Cape Hallett

Cape Hallett is a snow-free area on the northern tip of the Hallett Peninsula on the Ross Sea coast of Victoria Land, East Antarctica. Cape Adare lies to the north. Cape Hallet was the site of a former scientific base built for the International Geophysical Year, and also the site of a fatal 1957 aviation accident; a transport aircraft on its way to McMurdo Station crashed into a mountain.

History

In 1956, during Operation Deep Freeze II, was damaged by an ice floe at Cape Hallett.
On 16 October 1958, a Douglas C-124C Globemaster II of the USAF crashed into a 3200-foot mountain near Cape Hallett Bay while maneuvering, killing 7 of the 13 occupants. The Globemaster was on an airdrop flight from Christchurch to McMurdo Station and other navigational errors had occurred prior to the crash.

The cape was the location of a joint scientific base, Hallett Station, between the United States and New Zealand during the International Geophysical Year of 1957, and was manned permanently until 1964, when there was a major fire. It was then used as a summer only base until 1973. The site is currently being remediated by removing hazardous materials: fuel, and oil stored in several large tanks. This is an ongoing project which will take several years to complete.
Hallett Station was one of seven bases that the United States built for the IGY, which also included McMurdo, Wilkes, Admundsen-Scott, Ellsworth, Byrd, and Little America. Of these only McMurdo and Admundsen-Scott are still operated by the 21st century.

An area of 74 ha is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area No.106 because it contains habitats with a rich and diverse range of plant communities that are the most extensive and representative examples known at the northern end of the latitudinal gradient of Victoria Land and the Ross Sea. Surveys have recorded 18 species of lichens and five species of mosses, dominated by Bryum subrotundifolium. Animals found at the site include, as well as four species of mites and three of springtails, breeding colonies of south polar skuas and Adélie penguins.

A large Adélie penguin colony occupies Seabee Hook, on the west side of Hallett Peninsula between Moubray Bay and Edisto Inlet. The history of human impact on the colony through the occupation of Hallett Station, and the subsequent closure of the station, together with the availability of reliable historical data on colony population size, make the site unique and ideal for the study of impacts on, and recovery of, the colony after substantial ecosystem disturbance.