Plateau Station | |
|---|---|
 The station in 1968 | |
  Plateau Station Location in Antarctica | |
| Coordinates: 79°15′00″S 40°30′00″E / 79.2500°S 40.5000°E[1] | |
| Region | Queen Maud Land |
| Established | 13 December 1965 |
| Closed | 29 January 1969 |
| Named for | Antarctic Plateau |
| Government | |
| • Type | Administration |
| • Body | USN, NSF; United States |
| Elevation | 3,624 m (11,890 ft) |
| Active times | All year-round |
Plateau Station Skiway | |||||||||||
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 C-130 Hercules at Plateau Station | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Operator | US Navy and National Science Foundation | ||||||||||
| Serves | Plateau Station | ||||||||||
| Location | Queen Maud Land Antarctica | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 12,027 ft / 3,666 m | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  Plateau Station Skiway Location of airfield in Antarctica | |||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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Plateau Station is an inactive American research and South Pole—Queen Maud Land Traverse support base on the central Antarctic Plateau. Construction on the site started on December 13, 1965, and the first traverse team (named SPQML II) arrived in early 1966. The base was in continuous use until January 29, 1969, when it was closed but mothballed for future use,[3] and was the most remote and coldest of any United States stations on the continent.[4] It was also the site for the world's coldest measured average temperature for a month at that time, recorded in July 1968, at −99.8 °F (−73.2 °C).[5]
- ^ "Plateau /USA/". SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica. Australian Antarctic Data Centre. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
- ^ "Plateau Station Skiway". Airport Nav Finder. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
- ^ Ted Scambos. "Plateau Station". Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica. Archived from the original on 2010-09-24. Retrieved 30 December 2007.
- ^ "U.S. Stations and Camps in Antarctica". NASA. Archived from the original on 2006-02-09. Retrieved 30 December 2007.
- ^ Burt, Christopher (2007). Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book. Mark Stroud. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 56. ISBN 978-0-393-33015-1.
The lowest average temperature for any single month was recorded at the Plateau Station ... during July 1968...