Yelcho Base is a
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
an
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
research base. It is located on the shore of the
South Bay,
Doumer Island
Doumer Island is an island long and wide, surmounted by a snow-covered pyramidal peak, , lying between the south portions of Anvers Island and Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica. It was first seen by the Belgian Antarctic E ...
.
The station was built in 1962 by the
Chilean Army and was given to the
INACH in 1980. It was abandoned between 1998 and 2014, and was reopened in 2015.
After its last remodeling it went from being a small "sub-base", a scientific shelter of 50 m² built, to have a built area of , with its own laboratories and an increase in accommodation capacity, from its original 7 beds, until completing space for up to 28 people.
[Carlos González Isla. ''Inach reactiva investigación antártica en base Yelcho tras 17 años'', La Tercera, 11 de febrero de 2015, p. 43.]
Toponymy
It is named for the ''
Yelcho
The ''Yelcho'' was built in 1906 by the Scottish firm Geo. Brown and Co. of Greenock, on the River Clyde for towage and cargo service of the Chilean ''Sociedad Ganadera e Industrial Yelcho y Palena'', Puerto Montt. In 1908 she was sold to the Ch ...
'' that was commanded by
Luis Pardo
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish language, Spanish form of the originally Germanic language, Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese language, Portuguese and ...
, who saved the
Shacketon's Expedition in 1916 from the
Elephant Island.
History
The construction of the base was initiated by the
Chilean Navy during the
16th Antarctic campaign of Chile, and was completed in the following season, on 18 February 1962.
See also
*
List of Antarctic research stations
*
List of Antarctic field camps
References
External links
Official website Chilean Antarctic Institute
{{Antarctica
Chilean Antarctic Territory
1962 establishments in Antarctica
Doumer Island