Esperanza Base (, 'Hope Base') is a permanent, all-year-round

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

research station Research stations are facilities where scientific investigation, Data collection, collection, analysis and experimentation occurs. A research station is a facility that is built for the purpose of conducting scientific research. There are also man ...

Hope Bay Hope Bay may refer to: * Hope Bay, Antarctica Hope Bay (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Bahía Esperanza'') () is a bay long and wide, indenting the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and opening on Antarctic Sound. Location Hope Bay is in Graham ...

Trinity Peninsula Trinity Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Antarctic Peninsula. It extends northeastward for about 130 km (80 mi) to Cape Dubouzet from an imaginary line connecting Cape Kater on the north-west coast and Cape Longing on the sou ...

(in

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 ...

on 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. ...

). It is the only civilian settlement on the Antarctic mainland (the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Villa Las Estrellas Villa Las Estrellas (; Spanish language, Spanish for ''The Stars Village'' or ''Hamlet of the Stars'') is a permanently inhabited outpost on King George Island (South Shetland Islands), King George Island within the Chilean Antarctica, Antar ...

is on the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

). The base's motto is ''Permanencia, un acto de sacrificio'' ('Permanence, an act of sacrifice').

Description

Built in 1953, the base houses 56 inhabitants in winter, including 10 families and 2 school teachers. Provincial school #38 ''Presidente

Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín Raul, Raúl, Raül, and Raüll are forms of a common first name in Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan. The name is cognate of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph and the French R ...

'' (formerly named ''

Julio Argentino Roca Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz (July 17, 1843 – October 19, 1914) was an Argentine army general and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 1880 to 1886 and from 1898 to 1904. Roca is the most important representative of the ...

'') was founded in 1978 and acquired independent status in 1997. It maintains the furthest South Scout troop. The base has an Argentine civil register office where births and weddings are recorded. The base has tourist facilities that are visited by about 1,100 tourists each year. The LRA 36 ''Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel''

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

station started transmitting in 1979 and currently broadcasts on 15476 kHz shortwave and 96.7 MHz FM. It is one of the southernmost radio stations in the world and its range signal includes audio identification in multiple languages. The host of "Panorama Nacional" Marcelo Ayala told at the beginning of 2024 about his life experience and broadcast by LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel. A

wind generator A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each ye ...

was installed in 2008, mounted by

INVAP INVAP S.E. is an Argentine company that provides design, integration, construction and delivery of equipment, plants and devices. The company operates in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and delivers ...

. The 43 buildings of the station have a combined space of covered; of fuel are used annually by the four generators to produce electricity for the station. Research projects include:

glaciology Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or, more generally, ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clim ...

seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...

coastal ecology A marine coastal ecosystem is a marine ecosystem which occurs where the land meets the ocean. Worldwide there is about of coastline. Coastal habitats extend to the margins of the continental shelves, occupying about 7 percent of the ocean surfa ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

, and

limnology Limnology ( ; ) is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. It includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristics of fresh and saline, natural and man-made bodies of water. This includes the study of lakes, ...

. In the

Hope Bay incident The Hope Bay incident occurred in February 1952 at Hope Bay, Antarctica, Hope Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula. It involved an Argentine Navy, Argentine naval party from a nearby onshore base and a British landing party from the survey ship ''HMNZS E ...

in 1952, this area was also the scene of the only shots fired in anger in Antarctica, when an Argentine shore party fired a machine gun over the heads of a

Falkland Islands Dependencies The Falkland Islands Dependencies was the constitutional arrangement from 1843 until 1985 for administering the various British territories in List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands, Sub-Antarctica and Antarctica which were governed from t ...

Survey team unloading supplies from the ''John Biscoe'' to rebuild its damaged base. Following the Argentine show of force, the British team returned to the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

. Shortly afterwards, Argentina issued a diplomatic apology, saying there had been a misunderstanding and the military commander on the ground had exceeded his authority. Despite this initial outward show of deference, the party was later welcomed back to Argentina with a hero's welcome. In the meantime, the ''John Biscoe'' had returned from the Falklands with a military escort and completed rebuilding the British base. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 now treats the continent as a laboratory open to all, and provides that "no acts or activities ... shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty."

