Bills Gulch () is a

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

on the southeast side of Hemimont Plateau, the northern of two glaciers flowing east from the plateau upland into the head of

Trail Inlet Trail Inlet () is an ice-filled inlet which recedes southwest 15 nautical miles (28 km) between Three Slice Nunatak and Cape Freeman, on the east coast of Graham Land. The inlet was sighted by Sir Hubert Wilkins on his flight of December 20 ...

, on the east coast of

Graham Land Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee ...

. This glacier was used by the sledge party under Paul H. Knowles which traversed the

Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica. ...

from the East Base of the

United States Antarctic Service The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has a presence in the ...

(USAS) on its way to Hilton Inlet in 1940. It was named by USAS for a lead

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

that died at this point. The unlikely name has been approved because of its wide use on maps and in reports.

Chacabuco Refuge

Refuge Chacabuco () is an Antarctic refuge close to the

San Martín Base San Martín Base () is a permanent, all year-round Argentine Antarctic base and scientific research station named after General José de San Martín, the Libertador of Argentina, Chile and Peru. It is located on Barry Island, Marguerite Bay, Anta ...

, on which it depends. It is located in the area of the Bills Gulch glacier, on the

Fallières Coast The Fallières Coast is that portion of the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula between the head of Bourgeois Fjord and Cape Jeremy and lies on Marguerite Bay and the Wordie Ice Shelf. On the south it is joined by Rymill Coast, and in the nor ...

in the

, and is administered by the

Argentine Army The Argentine Army () is the Army, land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander-in-chief of the Armed For ...

. The refuge was inaugurated on November 21, 1956, as logistical support and is the one located at the highest altitude of all the

Argentine Antarctica Argentine Antarctica ( or ) is an area on Antarctica claimed by Argentina as part of its national territory. It consists of the Antarctic Peninsula and a triangular section extending to the South Pole, delimited by the 25th meridian west, 25 ...

, at about above sea level on the route that leads to the

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha C ...

. In 1956, during the building of the San Martin base, the Argentine Army installed three refuges to have logistical support from

Marguerite Bay Marguerite Bay or Margaret Bay is an extensive bay on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is bounded on the north by Adelaide Island and on the south by Wordie Ice Shelf, George VI Sound and Alexander Island. The mainland coast on th ...

, in the

Bellingshausen Sea The Bellingshausen Sea is an area along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula between 57°18'W and 102°20'W, west of Alexander Island, east of Cape Flying Fish on Thurston Island, and south of Peter I Island (there the southern ''Vostokkyste ...

, to the Mobiloil Inlet in the Weddell Sea, crossing the Antarctic Peninsula from west to east. The three refuges were the Chacabuco, the Yapeyú and the Maipo. The work requested 63 days, travelling about using sled pulled by dogs. For the construction of the Chacabuco refuge, the army team made 17 trips from the Yapeyú refuge. Trips were hampered by the slopes of the area, the presence of ice and wind storms that exceeded 200 kilometres per hour. The refuge was used for scientific tasks carried out during the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...

in 1957 and 1958. It has food, equipment and food for men and dog, medicines and fuel. Refugio Chacabuco, Retrieved September 17, 2018

References

* Glaciers of Graham Land Bowman Coast {{BowmanCoast-geo-stub

Chacabuco Refuge

See also

References