[Icc-avr] Re: Antarctica?

[Gerhard at AMS]

Hi Albert,
There is indeed no sea!  We are surrounded by Ice.... The SANAE Base is indeed on top of little flattop mountain called Vesles Karvet (Karvet=Norwegain for small flattop Mountain) The Ice is several 100m's deep several places more than 1km deep to the actual ground-level.  We are situated about 64km from the continent edge, then from there the ice shelf continues for another 130km on top of the sea.  This ice shelf is also very thick,  more than 1km.  In Summer (Dec) the South African vessel SA Agulhas arrive at the IceShelf projecting into the sea and off-load equipment personnel on the iceshelf.  From here the journey inland (Southwards) starts by traction-vehicles towards the SANAE Base, about 180km.  It takes about 12hr to arrive at the base.  The SA A leaves in Febr, leaving behind the OverWinter Team (10) until next year.  The coming take-over (2k9) the SAA only arrives at the buktha (Landing next to iceshelf) around mid-Jan, to leave in mid-March 2k9.  This is because the drift-ice is becoming rather thick, preventing the vessel to get close to the iceshelf.  Last year we were stuck on the SAA for several days where it was stuck in the ice.  The sea-bound journey which was meant to take about 12-14 days took about 27days as a result.  To give you a perspective for 'mooring' against the ice-shelf, the ice-shelf is a shear vertical edge, more than 100m high.  For more information visit my website at www.amssolutions.co.za and click on SANAE Views which will direct you to the SANAE site, and the SANAP programme.  Currently a number of countries( I think about 60 in total) signed the Antarctic Treaty (1961) with the undertaking to only use the Continent for scientific endavaours. Several countries have now Scientific Presence on Antarctica, one is South Africa, and indeed the USA at Mcmurdoch.  In closing, this is an absolutely privilidge to be able to be on this continent and to experience Nature uninterrupted! 

Regards,
Gerhard Laubscher
Electronic Engineer  (Comms Officer)
SANAE 47 OverWinter Team
SANAE iv Base  (71o40' S / 2o51' W)  Check-out SANAE Base on Google Earth!!
Antarctica
Tel : +27-21-405 9428/29     Fax : +27-21-405 9432  (std rates)
SattPhone : 008816 315 467 74      HF : 6.210 Mhz
Skype : gerhardjl
email : gerhard.laubscher at sanae.sanap.ac.za
website : www.sanap.org.za/sanae_team.html

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Albert vanVeen 
  To: Discussion list for ICCAVR and ICCtiny Users. You do NOT needtosubscribeto icc-announce if you are a member of this. 
  Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 9:47 PM
  Subject: RE: [Icc-avr] Re: Antarctica?


  I looked at the site on Google Earth, and it seems an island in the sea. There can hardly be water there, so presumably it's a hill in the shade of a mountain? I didn't even know there were people outside our Scott Base & and their neighbours at McMurdoch.
  This is the best off-topic topic I've seen so far!

  Albert.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://dragonsgate.net/pipermail/icc-avr/attachments/20080715/b93cbf71/attachment.html