Back Winter Quarters Bay German Baie des Quartiers d'hiver French מפרץ מגורי החורף HE Winter Quarters Bay Italian Winter Quarters Bay NN Winter Quarters Bay NB Winter Quarters Bay Portuguese Winter Quarters Bay Swedish 溫特夸特斯灣 Chinese
Winter Quarters Bay is a small cove of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, located 2,200 miles (3,500 km) due south of New Zealand at 77°50'S. The harbor is the southernmost port[1] in the Southern Ocean and features a floating ice pier for summer cargo operations. The bay is approximately 250m wide and long, with a maximum depth of 33m. The name Winter Quarters Bay refers to Robert Falcon Scott's National Antarctic Discovery Expedition (1901–04) which wintered at the site for two seasons.[2]
A small peninsula on the southern tip of Ross Island forms the natural harbor at Winters Quarters Bay which offers shelter for ships. The harbor has served the few ships able to penetrate McMurdo Sound's 8 to 12 ft (2.4 to 3.7 m) pack ice ever since the Discovery Expedition (1901–04).[2]
Today, two ships assisted by an icebreaker annually arrive at Winter Quarters Bay with fuel and cargo to re-supply the adjacent U.S. McMurdo Station at 77°50′S 166°40′E / 77.833°S 166.667°E. The cargo operations also support nearby Scott Base and field stations throughout Antarctica. More than 50 years of activity at McMurdo Station has severely polluted the bay.[3]
- ^ U.S. Polar Programs, National Science Foundation FY2000.
- ^ a b "Scott's Discovery Hut, Hut Point," New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust
- ^ "Thaw puts husky hazards in the path of Scott's successors: Melting Antarctic ice unveils decades of rubbish buried on Earth's cleanest continent," The Guardian. November 17, 2001. Decades of pumping thousands of gallons of raw sewage generated by McMurdo residents directly into the bay came to an end in 2003 when a treatment plant became operational.