People

The base was the birthplace of

Emilio Palma Emilio Marcos de Palma Morella (born 7 January 1978) is an Argentine man who was the first person born on the continent of Antarctica. Biography Palma was born in Fortín Sargento Cabral at the Esperanza Base, near the tip of the Antarctic P ...

, the first person to be born in Antarctica. There have been at least ten other children born at the base.

Climate

Like the rest of the Antarctic Peninsula, the base has a polar climate characterized by strong winds that descend downwards from the

Antarctic ice sheet The Antarctic ice sheet is a continental glacier covering 98% of the Antarctic continent, with an area of and an average thickness of over . It is the largest of Earth's two current ice sheets, containing of ice, which is equivalent to 61% of ...

. These winds can exceed , leading to

blowing snow Blowing snow is snow lifted from the surface by the wind, at eye level () or more, that will reduce visibility. Blowing snow can come from falling snow or snow that already accumulated on the ground but is picked up and blown about by strong winds. ...

and reduced visibility. The climate is classified as a polar

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

(ET) climate in the Köppen system. Mean monthly temperatures range from in July, the coldest month, to in January, the warmest month. During summer (December–February), the average high is between while the average low is between . In winter, mean temperatures are around . A temperature of was recorded on 24 March 2015. This reading was the highest temperature ever recorded on mainland Antarctica and its surrounding islands, until on 6 February 2020, a new high of was recorded at the base, being the current record and considered by the World Meteorological Organization to be the highest temperature ever recorded for mainland Antarctica and its surrounding islands. The lowest temperature ever recorded is on 18 July 1994. The temperature trend since 1948 is +0.0315 °C/yr (+0.0567 °F/yr) (annual), +0.0413 °C/yr (+0.0743 °F/yr) (winter) and +0.0300 °C/yr (+0.0540 °F/yr) (summer).

Historic site

A group of items or structures of historic significance at, or close to, the base have been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 40), following a proposal by Argentina to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. These comprise a bust of

General San Martin A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

, a

grotto A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide. Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...

with a statue of the Virgin of Lujan, a

flagpole A flagpole, flagmast, flagstaff, or staff is a pole designed to support a flag. If it is taller than can be easily reached to raise the flag, a cord is used, looping around a pulley at the top of the pole with the ends tied at the bottom. The fla ...

erected in 1955, and a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

with a

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

commemorating Argentine expedition members who died in the area.

General Martín Güemes Refuge

Refuge General Martín Güemes is the name given to two shelters in Antarctica. The first one is covered by ice, the second one is active. The refuge 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 ...

and depends on Esperanza Base, which is responsible for maintenance and care. The two refuges are located on the

Tabarin Peninsula The Tabarin Peninsula () is a peninsula long and wide, lying south of the trough between Hope Bay, Antarctica, Hope Bay and Duse Bay and forming the east extremity of Trinity Peninsula in the Antarctic Peninsula. Location Tabarin Peninsula ...

on the eastern tip of the

on the Antarctic Peninsula south of Esperanza. The refuges pay homage to

Martín Miguel de Güemes Martín Miguel de Güemes (8 February 1785 – 17 June 1821) was a military leader and popular caudillo who defended northwestern Argentina from the Spanish royalist army during the Argentine War of Independence. Biography Güemes was born in ...

, a military man who served an outstanding role in the Argentine war of independence.

General Martín Güemes I Refuge

The first refuge was located on the north east coast of the Duse Bay of the Trinity Peninsula and opened on October 23, 1953. , at that time head of the newly created Esperanza Base, participated in its construction, being one of the first refuges installed by the Army and the second in the continental Antarctica. The refuge was destroyed by the ice in 1960.

General Martín Güemes II Refuge

The second refuge is active and is located in the Tabarin Peninsula and was inaugurated on September 15, 1959. It has capacity for six people, food for a month, fuel, gas and a first aid kit. :es:Refugio General Martín Güemes

Notes

References

External links

Council Of Managers Of National Antarctic Programs: Base Esperanza

Official website Direccion Nacional del Antartico

COMNAP Antarctic Facilities

COMNAP Antarctic Facilities Map
* {{Authority control , additional=Q5549753 Argentine Antarctica Outposts of Graham Land Populated places established in 1953 Trinity Peninsula Historic Sites and Monuments of Antarctica Cemeteries in Antarctica Lighthouses in Antarctica 1953 establishments in Antarctica