Ice station : the creation of Halley VI : Britain's pioneering antarctic research station / essays by Ruth Slavid ; photographed by James Morris

Object Details

author of text

Slavid, Ruth

photographer

Morris, James 1963-

Subject

Halley VI Research Station (Antarctica)

Summary

For more than fifty years, Halley Research Station-located on the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica's Weddell Sea-has collected a continuous stream of meteorological and atmospheric data critical to our understanding of polar atmospheric chemistry, rising sea levels, and the depletion of the ozone layer. Since the station's establishment in 1956, there have been six Halley stations, each designed to withstand the difficult climatic conditions. The first four stations were crushed by snow. The fifth featured a steel platform, allowing it to rise above snow cover, but it, too, had to be abandoned when it moved too far from the mainland, making it precarious. Commissioned by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and completed in 2012, Halley VI is the winning design from a competition in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects. Designed by London-based Hugh Broughton Architects and AECOM, a US-based architecture and engineering firm, the structure cannot just rise to avoid being engulfed by accumulating snow, but it is also the first research station able to be fully relocatable, its eight modules situated atop ski-fitted hydraulic legs. This book tells the story of this iconic piece of architecture's design and creation, supplemented with many illustrations, including plans and previously unpublished photographs.

2015

Type

Books

Physical description

96 pages : color illustrations, plans ; 25 cm

Place

Antarctica

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Buildings, Portable

Scientific expeditions

Atmosphere--Research

Research

Discovery and exploration

British

Record ID

siris_sil_1062626

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0