Marking the Pole

1 Jan 2017

Sorry this post is a bit late.

On New Year's day, we officially marked the new geographic south pole.  The station is built on top of a ~3000m thick ice sheet which slides about 10m/year.  All the buildings of the station slide along with the ice, but this means from our perspective the exact geographic pole seems to drift.  It is tradition at the station to update the location of the marker for the pole on New Years day.

The pole is marked by a metal rod topped with an ornament designed and fabricated by the winter over crew.  When I got here, the pole was marked as so:

The pole marker when I arrived.  Placed on 1 Jan 2016, it was designed by the winter over crew of 2015.

There are other photos of me with this marker elsewhere on this blog, and I have heard scurrilous rumors that perhaps other images are on something called the book of faces, or some such.

Professional surveyors come down to pole every December to verify the relative position of all our buildings and reorient our local coordinate system.  They also stake out the new location of the exact pole.  I got to the site early, and before the new marker is placed, had the opportunity to stand directly on the axis of the earth, and so for a while, yes, the world did in fact revolve around me.

The two poles behind me mark the location of the new big white sign, and the pole directly beneath me marks the axis of rotation for the entire planet.

First our station manager Wayne arrived with the new pole marker, shrouded in mystery:

We then all formed a semi-circle, with one end at the location of the old pole, and the other at the location of the new.  Our area director Bill touched the new marker to the old, and we passed it from one person to another, towards its new resting spot:

And Wayne did the honors, driving it home and unveiling the new design:

The new marker was designed by the winter crew who just left:

The engravings on top are of the station and some of the out-buildings.  The outer ring is tilted at what I presume is a 23 degree angle, for the annual path of the sun through the south pole sky.  At the top of the arc is the sign for the sun, at the bottom is the southern cross.  The dates of sunset and sunrise (20 March and 23 Sept) are engraved at the sides, where the solar ring meets the disc.  It's difficult to see from this angle, but all the winter over crew signed the post below the ornament.

After the ceremony, everybody had to act like a tourist and have their picture taken with the new marker:

The old marker is traditionally taken down and placed in a display case we have inside the station.  Unfortunately this year, some of the station's dodgy element were seen trying to make a break for it, with the ultimate souvenir

Watch out for this ruffian.  But check out that awesome beard frost.  Only the hardiest of Antarctic explorers can get that going on.