Palmer Station Timeline

2005-present

Summer 2005-06

IMS building completed and occupied

Here is a January 2006 view of the new building, partially hidden behind CAF and T5 which it replaces...this photo is by Dr. Gregory Zaar of the Keeling air sampling group at UCSD. See the above link for more photos...

Winter 2006

Manager: Brett Pickering; population 15-17 (list and photos)

Marine tech Joshua Spillane disappears from the Laurence M. Gould

Veteran marine tech Joshua Spillane disappeared, apparently overboard, on 17 April LMG transit north to PA, and has been declared dead. Here is more information from RPSC/USAP and a NSF press statement. The photo at left shows him operating a Zodiac at Deception Island in 2000, it is an NSF photo included with the above RPSC/USAP information page.

One of the 1988 vintage 3406 generators in the power plant replaced with a similar new model

Accidental CO2 discharge in the power plant produces some excitement and a brief power outage (but no harm or injury) on 16 May during the annual PM when an empty bottle was being replaced

Summer 2006-07

Winter 2007

Manager: Eric Pohlman; population 17-31 (list and photo)

Summer 2007-08

Amsler Island named after long-time researchers Maggie and Chuck (October)

The 1.3-mile long strip of island lies between Arthur Harbor and Loudwater Cove...until recently this was a peninsula until the receding glacier exposed open water connecting the harbor and the cove. It includes Norsel Point as well as the site of BAS Base and Old Palmer.

Chuck Amsler, a marine algal ecophysiologist and chemical ecologist, is an expert on Antarctic macroalgae (seaweeds). He's made 11 trips to the ice, seven of them (the first in 1985-96) to Palmer Station. Wife Maggie is an invertebrate zoologist, she's made 16 ventures to Palmer Station, the first in 1979-80. The two of them have completed more than 500 Antarctic research dives; their most recent trip to Palmer concluded in June 2008. Their photo at left came from this University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB)press release; here is another.

MS Explorer sinks (23 November)

The 250-foot ship hit an unidentified underwater object at about 2345 local time (GMT-3) on 22 November, at 62°S- 57°W, and quickly started filling with water from a reported 4x10 inch gash in the hull. By 0430 the 91 passengers, 9 guides and 54 crew had been evacuated to lifeboats. They were picked up by the Norwegian cruise ship MS Nodnorge and transported to KGI, while the Explorer sank around 1530 in 1300m of water.

The ice-strengthened vessel, originally built in 1969 as the Lindblad Explorer, was the first ship specifically constructed to bring tourists to Antarctic waters. As such it made many visits to Palmer Station beginning in the early 1970s. For more details on the incident, here are 3 reports presented at the June 2008 Antarctic Treaty meeting (ATCM) in Kiev: an official investigation by Liberia (the flag state of the vessel); a report on Chilean involvement in the search and rescue; and a Chilean report on the environmental impacts and response. (Photo from Reinhard Jahn, Creative Commons license).