Who lived on Earth millions of years ago?

Achievements in Antarctic research are of global significance for any country. Having influence in Antarctica means strengthening your economic potential and international authority, as well as ensuring the country’s national security. It was in these directions that Soviet polar explorers worked, and now Russian polar explorers continue to work. Our polar explorers are doing everything to regain leadership. Two years ago, researchers were able to penetrate glacial Lake Vostok. Other countries are left behind. Our polar explorers drilled a well 3724 meters deep. Now there is only 45 m left to the ice-water boundary. Scientists will be able to take a water sample and find out what Antarctica was like at the time this lake appeared. Perhaps in the water column, researchers will find living organisms that once lived on our planet.

Work on the rig. Photo: AARI

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation Sergei Donskoy rated work on Lake Vostok as one of the highest priorities in Antarctica. “This season, scientists plan to obtain a new 50-60 meters of core for research. This season, perhaps, the first results of the study of the first ice samples from Lake Vostok, delivered in May 2013 on board the R/V Akademik Fedorov, will be ready,” Donskoy said. “Thus, thanks to the work of Russian scientists, humanity will be able to learn even more not only about this unique natural object, but also about the global processes occurring on the planet.”

Ice samples are in the core storage facility. Photo: AARI

At the moment, there are two hypotheses for the origin of Lake Vostok. Perhaps it was formed due to the melting of ice on the surface of the glacier. There is another version, according to which the lake existed even before the glaciation era of Antarctica, which began 30-40 million years ago! It will be possible to judge which of the hypotheses is correct only after examining the water from the lake. Work on Lake Vostok strengthened Russia's international prestige. “In this direction we are ahead of the rest! - says Vladimir Lukin. — These studies are of global importance. “We will be able to study the influence of solar wind energy on the processes that occur in the upper atmosphere, and therefore improve the performance of communications.”

All work is carried out on computers. Photo: AARI

Anyone can become a polar explorer

In Antarctica, where human activity is reduced to almost zero, polar explorers can monitor climate change in its purest form.

Russian stations are located along the entire perimeter of Antarctica. Our surveillance system is one of the best. We have five wintering stations and five seasonal field bases. At the wintering stations - Mirny, Vostok, Progress, Novolazarevskaya and Bellingshausen - 110 polar explorers live the whole year. After this period, they are replaced by another group of researchers. Sometimes some stay for a second winter. 120 people live in seasonal field bases. Their expedition is half as long and lasts six months.

This is what the aurora looks like near the Novolazarevskaya station. Photo: AARI

From 20 to 40 people live at one station. Among them are the station manager, two doctors, a cook, diesel mechanics, drivers, builders, electricians, a communications operator, meteorologists, biologists, hydrologists and a system administrator. Any person who has one of the above professions has a chance to go to Antarctica. You just need to submit an application. There is a very strict selection process among those interested. The main parameter is excellent health. In addition, the candidate must have a foreign passport. Then the HR department selects the most experienced specialists, but sometimes young ones are also hired.

Polar explorers in the radio house at Bellingshausen station. Photo: AARI

It's easier to get into space

There are practically no women on the expedition. There are few women researchers, and it is better not to hire representatives of the fairer sex as a cook. “We had several examples when married couples went on expeditions,” recalls Valery Lukin. — Women traveled as cooks. Nothing good came of this. Cooking delicious food at home and preparing food for forty people every day are two different things. The cook at the station must go to the warehouse and bring from there a bag of granulated sugar, which weighs 90 kg, or half a cow, which also needs to be cut into pieces. The woman cannot cope and asks her husband, who, instead of doing research, turns into a kitchen assistant. The rest of the employees are starting to get angry with him: they have to do his job while he helps his wife.”

The cook prepares food in the galley. Photo: AARI

Before setting off on an expedition, you need to stock up on provisions for the whole year. Several tens of tons of food are traveling to Antarctica with polar explorers. The quantity of products is carefully calculated, because if they run out in the middle of the expedition, the researchers will have nowhere to wait for help: during the polar winter, at a temperature of -55 ° C, not a single plane in the world will be able to land at the Vostok station. In such cold weather, the hydraulics freeze and the landing gear cannot be lowered. “It’s easier to send a rescue expedition into space,” says Lukin, “if something happens, we have to get out of it ourselves.”

Polar explorers unload a ship with food for the year. Photo: AARI

In November, polar explorers from Moscow and St. Petersburg fly to Chile, New Zealand or Cape Town. Our ships come from Antarctica, bringing former expedition members and picking up new ones. In Antarctica, polar explorers travel by plane to their stations. Here they live in houses made of aluminum panels. Each person has his own room. There is a sauna at each station. Most of the stations were built in the 70-80s of the last century, only Progress was converted from a seasonal field base into a wintering station in 2012. The stations have changed a lot over the past twenty years. They were renovated and the furniture was replaced. TVs, satellite communications, and Internet access appeared here. Everything is computerized.

The Progress station was built quite recently. Photo: AARI

It's like home in Antarctica

Employees of different stations communicate with each other via radio communications, and with the help of satellite communications you can call home every day. For St. Petersburg subscribers the call is free; the polar explorers themselves pay for calls to other cities.

