Scientists Begin Nine Months’ Isolation

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30976, 4 February 1966, Page 1

Scientists Begin Nine Months’ Isolation

Plateau Station, the United States newest and most remote scientific outpost in the Antarctic, has been handed over to the eight men who will live in it for the next year. Thii was announced by the National Science Foundation yesterday. At an altitude of almost 12.000 ft on Antarctica’s most desolate continental plateau, the station is 630 miles from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. its nearest neighbour. Except for radio communication the four scientists and four sailors will be isolated for about nine months.

The last flight will be made to Plateau Station early this month. The first relief flight

after the winter is expected to reach the station about mid-November. The last sunset the men will see will be on April 17 and, though there will be long periods of twilight before and -after the darkest part of winter, the sun will not rise again until August 25. During the year the scientists at the station will conduct continuous studies of the earth’s magnetic field: the Aurora Australis (southern lights): naturally occurring very low frequency radio emission: and the weather.

The temperature at Plateau Station during the winter may reach 125 degrees to 130 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.