 Detaille Island, Antarctica | |
  Detaille Island Location in Antarctic Peninsula | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Antarctica |
| Coordinates | 66°52′S 66°47′W / 66.867°S 66.783°W |
| Administration | |
| Administered under the Antarctic Treaty System | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | Uninhabited |
Detaille Island is a small island off the northern end of the Arrowsmith Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica. From 1956 to 1959 it was home to "Base W" of the British Antarctic Survey[1] and closed after the end of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Detaille was a key monitoring sites during the IGY.[2] It is now often visited by Antarctic cruise ships but is otherwise unoccupied.
Thanks to the men's hasty departure and the necessity that they take little with them, Base W is an eerily preserved time capsule of 1950s Antarctic life. The base had been intended to host dog-sledging survey parties which would cross the sea ice to the nearby Antarctic Peninsula, but the ice was dangerously unstable. When Base W was vacated, heavy sea ice prevented resupply ship Biscoe from approaching closer than 50 kilometres (31 mi), despite the assistance of two U.S. icebreakers. So the men were forced to close up the base, load sledges with only their most valuable gear and use dog teams to reach the ship.[3]
- ^ Detaille Island Station W — History British Antarctic Survey, 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
- ^ "UKAHT - What was the International Geophysical Year?". www.ukaht.org. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ "Detaille Island -- TravelPod". Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.