Polar explorers have no days off or holidays. Every day is a working day at the station. Researchers study the climate and atmosphere of Antarctica, take samples - ice cores, which are located at a depth of 3-4 thousand m. Ice samples are taken to a core storage facility, where the ice is located in special cells.

For polar explorers, every day is a working day. Photo: AARI

They celebrate, perhaps, only the New Year. There is no strict daily routine. Station employees adjust to the meal schedule. The researchers eat well, three times a day. The cook cooks food in one common pot. The cost of products used to prepare lunch for polar explorers at one station is 5,800 rubles. When it is very cold outside, researchers do not work outdoors. The weather in Antarctica is varied: its area is comparable to the area of ​​Russia. Different stations have their own climatic clothing. In their free time, polar explorers, just like at home, spend their leisure time in different ways. Someone reads, someone watches TV, someone sends e-mail to their family. The Progress station is ideally equipped in this regard: there is billiards and a modern gym. At the Bellingshausen station there is even the only Orthodox church in Antarctica, where polar explorers can come at any time.

Apart from polar explorers, Antarctica is inhabited only by animals. Photo: AARI

After the end of the expedition, polar explorers are given a vacation of 28 days and an additional six days for each month spent in Antarctica. Valery Lukin himself has been to Antarctica 18 times. “We have not yet reached a new level in Antarctic research,” says Lukin, “but we are getting there.”

There are many problems with houses in Antarctica. Among them, we can, relatively speaking, distinguish internal and external problems. And internal problems include the problems of architecture and the design of the buildings themselves. They are quite easy to solve.

For example, most Russian stations use standard prefabricated buildings, originally designed for the northern regions of Russia. They are assembled, as if from construction kit parts, from separate modules, each measuring 4x8.6 meters. Modules can be combined as desired. For example, one of the buildings of the Molodezhnaya station (radio center) consists of nine modules; its length is more than 35 meters, and its area is more than 300 square meters. The modules are made of aluminum panels, behind which heat-insulating gaskets are hidden.

And “external” problems are related to the nature of the continent. The main one is snow drifts. True, they do not happen everywhere. On the Antarctic Peninsula, where most of the scientific stations are located, winter snowdrifts have time to melt during the summer, and buildings are cleared of drifts. Snow drifts are also small in the central part of the continent, where little snow falls and snowstorms are rare. But on the outskirts of the glacier, where there is a lot of snow and katabatic winds carry it from place to place in very large quantities, drifts are such that, for example, the Pionerskaya station was covered with eight meters of snow in three years. ,

How to deal with drifts?

One way is to build structures on high stilts. The wind easily passes under such buildings and prevents snow from accumulating near them. We tried such buildings in the village of Mirny, where they installed warehouses in the form of wooden platforms on steel supports. Later, at the Molodezhnaya station, residential buildings also appeared. Piles were made from metal pipes, and houses were erected on them, at a height of 2-2.5 meters. It is easier to build such houses than ordinary ones - there is no need to level the site for them, it is enough to drive the piles so that their tops are at the same height, which is much simpler. The first house “on chicken legs” appeared on Molodezhnaya in 1964, and already in 1972 there were twenty of them.

The Australian Casey station on Wilkes Land was built in approximately the same way. But it is one long building, and since the terrain here is uneven, the building is forced to repeat its unevenness and resembles a caterpillar. Not only because it bends, but also because it has not a rectangular shape in cross-section, but the shape of a rectangle with rounded short sides. It’s like a slightly flattened pipe on many legs. The curves are made for a reason. According to the designers, this facilitates the flow of wind around the station, with the goal of reducing the accumulation of snow.

Another way to combat drifts is to go under the snow in advance. If you hide the station in its thickness, without leaving anything on the surface that could hold the snowdrift, then the snow will not accumulate, there will be as much of it as there was before the station was built, and it will be able to function. This is what the Americans did when building the new Byrd station. The old Baird was so damaged within five years that it became impossible to work on it. And the new station was built in specially dug trenches six meters deep and eight meters wide. Houses were placed at their bottom, then covered with metal arches. Snow quickly covered the arches, and the station turned into a network of tunnels. The main one, two hundred meters long, stretches from north to south. On both sides it ended with gentle exits. Several more are adjacent to it, from 100 to 400 meters long. Only ventilation and exhaust pipes and observation towers (for example, for observing auroras) remained sticking out at the top.

The calculation was as follows: over the course of a year, 30-40 centimeters of snow accumulated in the station area. This means that less than five meters will accumulate in ten years. This is not much by Antarctic standards. But twelve have accumulated!

It turned out like this: the tunnels for entry and exit were covered with snow. It had to be shoveled out with bulldozers. And a snowy hill 25 meters high formed near the station. That is, a powerful snow-retaining barrier has appeared. The very thing they were trying to avoid.

A thick layer of snow bent the arched ceilings; they threatened to crush the houses, and they had to be liquidated and the snow had to be shoveled away. As a result, the station collapsed.

