Hope Bay (Esperanza Base)
Hope Bay
Hope Bay (Spanish: Bahía Esperanza) on Trinity Peninsula, is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) long and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) wide, indenting the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and opening on Antarctic Sound. It is the site of the Argentinian Antarctic settlement Esperanza Base, established in 1952.
The Bay was discovered on January 15, 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Otto Nordenskiöld, who named it in commemoration of the winter spent there by J. Gunnar Andersson, S.A. Duse, Toralf Grunden and José María Sobral of his expedition after his ship (the Antarctic) was crushed by the ice and lost. They were eventually rescued by Argentine corvette Uruguay.
The ruins of a stone hut built in January 1903 by members of the Swedish expedition can still be seen; it has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 39), following a proposal by Argentina and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.
1903 and 2003 - Swedish expedition stone hut at Hope Bay
Esperanza Base (Spanish: Base Esperanza, 'Hope Base') is a permanent, all-year-round Argentine research station in Hope Bay, Antartica. It is one of only two civilian settlements in Antarctica (the other being the Chilean Villa Las Estrellas).
Photo: Teodor Bjerrang
Built in 1953, the base houses 55 inhabitants in winter, including 10 families and 2 school teachers. Provincial school #38 Presidente Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín (formerly named Julio Argentino Roca) was founded in 1978 and acquired independent status in 1997. The base has an Argentine civil register office where births and weddings are recorded. The LRA 36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel radio station started transmitting in 1979 and currently broadcasts on shortwave and FM.
The 43 buildings of the station have a combined space of 3,744 square metres (40,300 sq ft) covered; 18,000 litres (4,800 US gal) of fuel are used annually by the four generators to produce electricity for the station. Research projects include: glaciology, seismology, oceanography, coastal ecology, biology, geology, and limnology.
Map - Hope Bay
