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30-672: The Larsemann Hills are a series of low rounded coastal hills along the southeastern shore of Prydz Bay , Antarctica extending for 9 nautical miles (17 km) from Dålk Glacier . They were discovered in February 1935 by Captain Klarius Mikkelsen from the whaling ship Thorshavn , sent out by Norwegian whaling magnate Lars Christensen , and given this name. The bedrock of the Larsemann Hills contains an unusually high abundance of boron and phosphate minerals and

60-661: A black sandy beach. Unloading began immediately and, on 13 January 1957, a small ceremony was held to officially open the new station. It was named Davis "to honour Captain John King Davis , a famous Antarctic navigator and captain . . . at present . . . living in Melbourne, a member of the ANARE Planning Committee". (Law's address on the day). After the ceremony, unloading recommenced and continued until 20 January when Kista Dan sailed. Kista Dan made

90-512: A return visit to Davis later dropping off dogs and one more expeditioner. Bob Dingle, Alan Hawker, Nils Lied, Bill Lucas and Bruce Stinear made up the first party to winter in the Vestfold Hills. The party was not completely isolated however as Auster aircraft flew between Mawson Station and Davis several times that year exchanging personnel and supplies. Davis was temporarily closed on 25 January 1965 to make resources available for

120-568: A rock cairn to mark the site. This cairn was found by members of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) in 1960 but was lost for many years until its rediscovery in 1995. (As an interesting aside, Caroline Mikkelsen was still living and received word of the rediscovery of the original flagpole.) Captain Mikkelsen named the area "Ingrid Christensen Land" after the wife of

150-573: A seaplane and named the high land to the southeast Princess Elizabeth Land. The first recorded landing in the region was made in 1935 by the Norwegian whaler Captain Klarius Mikkelsen in the vessel Thorshavn . Mikkelsen named the hills after the Vestfold province of Norway , on the western side of Oslo Fjord, which he considered it resembled, and where the Christensen company's headquarters

180-546: A seaplane, from which oblique aerial photos were taken for mapping purposes. The first map of the Vestfold Hills, derived from this imagery, was published after World War II . The next recorded visitors to the area were the American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and his Australian aircraft pilot and observer Sir Hubert Wilkins , in Ellsworth's ship Wyatt Earp . Despite Wilkins' protestations that Mawson had already claimed

210-601: A very large U-shaped valley with exposed nunataks along the flanks reaching 1500 m in elevation and total relief as high as 3000 m. Seaward of the Amery Ice Shelf, Prydz Bay shows bathymetry typical of glaciated margins with deeper water near the coast with a broad topographic basin, the Amery Depression that is around -700 m MSL along the front of the Amery Ice Shelf. The Amery Depression shoals gently to outer shelf banks around 100–200 m deep. The shelf break

240-480: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Prydz Bay The Amery Ice Shelf extends about 550 km north of the Lambert Glacier grounding zone and occupies a valley between 80 and 200 km wide. Depths to the bed beneath the Amery Ice Shelf are poorly known in detail but it is clearly over-deepened, reaching around -2500 m MSL close to the grounding zone. The Amery Ice Shelf occupies

270-466: Is at around 400–500 m. The western side of Prydz Bay features a broad trough crossing from the inner shelf to the shelf edge, Prydz Channel. It is around 100 km wide and is 500 m deep at the shelf break. It is a typical example of a cross-shelf glacial trough that occupy 40.2% of the area of the Antarctic continental shelf and that are formed by fast-flowing ice streams. During the late Neogene,

300-772: Is one of three permanent bases and research outposts in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Davis is situated on the coast of Cooperation Sea in Princess Elizabeth Land , Ingrid Christensen Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory , a territory claimed by Australia . Davis lies in an Antarctic oasis , a mostly ice-free area known as the Vestfold Hills . Davis

330-698: Is the location of discovery of four new species of mineral. In 2014, the Stornes Peninsula within the Larsemann Hills was declared an Antarctic Specially Protected Area due to its mineral diversity. As an Antarctic oasis the hills are the home of several Antarctic research stations. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from "Larsemann Hills" . Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . 69°24′S 76°13′E  /  69.400°S 76.217°E  / -69.400; 76.217 This Princess Elizabeth Land location article

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360-481: The Larsemann Hills Oasis . [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from "Prydz Bay" . Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey .   [REDACTED] This Princess Elizabeth Land location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Davis Station Davis Station , commonly called Davis ,

390-701: The Soviet Antarctic Expedition landed on the Ingrid Christensen Coast, in preparation for the International Geophysical Year (1957–58). The Soviets did not stay for long but even today the Russian presence is betrayed by some distinctively Russian names on the map (Lakes Lebed, Zvezda and Druzhby among them) They later established their base at Mirny Station , some 350 kilometres (220 mi) to

420-473: The Antarctic Seas". Along with the decree he left a copy of the famous Australian geographical magazine ' Walkabout ". Of three such sites, only the northern cairn has been located and hence the name "Walkabout Rocks". During the U.S. Antarctic explorations that formed a part of " Operation Highjump " in 1947, USS Currituck visited the area, but no landing took place. As part of Operation Highjump,

450-538: The Lambert Glacier–Amery Ice Shelf drainage system flowed across Prydz Bay in an ice stream that reached the shelf edge and built a trough mouth fan on the upper continental slope. The fan consists mostly of debris flow deposits derived from the melting out of subglacial debris at the grounding line at the continental shelf edge. Ocean Drilling Program Site 1167 indicates that thick debris flow intervals are separated by thin mudstone horizons deposited when

