SANAE IV from above the northern buttress

SANAE is the South African National Antarctic Expedition. The name refers both to the overwintering bases (numbered in

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

, e.g.

SANAE IV SANAE IV is a current South African Antarctic research base located in Vesleskarvet, Queen Maud Land. The base is part of the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) and is operated by the South African National Antarctic Expedition ...

), and the team spending the winter (numbered in

Arabic numerals The ten Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are the most commonly used symbols for writing numbers. The term often also implies a positional notation number with a decimal base, in particular when contrasted with Roman numera ...

, e.g. SANAE 47). The current base, SANAE IV, is located at

Vesleskarvet Vesleskarvet is a nunatak on the west side of Ahlmann Ridge located in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. Its western side consists of a series of cliffs, approximately 250 m high, while the eastern side slopes more gradually down to the icefields. The ...

Queen Maud Land Queen Maud Land () is a roughly region of Antarctica Territorial claims in Antarctica, claimed by Norway as a dependent territory. It borders the claimed British Antarctic Territory 20th meridian west, 20° west, specifically the Caird Coast, ...

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. ...

. Summer teams comprise administrative and maintenance personnel, helicopter crew and scientists from various countries and can be up to 100 people. Overwintering teams consist of scientists and support personnel from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, typically totalling 10 members in recent years. The research programme at the SANAE IV base is carried out under the auspices of the

South African National Antarctic Programme The South African National Antarctic Programme (or SANAP) is the South African government's programme for research in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. Three research stations fall under this programme: the Antarctica research station SANAE IV, an ...

(SANAP).

History

The first expedition, SANAE 1, overwintered at Norway Station, taken over by South Africa from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

after the end of the

IGY Immunoglobulin Y (abbreviated as IgY) is a type of immunoglobulin which is the major antibody in bird, reptile, and lungfish blood. It is also found in high concentrations in chicken egg yolk. As with the other immunoglobulins, IgY is a class of pr ...

. Later teams overwintered at SANAE I, SANAE II and SANAE III, built on the Fimbul Ice Shelf near the

Blåskimen Island Blåskimen Island is a high, ice-covered island about north of Novyy Island, at the juncture of the Jelbart Ice Shelf and the Fimbul Ice Shelf, Queen Maud Land. The island rises about above the general level of the ice shelf and is surrounded ...

. Built on the moving ice shelf, these stations inevitably got buried, and eventually broke off as part of

icebergs An iceberg is a piece of fresh water ice more than long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Much of an ic ...

drifting away. Successive stations were always repositioned at the same geographical position of .

was built on the

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit language, Inuit ) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also cal ...

in the hope of having a base with a longer lifetime. The first team to overwinter at SANAE IV was SANAE 36 in 1997. The base has been staffed uninterruptedly since then. Other expeditions also established

Borga Base Borga Base was a semipermanent Antarctic research station operated by South Africa named after Borg Massif where it was located. It was created to house 4-5 people year-round and was 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of the location of South Afric ...

and Sarie Marais Field Base.

References

External links

South African Research Station
- Official website
Facebook Group
- SANAE team discussions Outposts of Queen Maud Land South African National Antarctic Programme Princess Martha Coast 1962 establishments in Antarctica {{SouthAfrica-stub

History

See also

References

External links