What is the best way to build? Maybe in the snow-firn layer, with lifts, water supply, sewerage? But this is a matter for the future. In the meantime, stations are being built on the surface. At one of the new (1975) stations - Amundsen-Scott - all buildings are connected by covered walkways, and the main premises are hidden under a common dome.

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What are the features of Antarctic villages?
Is there any information on this issue in this text:
Snow drifts are one of the main natural factors that must first be taken into account when constructing and operating scientific villages in Antarctica. It should be noted, however, that intensive snow drifts do not occur throughout the entire icy continent. Thus, in the area of ​​the Antarctic Peninsula, where more than a third of all scientific stations are located, in the summer snowdrifts have time to melt and station buildings, as a rule, are completely free of drifts. In Central Antarctica, especially in the region of the cold poles and relative inaccessibility, snow drifts are not very intense, since very little snow falls in these places, wind speeds are low and snowstorms are rare.
The Soviet Vostok station, for example, built in December 1957, is still in the “over-snow” position. The drifts at this station are relatively small, and they can be easily eliminated: with the help of a bulldozer, polar explorers shovel snow from the station structures and carefully level it. Since the snow here does not melt and almost does not evaporate, in the vicinity of the station the surface of the snow desert gradually rises, and the station buildings find themselves at the bottom of an ever-deepening depression. Over time, it will be more and more difficult to clear the station buildings from snow, and eventually the depression at the bottom of which the station is located will become so deep that further fight against snow will require too much effort, and maintaining the station in such conditions will will apparently become impractical. But this situation will not come soon. The natural accumulation of snow in this area is only 6-7 centimeters per year, moreover, it becomes compacted in the lower layers and therefore, over the decade and a half that the station has existed, the snow level in its vicinity has risen by only 70-80 centimeters.
Closer to the periphery of the continent, snow drifts become more intense. They are especially large on the glacial slope, where strong winds constantly blow and snowstorms are very frequent. So, during the three years of its existence, the Pionerskaya station was covered with a layer of snow 6-8 meters thick. At the same time, on the coast at the foot of the glacial slope one can find places where, as a result of the manifestation of the so-called glaciological inversion, the accumulation of snow is insignificant, or even completely absent. There are quite large areas of bare ice and bedrock outcrops that form coastal oases. The snow that falls in these areas is carried away by strong winds, evaporates and partially melts in the summer. Further towards the sea, on ice shelves, the intensity of drifts increases again.
Of the foreign stations, the currently operating Argentine General Belgrano station (Filchner Ice Shelf), the South African SANAE (the coast of Dronning Maud Land), the English Halley Bay (Coats Land), and the American Amundsen-Scott (South Pole) are subject to strong drifts. Deep under the snow there are structures of now defunct stations: Baird on Mary Baird Land, Little America on the Ross Ice Shelf, Maudheim and Norway on the coast of the western part and King Baudouin on the coast of the eastern part of Queen Maud Land, Charcot on Earth Adele and several others.
Designs of station structures that would fully ensure normal, fairly comfortable life and favorable conditions for working for a long time with frequent and strong hurricanes and intense drifts have not yet been developed. However, a lot of experience has already been accumulated in the construction and operation of housing, office premises, as well as various other auxiliary structures, and certain ways to solve this problem are being outlined. One of the ways to solve the problem given to man by the nature of Antarctica is the construction of station structures on stilts. During the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, such structures first appeared in Mirny. These were warehouses for open storage of expeditionary property, which were wooden platforms mounted on poles dug into the snow. The wind, which freely blows through the space under the platforms, prevents the deposition of snow directly near the warehouse, and therefore it remains uncovered for a long time. Later they began to build residential buildings on poles. For the first time such houses appeared at Molodezhnaya station. These buildings were built on metal pipes installed vertically in the rocky soil of the oasis. The height of such a pile foundation is 2-2.5 meters, so that a person can freely walk directly under the house without bending. To build houses on poles, it is not at all necessary to level the construction site - it is enough to place the tops of the piles at the same level, and this greatly facilitates construction work.
The first such house was built at Molodezhnaya station in 1964. In 1972, 20 such structures had already grown here - a real village “on chicken legs”.
In 1968, Australia's Casey Station on Wilkes Land was built using the same principle. This station is one long building stretched across the direction of the prevailing winds. The area in which the station is located has an uneven topography, and the station building, raised above the ground, follows its curves, so that from a distance it resembles a huge caterpillar crawling along the uneven ground. This similarity is further complemented by the fact that the long building, curved in a vertical plane, standing on numerous “legs” - stilts, is enclosed in a streamlined casing, which, according to the designers, should provide the necessary aerodynamics of this unusual structure.
Experience in operating houses on “chicken legs” has shown that they are subject to much less damage than conventional structures standing directly on the ground. However, passing unhindered under houses, snow is deposited and accumulates in the form of a plume at a considerable distance from the building. Thus, when building villages from such houses, their layout is crucial. In other words, houses must be placed on the territory of the village so that there are no buildings in the places where snow plumes will form. This condition is easily met when the station consists of several houses, or, like Casey, just one house. When constructing large Antarctic settlements, this task becomes more complicated, especially if the construction site is small. Solving this problem would be completely impossible if it were not for the amazing constancy in the direction of the winds blowing on the coast and the glacial slope. If the winds, accompanied by snow drifts, blew from different sides of the horizon, houses would have to be located very far from each other (300-400 meters) and such villages would be very scattered.
By the end of winter, so much snow still accumulates on the territory of Molodezhnaya that if it is left untouched, then all of it will not melt during the short Antarctic summer and a significant part of it will remain until the next winter. And this, sooner or later, will lead to the fact that the station buildings will be completely covered with snow, and on the surface of the oasis, which was previously freed from snow every year, snowfields will appear, and then an ice cover. Therefore, snow plumes have to be bulldozed to speed up their melting. Thus, the very design of the houses on “chicken legs”, which were built on Molodezhnaya, does not exclude the possibility of drift and then glaciation of the village. In those areas where snow drifts are more intense and the snow does not melt even in the summer, building houses on stilts, apparently, does not make much sense at all.
Another direction for constructing stations in an area of ​​intense snow drifts is to deliberately go under the snow and immerse station structures in the snow in advance. This means that if there are no protruding buildings on the surface that retain snow during snowstorms and drifting snow, then the accumulation of snow in this area, as in natural conditions, will remain relatively insignificant. And although the snow thickness above the roofs of such a station will increase every year, its operation will be possible for some time. This is what the Americans did when building their new Baird station.