480-603: The Plough Island SLA, 6 km north of Davis, and in late summer to Whoop Whoop, a field camp 40 km east of Davis on the inland ice plateau, called the Davis Plateau ice SLA. The SLA requires frequent maintenance by snow grooming , and as it is not accessible by ground vehicles, passengers and cargo are transported on to Davis by helicopter. Davis is the first Antarctic Earth stations in Australia , with

510-474: The Vestfold Hills. During January 1957, an ANARE party led by Dr Phillip Law sailing on the Kista Dan attempted to locate a suitable site for the station. This proved difficult due to a lack of good ship anchorages and a scarcity of fresh water sources. On 12 January, after two days of attempting to find a suitable site, a last-minute decision was made to locate the station on a small rocky plateau located above

540-529: The Vestfolds and surrounding area were extensively photographed from the air. The first ANARE landing in the Vestfold Hills was made on 3 March 1954 by Phillip Law , Peter Shaw, John Hansen, Arthur Gwynn and R. Thompson. They raised the Australian flag at Law Cairn, to the north of Davis Station, but had to return to their ship soon after due to deteriorating weather. On 12 January 1956, members of

570-545: The area for Australia, Ellsworth planned to lodge a counter claim for America. In response to this, Wilkins took pre-emptive action and made two landings. The first was on one of the Rauer Islands , at 68° 46' South, 77° 50' East on 8 January 1939, and the second on a rocky outcrop at 68° 22' South 70° 33' East on 11 January 1939. At both of these locations he deposited decrees recognising Australia's right to ". . . administrate . . . those parts of His Majesty's dominions in

600-598: The east of Davis. As Phillip Law recalled during a short visit to Davis on 11 January 1998, it was felt that if Australia did not establish a base in the Vestfold Hills the Russians would, and so in 1955 the Australian Government announced that a new station would be established in the Vestfold Hills. A further exploratory visit was made by ANARE in January 1955 that involved two teams traversing much of

630-658: The first satellite tracking antenna ANARESAT for communications installed in March 1987. There is also a Bureau of Meteorology satellite tracking station for a weather satellite, Himawari-8 located there. After numerous upgrades since installation, the ANARESAT facility is able to provide the station with a 9 Mbps link back to the mainland. This allows for the real time transfer of scientific data as well as support for telemedicine and video calls for expeditioners. Davis Station experiences an tundra climate (Köppen ET );

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660-561: The ice had retreated from the shelf edge. The bulk of the trough mouth fan was deposited prior to ~780,000 years ago with as few as three debris flow intervals deposited since then. Portions of the bay were sighted in January and February 1931 by Norwegian whalers and the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE). It was explored in February 1935 by Norwegian whaler Captain Klarius Mikkelsen in

690-418: The rebuilding of Casey Station . It was reopened on 15 February 1969 and has been continuously occupied since that time. The original small huts ("dongas") fell into disuse and disrepair from the late 1970s / early 1980s, with a major rebuilding program. Davis has become the busiest of Australia's Antarctic stations supporting a wide variety of scientific research in both the local and surrounding areas during

720-646: The ship Thorshavn , and was mapped in considerable detail from aerial photographs taken by the Lars Christensen Expedition of 1936–37. Named for Olaf Prydz, general manager of the Hvalfangernes Assuranceforening in Sandefjord , Norway . Australia's Davis Station , Russian Progress , Romanian Law-Racoviță-Negoiță , Chinese Zhongshan Stations , and Indian Bharati station are located on Prydz Bay at

750-596: The ship's owner, Lars Christensen . Mrs Christensen was later to land in Antarctica herself - on 30 January 1937, at Scullin Monolith (which the Norwegians called Klarius Mikkelsen Mountain). The Thorshavn and Klarius Mikkelsen, along with Lars Christensen, were back in the Vestfold Hills area in the 1936–37 summer. An area to the immediate north of the Vestfold Hills was used as a take-off and landing area for

780-535: The study of the Law Dome , the bedrock geology and structure of the East Antarctic ice sheet. The first recorded sighting of the coastline now occupied by Davis Station was on 9 February 1931, during the second British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) voyage aboard Discovery . Sir Douglas Mawson and Flight Lieutenant Stuart Campbell sighted the Antarctic continent from

810-439: The study of viruses and bacteria using molecular genetic techniques in glacial lakes , the impact of environmental change and pollution on Antarctic marine ecosystems, atmospheric research, measuring algae growth as an important food source for tiny marine herbivores such as zooplankton, the impact of climate change , including the increasing carbon dioxide concentrations on marine microbes and, together with researchers at Casey ,

840-518: The summertime. During the wintertime, the principal research activity is Upper Atmospheric Physics. Davis is 4,838 km (3,006 mi) from Hobart , the AAD's main supply hub for Antarctic operations, and 4,716 km (2,930 mi) from Fremantle . In early summer when sea ice conditions are most favourable, a ski landing area (SLA) is constructed adjacent to Davis. As sea ice conditions progressively worsen over summer, operations are moved first to

870-468: Was located, at the town of Sandefjord. On 20 February 1935, together with his wife and seven crew members (including the ship's dentist, Lief Sørsdal), Mikkelsen landed in a small bay on an unnamed island at the northern end of the Vestfold Hills. Mrs Caroline Mikkelsen was the first woman to set foot on the Antarctic continent and the party raised the Norwegian flag on an improvised flagpole and built

900-622: Was named in honour of Captain John King Davis . Davis was listed on the Register of the National Estate on 26 October 1999 and has been included on the Commonwealth Heritage List as an indicative place, due to the condition of buildings and structures that varies from no longer exists/demolished due to poor condition, through to very good condition. Davis is a base for scientific research programs including

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