Esperanza Base
Esperanza Base is a permanent, all-year-round Argentine research station in Hope Bay, Trinity Peninsula. It is the only civilian settlement on the Antarctic mainland. The base's motto is Permanencia, un acto de sacrificio.
Description
Built in 1953, the base houses 56 inhabitants in winter, including 10 families and 2 school teachers. Provincial school #38 Presidente Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was founded in 1978 and acquired independent status in 1997. It maintains the furthest South Scout troop. The base has an Argentine civil register office where births and weddings are recorded. The base has tourist facilities that are visited by about 1,100 tourists each year.The LRA 36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel radio station started transmitting in 1979 and currently broadcasts on 15476 kHz shortwave and 96.7 MHz FM. It is one of the southernmost radio stations in the world and its range signal includes audio identification in multiple languages. The host of "Panorama Nacional" Marcelo Ayala told at the beginning of 2024 about his life experience and broadcast by LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcángel San Gabriel.
A wind generator was installed in 2008, mounted by INVAP.
The 43 buildings of the station have a combined space of covered; of fuel are used annually by the four generators to produce electricity for the station. Research projects include: glaciology, seismology, oceanography, coastal ecology, biology, geology, and limnology.
In the Hope Bay incident in 1952, this area was also the scene of the only shots fired in anger in Antarctica, when an Argentine shore party fired a machine gun over the heads of a Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey team unloading supplies from the John Biscoe to rebuild its damaged base. Following the Argentine show of force, the British team returned to the Falkland Islands. Shortly afterwards, Argentina issued a diplomatic apology, saying there had been a misunderstanding and the military commander on the ground had exceeded his authority. Despite this initial outward show of deference, the party was later welcomed back to Argentina with a hero's welcome. In the meantime, the John Biscoe had returned from the Falklands with a military escort and completed rebuilding the British base. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 now treats the continent as a laboratory open to all, and provides that "no acts or activities... shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty."
People
The base was the birthplace of Emilio Palma, the first person to be born in Antarctica. There have been at least ten other children born at the base.Climate
Like the rest of the Antarctic Peninsula, the base has a polar climate characterized by strong winds that descend downwards from the Antarctic ice sheet. These winds can exceed, leading to blowing snow and reduced visibility. The climate is classified as a polar tundra climate in the Köppen system.Mean monthly temperatures range from in July, the coldest month, to in January, the warmest month. During summer, the average high is between while the average low is between. In winter, mean temperatures are around. A temperature of was recorded on 24 March 2015. This reading was the highest temperature ever recorded on mainland Antarctica and its surrounding islands, until on 6 February 2020, a new high of was recorded at the base, being the current record and considered by the World Meteorological Organization to be the highest temperature ever recorded for mainland Antarctica and its surrounding islands. The lowest temperature ever recorded is on 18 July 1994.
The temperature trend since 1948 is +0.0315 °C/yr, +0.0413 °C/yr and +0.0300 °C/yr .