The prefabricated residential buildings and scientific pavilions of the old Baird Station, built in 1957, were gradually covered with snow and within five years were in such a state that their further operation became difficult and even dangerous. Therefore, in 1962, a new Baird station was built approximately 10 kilometers from the old station. Unlike the old scientific village, whose buildings were placed on the surface of the snow, all the main structures of the new station were immediately built under the snow. Earth-moving machines specially brought into the depths of Antarctica dug trenches about 6 meters deep and 8 meters wide in the snow, at the bottom of which the station buildings were placed. Then the trenches were covered from above with arched metal ceilings, which were soon covered with snow. Thus, the trenches turned into tunnels. The main tunnel, 200 meters long, stretches from north to south.
On both sides it ended with inclined open exits. Perpendicular to it on both sides there are several more tunnels ranging from 100 to 400 meters in length. These tunnels housed living quarters, a diesel power plant, scientific laboratories, a garage and other office premises. Only ventilation and exhaust pipes, radio antenna masts, as well as towers where equipment for observing auroras and aerological sounding were installed, and a pavilion for releasing balloons with radiosondes remained sticking out above the snow surface.
This station served for 10 years. Work on it was stopped in 1972 due to the fact that its further operation also became very difficult and even dangerous. In addition, the United States intended to open a new Siple station in West Antarctica.
What is the reason for the failure with the Baird station? Although this station was specially built under snow with the goal of minimally changing the natural conditions of snow accumulation on its territory, the benefits of the project were not realized. Under natural conditions, about 30-40 centimeters of snow accumulate in this area over the course of a year. It would seem that over the 10 years of the station’s existence, the thickness of the snow cover on its territory should have increased by 3-4 meters. This is exactly what happened in the vicinity of the station. However, during this time the station area itself was covered with a layer of snow 10-12 meters thick! This increased accumulation of snow is explained by the fact that the inclined exits from the tunnels remained open and, during frequent snowstorms and almost constant drifting snow, were naturally covered with snow. In addition, the tunnels began to become overgrown with snow and from the inside, far from the exits, frost began to form intensively on the walls and ceiling. It also had to be cleaned off and raked outside. Snow was removed from the tunnels by bulldozers, and soon a large snowy hill appeared on the station territory, which was called “Mount Baird”. The height of this snow heap by 1972 reached 25 meters. Thus, the main idea behind the design of the new Baird station was nullified. On the territory of the station, people themselves created a powerful snow retention...
When a sufficiently thick layer of snow accumulated above the tunnels, the arched ceilings could not withstand the increased load and sagged. They hung over the roofs of houses, and the distance between them and the roofs began to decrease alarmingly. Over the course of a year, the ceiling vault of the tunnel dropped by 1.5-2 meters. It was clear that, having fallen on the roofs of the houses, the snow would crush them like matchboxes. I had to cut out the curved arched ceilings and start fighting the onslaught of snow. With the help of axes and saws, the snow above the roofs was periodically cut off, and thus free space was maintained between the roofs of the houses and the ceiling vault of the tunnels.
The failure with the Baird station especially clearly showed what the consequences of breaking the rule are: the more you dig, the more you skid. Indeed, was it worth the effort to install station structures in trenches, hoping to preserve the natural regime of snow accumulation, in order to then create “Mount Baird”, which sharply increased snow accumulation, which led to an emergency situation and, ultimately, the destruction of the station.
Analyzing the experience of creating stations on the surface of the ice sheet in an area of ​​intense snow drifts, it is not difficult to come to the conclusion that the main thing is not how the station will be built - on the surface or in tunnels, but in strict adherence to the rules of its operation, which do not allow the creation of various structures, which would help retain snow on its territory. Apparently, it is still more expedient to build such stations on the surface of the snow cover, but with the expectation that they will soon be covered, and therefore all station structures should be adapted for operation in a snowy position, like a submarine, which is adapted for swimming above water , and underwater. The buildings of such stations must have increased strength; they must be connected to each other in advance by covered walkways of sufficient strength, etc. After the station is built, a gentle snowy hill forms above it. And if the inhabitants of the station do not create structures on the surface of the hill that help retain snow, then its accumulation above the station will become small, and perhaps stop completely for some time. And only when the level of snow in the vicinity of the station, as a result of natural accumulation, becomes equal to the top of the hill, the previous natural regime of snow accumulation characteristic of the given area will be restored in the station territory. If such conditions had been met during the construction and operation of the Baird station, it would have been under a 12-meter layer of snow no sooner than in 50-60 years.
It must be said that living in rooms buried in the snow-firn layer has its advantages. Such rooms are easier to heat, since they are sheltered from the strongest hurricane winds. Any building located on the surface experiences shaking during hurricanes, and a person living in such a house feels like being in a train carriage traveling along the tracks of a large railway junction with many switches. In addition, hurricanes are accompanied by strong noise effects. The roar, whistle and howling of the wind do not allow people to sleep until they get used to it, just as a miller gets used to the noise of a working mill. Houses with “chicken legs” shake and make noise especially strongly. The inhabitants of houses covered with snow experience none of this. Even the strongest hurricanes make themselves known only with weak, muffled sounds and the barely audible rustling of snow rushing madly across the surface. Therefore, in winter, when hurricanes and blizzards rage especially often, the air temperature is low and it is dark almost around the clock, the inhabitants of snow-covered houses feel more comfortable. In summer the situation changes somewhat. At this time, the weather is often good, sunny, and relatively little windy; it is light all day long, which is why dwellings in the snow seem gloomy.
In the future, when the need arises to create large structures on the Antarctic ice sheet, they will apparently also build in the snow-firn layer. Giving free rein to your imagination, you can imagine multi-storey structures going tens of meters deep into the snow and firn, with snow-covered passages and lifts, transport tunnels, water supply and sewerage systems and other devices that provide comfort for their inhabitants. However, so far in these areas, after the unsuccessful experience with the Baird station under snow, stations are designed mainly on the surface of the snow cover.
This is, for example, what the new Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole, opened in January 1975, looks like. All buildings of this station are connected by covered corridors. A special room is provided for parking vehicles and their repair. The main residential and office premises are located in three two-story buildings, covered with a huge dome.
In places where station buildings are not threatened by snow drifts, Antarctic scientific villages are not much different from villages on other continents. As a rule, houses are built from prefabricated structures, since they have to be delivered to the icy continent by ship.
At Soviet stations, standard prefabricated houses designed for the northern regions have recently become widespread. The design of these houses is convenient in that buildings of various sizes and for various needs can be assembled from standard parts. The house, consisting of one module, has a size of 4X8.6 meters. Such modules can be expanded as many as you like. The largest house of this design was built in Antarctica on Molodezhnaya. It consists of 9 modules. Its length is more than 35 meters, and its area exceeds 300 square meters. This house houses the radio center of the main base of Soviet Antarctic expeditions.
New modular houses made from aluminum panels are versatile. They are equipped for scientific laboratories and housing, they house power plants and warehouses, they are used as wardrooms, outpatient clinics, canteens, workshops and for many other needs.

