Plateau Station Closed

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31902, 1 February 1969, Page 14

Plateau Station Closed

Plateau Station, in one of the coldest areas of Antarctica, was closed on January 29. Only four American Antarctic stations McMurdo, Palmer, Byrd, and AmundsenScott at the South Pole—will be manned in the coming winter.

The buildings at the Plateau Station will remain intact. A supply of food, fuel, and some equipment will be

left in case it becomes necessary to re-open the station. In this way it is available for emergency use. Situated at an altitude of 12,000 ft, and located about 1400 statute miles from McMurdo Station, Plateau Station was opened for the summer season on November 15, last.

Four Navy men and four scientists were the last to winter there when the temperature once dropped to 123.1 degrees below zero—less than 4 degs short of the world record for cold, recorded at the Russian Vostok Station in 1960.

The main scientific interest at Plateau Station has been upper-atmosphere physics, but studies have also been made in meteorology, geomagnetism, and seismology.

Plateau Station was the first station visited late last year by a Japanese traverse party en route from Showa Base to the Amundsen-Scott Station.