Bunger Hills, also known as Bunger Lakes or Bunger

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Knox Coast Knox Coast, part of Wilkes Land, is that portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between Cape Hordern, at 100°31′E, and the Hatch Islands, at 109°16′E. History The coast was discovered in February 1840 by the U.S. Exploring Expedition (18 ...

Wilkes Land Wilkes Land is a large district of land in eastern Antarctica, formally claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, though this claim has been held in abeyance for the period of the operation of the Antarctic Treaty, to wh ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, consisting of a group of moderately low, rounded

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as mountains. Hills fall und ...

, overlain by

morainic A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice she ...

drift and notably ice free throughout the year, lying south of the

Highjump Archipelago The Highjump Archipelago is a group of rocky islands, rocks and ice rises in Antarctica, about long and from wide, lying generally north of the Bunger Hills and extending from the Taylor Islands, close northwest of Cape Hordern, to a prominent ...

. The reasoning behind the minute amount of ice in the area is still relatively unknown and remains under intense debate amongst scientists today. The Bunger Hills are located with its center at , stretching from 65°58'S to 66°20'S and from 100°20'E to 101°28'E. The Bunger Hills are marked by numerous

melt pond Melt ponds are pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer. The ponds are also found on glacial ice and ice shelves. Ponds of melted water can also develop under the ice, which may lead to the formation of ...

s and are nearly bisected by an east-west trending Algae Lake (also known as Lake Figurnoye). Mapped from air photos taken by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Operation Highjump Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America (exploration b ...

(1946-1947) and named by the

United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN or US-ACAN) is an advisory committee of the United States Board on Geographic Names responsible for recommending commemorative names for features in Antarctica. History The committee was established ...

(US-ACAN) for Lieutenant Commander David E. Bunger,

, plane commander of one of the three USN OpHjp aircraft which engaged in photographic missions along most of the coastal area between 14 E and 164 E. David E. Bunger and members of his crew landed their airplane on an unfrozen

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

here in February 1947. The Bunger Hills are surrounded by glaciers. On the southeast the Bunger Hills is bordered by the steep slopes of the Antarctic ice sheet, on the south and west by outlet glaciers, and on the north by

Shackleton Ice Shelf Shackleton Ice Shelf is an extensive ice shelf fronting the coast of East Antarctica from 95° E to 105° E. It extends for an along-shore distance of about , projecting seaward about in the western portion and in the east. It occ ...

, which separates the area from the open sea. The ice-free area measures , according to some sources even (though these latter values include a marine area not covered by continental ice or the

). The topography is characterized by rugged hills, and there are many freshwater and salt lakes. The largest and deepest lake, Algae Lake (Lake Figurnoye) is long and up to deep. The leader of Operation Highjump, Admiral Richard E. Byrd stated that the Bunger Hills was ‘…one of the most remarkable regions on earth. An island suitable for life had been found in a universe of death.’

Cape Hordern Cape Hordern is an ice-free cape, overlain by morainic drift, at the northwest end of the Bunger Hills in Antarctica. It was probably sighted from Watson Bluff () by A.L. Kennedy and other members of the Western Base Party of the Australasian ...

is an ice-free cape, overlain by morainic drift, at the western end of the Bunger Hills. It was first observed by members of the western party of the Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914), who were unable to reach it due to heavy crevassing on the Denman and

Scott Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sas ...

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 ...

Stations

The

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

built a scientific station by the name of '' Oazis'' (Оазис) in the center of the area at , starting October 15, 1956, with two buildings for eight people. The station was handed over to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

on January 23, 1959, and was renamed '' A. B. Dobrowolski Station'' (named after Antoni Dobrowolski). It continued to be occupied for a few weeks only thereafter. On February 22, 1979 (with preparations starting February 18) the station was reactivated for a short time, but an overwintering attempt failed, and the occupants had to be evacuated to

Mirny Station The Mirny Station (, ) is a Russian Antarctic science station. It is located in Queen Mary Land, Antarctica, on the Antarctic coast of the Davis Sea. The station is managed by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and was named after ...

( to the west) on March 17. The concrete pillar erected by the First Polish Antarctic Expedition at Dobrowolski Station in January 1959 for gravity measurements, and the magnetic observatory at the station with plaque in memory of the opening of Oazis Station in 1956, are recognized as Antarctic Historic Sites. The Soviet Union became interested in the Bunger Hills again in the late 1980s, and built the Oazis 2 station a few hundred metres to the west of Dobrowolski. The station was used for summer visits up to the mid-1990s. About west-northwest of Dobrowolski, at ,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

has maintained the summer-only station Edgeworth David Base, named after

Edgeworth David Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David (28 January 1858 – 28 August 1934) was a Welsh Australian geologist, Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, Antarctic explorer, and military veteran. He was knighted for his role in World War 1. A hou ...

, since 1986.

References

External links

Russian site about Oasis Station and Bunger Hills Area
{{WikidataCoord, display=title Mountain ranges of Antarctica Oases of Antarctica

Stations

See also

References

Further reading

External links