Its official goal was to study ancient Germanic culture, but its true goals were much deeper.

The theorists of fascism found a candidate suitable for their goals - the power-hungry Adolf Hitler, who had a mystical experience, and instilled in him the idea of ​​world domination of the German nation. At the end of 1918, the young occultist Hitler was accepted into the Thule Society and quickly became one of its most active members. And soon the ideas of the Thule theorists were reflected in his book “My Struggle”. Roughly speaking, the Thule society solved the problem of bringing the German race to dominance in the visible - material - world. But “those who see in National Socialism only a political movement know little about it.” These words belong to Hitler himself. The fact is that the occult masters of Thule had another, no less important goal - to win in the invisible, metaphysical world. For this purpose, more closed structures were created in Germany.

So, in 1919, the secret “Lodge of Light” was founded (later “Vril” - after the ancient Indian name for the cosmic energy of life). Later, in 1933, the elite mystical order “Ahnenerbe” (Ahnenerbe - “Heritage of the Ancestors”), which since 1939, on the initiative of Himmler, has become the main research structure within the SS. Having fifty research institutes under its control, the Ahnenerbe society was engaged in the search for ancient knowledge that would allow them to develop the latest technologies, control human consciousness using magical methods, and carry out genetic manipulations in order to create a “superman”.

Unconventional methods of obtaining knowledge were also practiced - under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, in a state of trance or contact with the Higher Unknowns, or, as they called them, “External Minds”. Ancient occult “keys” (formulas, spells, etc.) found with the help of “Ahnenerbe” were also used, which made it possible to establish contact with “Aliens”. The most experienced mediums and contactees (Maria Otte and others) were involved in “sessions with the gods.” For the purity of the results, experiments were carried out independently in the Thule and Vril societies. They claim that some occult “keys” worked and almost identical technogenic information was received through independent “channels”.

Ancient high civilizations, in particular, information about the magical methods of Atlantis, which was considered the ancestral home of the Aryan race. Of particular interest to Nazi scientists was the technological knowledge of the Atlanteans, which, according to legend, helped to build huge sea vessels and airships driven by an unknown force.

In the archives of the Third Reich, drawings were found that explain the principles of “twisting” subtle physical fields, allowing the creation of certain techno-magical devices. The acquired knowledge was transferred to leading scientists to “translate” it into an engineering language understandable to designers.

One of the developers of technomagical devices is considered to be the famous scientist Dr. V.O. Noise. According to the evidence, his electrodynamic machines, which used rapid rotation, not only changed the structure of time around themselves, but also hovered in the air. (Today, scientists already know that rapidly rotating objects change not only the gravitational field around them, but also space-time characteristics. So there is nothing fantastic in the fact that when developing a “time machine”, Nazi scientists obtained an anti-gravity effect. Another thing is that How controllable were these processes?)

There is evidence that a device with such capabilities was sent near Munich, to Augsburg, where its research was continued. As a result, the SSI technology division created a series of `flying discs' of the `Vril` type.

The next generation of `flying saucers` was the `Haunebu` series. These devices are believed to use some of the ideas and technologies of the ancient Indians, as well as the engines of Viktor Schauberger, a prominent scientist in the field of fluid movement, who created something similar to a “perpetual motion machine”. There is information about the development at the IV SS Development Center, subordinate to the Black Sun society, of a highly secret flying saucer, Haunebu-2. In his book “German Flying Saucers,” O. Bergmann gives some of its technical characteristics. Diameter 26.3 meters. Engine: Thule-tachyonator 70, diameter 23.1 meters. Control: pulse magnetic field generator 4a. Speed: 6000 km/h (estimated - 21000 km/h). Flight duration: 55 hours and above. Adaptability to flights in outer space is 100 percent. The crew is nine people, with passengers - twenty people. Planned serial production: late 1943 - early 1944.

The fate of this development is unknown, but American researcher Vladimir Terzicki reports that a further development of this series was the Haunebu-III device, designed for air combat with naval squadrons. The diameter of the “plate” was 76 meters, height 30 meters.

Four gun turrets were installed on it, each of which mounted three 270mm guns from the cruiser Meisenau. Terziyski states: in March 1945, this “plate” made one revolution around the Earth. The “plate” was driven by a “free energy engine, which... used the almost inexhaustible energy of gravity.”

At the end of the 50s, Australians discovered among captured films a German documentary film report on the research project of the V-7 flying disk, about which nothing was known until that time. To what extent this project has been implemented is not yet clear, but it is reliably known that the famous specialist in “special operations” Otto Skorzeny in the middle of the war was tasked with creating a detachment of pilots of 250 people to control “flying saucers” and manned missiles.

There is nothing incredible in the reports about gravitational engines. Today, scientists working in the field of alternative energy sources know the so-called Hans Kohler converter, which converts gravitational energy into electrical energy. There is information that these converters were used in the so-called tachyonators (electromagnetic gravity engines) Thule and Andromeda, produced in Germany in 1942-1945 at the Siemens and AEG factories. It is indicated that these same converters were used as energy sources not only on “flying disks,” but also on some giant (5000-ton) submarines and underground bases.

Results were obtained by Ahnenerbe scientists in other non-traditional fields of knowledge: in psychotronics, parapsychology, in the use of “subtle” energies to control individual and mass consciousness, etc. It is believed that captured documents concerning the metaphysical developments of the Third Reich gave a new impetus to similar work in the USA and USSR, which until that time had underestimated such research or curtailed it. Due to the extreme secrecy of information about the results of the activities of German secret societies, today it is difficult to separate facts from rumors and legends. However, the incredible mental transformation that in a matter of years occurred with the cautious and rational German inhabitants, who suddenly turned into an obedient crowd who fanatically believed in delusional ideas about world domination, makes you think...

In search of ancient magical knowledge, Ahnenerbe organized expeditions to the most remote corners of the globe: Tibet, South America, Antarctica... The latter was given special attention...

This territory is still full of secrets and mysteries. Apparently, we still have a lot of unexpected things to learn, including what the ancients knew about. Antarctica was officially discovered by the Russian expedition of F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev in 1820. However, tireless archivists discovered ancient maps, from which it followed that they knew about Antarctica long before this historical event. One of the maps, compiled in 1513 by the Turkish admiral Piri Reis, was discovered in 1929. Others also surfaced: the French geographer Orontius Phineus from 1532, Philippe Boishet, dated 1737. Falsifications? Let's not rush...

All these maps very accurately depict the outlines of Antarctica, but... without ice cover. Moreover, on the Buache map you can clearly see the strait dividing the continent into two parts. And its presence under the ice has been established using the latest methods only in recent decades. Let us add that international expeditions that checked the Piri Reis map found that it was more accurate than the maps compiled in the 20th century. Seismic reconnaissance confirmed what no one suspected: some of the mountains of Dronning Maud Land, hitherto considered part of a single massif, turned out to actually be islands, as indicated on the old map. So, most likely, there is no talk of falsification. But where did people who lived several centuries before the discovery of Antarctica get such information?

Both Reis and Buache claimed that they used ancient Greek originals when compiling the maps. After the discovery of the cards, a variety of hypotheses were put forward about their origin. Most of them boil down to the fact that the original maps were compiled by some high civilization that existed at a time when the shores of Antarctica were not yet covered with ice, that is, before the global cataclysm. It has been suggested that Antarctica is the former Atlantis. One of the arguments: the dimensions of this legendary country (30,000 x 20,000 stadia according to Plato, 1st stadia - 185 meters) approximately correspond to the size of Antarctica.

Naturally, Ahnenerbe scientists, who scoured the world in search of traces of Atlantean civilization, could not ignore this hypothesis. Moreover, it was in perfect agreement with their philosophy, which asserted, in particular, that at the poles of the planet there are entrances to huge cavities inside the earth. And Antarctica became one of the main targets of Nazi scientists.

The interest that German leaders showed on the eve of World War II in this distant and lifeless region of the globe could not be explained at the time. Meanwhile, the attention to Antarctica was exceptional. In 1938-1939, the Germans organized two Antarctic expeditions, in which Luftwaffe pilots not only explored, but also, with metal pennants with a swastika sign, staked out for the Third Reich a huge (the size of Germany) territory of this continent - Queen Maud Land (it soon received name `New Swabia`). The commander of the expedition, Ritscher, who returned to Hamburg on April 12, 1939, reported: “I completed the mission entrusted to me by Marshal Goering. For the first time, German planes flew over the Antarctic continent. Every 25 kilometers our planes dropped pennants. We covered an area of ​​approximately 600 thousand square kilometers. Of these, 350 thousand were photographed.

Goering's air aces did their job. It was the turn of the “sea wolves” of the “submarine Fuhrer” Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891-1981) to act. And the submarines secretly headed to the shores of Antarctica. The famous writer and historian M. Demidenko reports that, while sorting through the top-secret archives of the SS, he discovered documents indicating that a squadron of submarines, during an expedition to Queen Maud Land, found a whole system of interconnected caves with warm air. “My submariners discovered a real earthly paradise,” Dönitz said then. And in 1943, another mysterious phrase came from his lips: “The German submarine fleet is proud that on the other side of the world it has created an impregnable fortress for the Fuhrer.” How?

It turns out that for five years the Germans carried out carefully hidden work to create a Nazi secret base in Antarctica, codenamed “Base 211”. In any case, this is stated by a number of independent researchers. According to eyewitnesses, already from the beginning of 1939, regular (once every three months) voyages of the research vessel Swabia began between Antarctica and Germany. Bergman, in his book “German Flying Saucers,” states that from this year and for several years, mining equipment and other equipment, including rails, trolleys and huge cutters for tunneling, were constantly sent to Antarctica. Apparently, submarines were also used to deliver cargo. And not just ordinary ones.

Retired American Colonel Wendelle C. Stevens reports: “Our intelligence, where I worked at the end of the war, knew that the Germans were building eight very large cargo submarines (were they not equipped with Kohler converters? - V. Sh. ) and they were all launched, manned and then disappeared without a trace. To this day we have no idea where they went. They are not on the ocean floor, and they are not in any port that we know of. This is a mystery, but it can be solved thanks to an Australian documentary (we mentioned it above. - V. Sh.), which shows large German cargo submarines in Antarctica, ice around them, crews standing on decks waiting to stop at the pier. .

By the end of the war, Stevens claims, the Germans had nine research plants that were testing flying disc projects. `Eight of these enterprises, along with scientists and key figures, were successfully evacuated from Germany. The ninth structure has been blown up... We have classified information that some of these research enterprises have been transported to a place called `New Swabia`... Today this may already be a fairly sized complex. Maybe those big cargo submarines are there. We believe that at least one (or more) disc development facilities were transported to Antarctica. We have information that one was evacuated to the Amazon region, and the other to the northern coast of Norway, where there is a large German population. They were evacuated to secret underground structures.

Well-known researchers of the Antarctic secrets of the Third Reich R. Vesko, V. Terziyski, D. Childress claim that since 1942, thousands of concentration camp prisoners (workforce), as well as prominent scientists, pilots and politicians with their families, were transferred to the South Pole with the help of submarines and members of the Hitler Youth - the gene pool of the future "pure" race.

In addition to the mysterious giant submarines, at least a hundred serial U-class submarines were used for these purposes, including the top-secret formation "Fuhrer Convoy", which included 35 submarines. At the very end of the war in Kiel, all military equipment was removed from these elite submarines and containers with some valuable cargo were loaded. The submarines also took on board some mysterious passengers and a large amount of food. The fate of only two boats from this convoy is known for certain. One of them, `U-530`, under the command of 25-year-old Otto Wehrmouth, left Kiel on April 13, 1945 and delivered relics of the Third Reich and Hitler's personal belongings, as well as passengers whose faces were hidden by surgical bandages, to Antarctica. Another, `U-977`, under the command of Heinz Schaeffer, repeated this route a little later, but what and who it transported is unknown.

Both of these submarines arrived in the Argentine port of Mar del Plata in the summer of 1945 (July 10 and August 17, respectively) and surrendered to the authorities. Apparently, the testimony that the submariners gave during interrogations greatly worried the Americans, and at the end of 1946, the famous Admiral Richard E. Byrd received orders to destroy the Nazi base in New Swabia.

Operation High Jump was disguised as an ordinary research expedition, and not everyone realized that a powerful naval squadron was headed to the shores of Antarctica. An aircraft carrier, 13 ships of various types, 25 airplanes and helicopters, more than four thousand people, a six-month supply of food - these data speak for themselves.

It would seem that everything went according to plan: 49 thousand photographs were taken in a month. And suddenly something happened that US officials are still silent about. On March 3, 1947, the expedition that had just begun was abandoned, and the ships hastily headed home. A year later, in May 1948, some details surfaced on the pages of the European magazine Brisant. It was reported that the expedition met fierce enemy resistance. At least one ship, dozens of people, four combat aircraft were lost, and another nine aircraft had to be abandoned as unusable. One can only guess what exactly happened. We do not have authentic documents, however, if you believe the press, the crew members who dared to reminisce spoke about “flying discs” emerging from under the water and attacking them, about strange atmospheric phenomena that caused mental disorders. Journalists cite an excerpt from R. Byrd's report, allegedly made at a secret meeting of the special commission: “The United States needs to take protective actions against enemy fighters flying from the polar regions. In the event of a new war, America may be attacked by an enemy who has the ability to fly from one pole to another at incredible speed!`

Almost ten years later, Admiral Byrd led a new polar expedition, in which he died under mysterious circumstances. After his death, information allegedly from the diary of the admiral himself appeared in the press. It follows from them that during the 1947 expedition, the plane on which he flew on reconnaissance was forced to land by strange aircraft, “similar to British soldiers’ helmets.” The admiral was approached by a tall, blue-eyed, blond man who, in broken English, conveyed an appeal to the American government demanding that nuclear testing be stopped. Some sources claim that after this meeting, an agreement was signed between the Nazi colony in Antarctica and the American government to exchange German advanced technology for American raw materials.

A number of researchers believe that the German base in Antarctica has survived to this day. Moreover, they talk about the existence of an entire underground city there called “New Berlin” with a population of two million people. The main activities of its inhabitants are genetic engineering and space flights. However, no one has yet provided direct evidence in favor of this version. The main argument of those who doubt the existence of a polar base is the difficulty of delivering there the colossal amount of fuel necessary to generate electricity. The argument is serious, but too traditional, and it is objected to: if Kohler converters are created, then the need for fuel is minimal.

Indirect confirmation of the existence of the base is called repeated sightings of UFOs in the South Pole area. They often see “plates” and “cigars” hanging in the air. And in 1976, Japanese researchers, using the latest equipment, simultaneously detected nineteen round objects that “dipped” from space to Antarctica and disappeared from the screens. UFO chronicles also periodically provide food for conversation about German UFOs. Here are just two typical messages.

November 5, 1957 USA, Nebraska.
Late in the evening, grain buyer Raymond Schmidt, a businessman, came to the sheriff of the city of Kearney and told a story that happened to him not far from the city. The car he was driving along the Boston-San Francisco highway suddenly stalled and stopped. When he got out of it to see what had happened, he noticed a huge “metal cigar” not far from the road in a forest clearing. Right before his eyes, a hatch opened and a man in ordinary clothes appeared on the extended platform. In excellent German - Schmidt's native language - the stranger invited him to board the ship. Inside, the businessman saw two men and two women of quite ordinary appearance, but moving in an unusual way - they seemed to be gliding along the floor. Schmidt also remembered some flaming pipes filled with colored liquid. About half an hour later he was asked to leave, the “cigar” silently rose into the air and disappeared behind the forest.

At half past six in the morning, an oblong object of an “undetermined color” landed in a field a hundred meters from the Clark family’s house. Twelve-year-old Everett Clark, who was walking his dog at the time, said that two men and two women who came out of the device spoke to each other “like German soldiers from a movie.” The Clarks' dog rushed towards them, barking desperately, followed by other neighbors' dogs. The strangers at first unsuccessfully tried to catch one of the dogs that jumped up to them, but then abandoned this idea, went into the facility, and the device silently flew away. Reporter Carson Brewer from the Knoxville News-Sentinel newspaper discovered trampled grass in an area of ​​7.5 by 1.5 meters at this site.

Naturally, many researchers have a desire to blame the Germans for such cases. `It seems that some of the ships we see today are nothing more than a further development of German disk technology. Thus, in fact, it may be that the Germans periodically visit us (W. Stevens).

Vitaly Shelepov,
Colonel, Candidate of Technical Sciences.