Reply With QuoteSnow vehicles? They look like tanks.
Perhaps "Ice Station is coming true
ForumSage
Why would USA need military tanks in Antarctica
Drop these co-ords into google earth , just outside McMurdo station
-77.83125, 166.84201
(Edit) I just used Google Earth Ruler, they are 20m long , so too big to be tanks !!
well they looked like tanks to me
Moderator
Snow vehicles? They look like tanks.
Perhaps "Ice Station is coming true
The Phantom - Oslo Blue 2001 Td5 SE.
Half dead but will live again!
Nina - Chawton White 2003 Td5 S
Slowly being improved
Originally Posted by Judo
Master
"Alien" spaceships under the ice? With killer whales guarding it? :-)Snow vehicles? They look like tanks.
Perhaps "Ice Station is coming true
And the French and Brits will be along shortly to blow it all up
TopicToaster
SubscriberThere's a reference in here regarding heavy-haul traverse trains and a piccy of some tracked units - around page 13. Not sure if they would be 20m but the planform looks sort of like the google image.
Steve
1985 County - Isuzu 4bd1 with HX30W turbo, LT95, 255/85-16 KM2's
1988 120 with rust and potential
1999 300tdi 130 single cab - "stock as bro"
2003 D2a Td5 - the boss's daily drive
CTRL + V!
SubscriberJust sent an E-mail to the US Antarctic program, with a copy of the photo, interesting to see the reply, Bob
McMurdo Station Webcams - United States Antarctic Program
www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm
- Cached
- [url][ame][URL="http://www.google.com.au/search?biw=1024&bih=643&q=related:www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm+mcmurdo+station&tbo=1&sa=X&ei=xO3fUb rCLvGQiAebr4AI&sqi=2&ved=0CDgQHzAB"]Similar[/ame]
NOTE: Camera images are often obscured due to harsh and unpredictable weather conditions. McMurdo Station (77°51'S, 166°40'E), the main U.S. station in ...
I’m pretty sure the dinosaurs died out when they stopped gathering food and started having meetings to discuss gathering food
A bookshop is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking
Master
I've not seen any military tanks down there (well at the US bases anyway). I've been through my pictures looking out along the Willy Field road (from just above Scott Base) taken three months before the google earth image you posted and can't find any permanent structures on the road out that way. So my guess is that it's some kind of trailer - most likely a sled traverse trailer for the 1000 mile traverse to Pole, or out to Willy Field or Pegasus Ice Runway.
It's not ideal to leave something out on snow all winter (although it's only the start of Autumn in that shot) as it becomes a nightmare to dig out again.Having said that - if it's a sled, then you can't get it any closer to McMurdo as the sea ice has broken out and the roads over the Peninsula are gravel. They might be being stored there until July / August when the seaice sets in the harbour and access gets easy again.
The Russians have had an assortment of pretty insane transport vehicles for their traverses down there though, I have some very interesting photos of stuff at other Antarctic bases of Mirny, Druznhaya 4 and Molodeznaya. The French run a very slick operation from Dumont to Dome C - mainly using CAT tracked equipment to haul 26000 litre fuel tanks and other stuff on sleds 600nm inland. The Chinese were using Khassbohrer snow groomers to varying degrees of success to get to Dome A.
This reminds me I should get around to putting my pictures online one day.
Last edited by stallie; 12th July 2013 at 09:39 PM. Reason: more thoughts.
Wizard
that's if you get a reply
They look like buildings to me? maybe I'm missing something?
Master
double post in edit
Master
I think I've got the answer - I've just had another look at the satellite image from a different angle - I think it's shipping containers on a snow mound to stop them blizzing in over the winter. Probably like these ones (although not blue) taken a couple of months before the GE satellite pass looking at the end (or start) of the Willy Field road that goes out to the Airfields.
I've lined up where I took the shot with the glacier in the distance, overlaid it on GE, drawn a line where your four items are pictured and figured that the four mounds should be on the RHS of the shot. Zooming in on my photo - Presto!!
You can see some snow mounds - exactly where they are in GE image!
The size of the snow mounds about 20m long works, and the low sun angle shows the shadow of the container as a turret on top. The reason snow doesn't accumulate on top of mounds is that the wind blown snow is moving faster creating a lower pressure (bernoulli) and doesn't drop the snow. Downwind when the blizz slows down is then it drops it into a blizz tail - which can be seen downwind of the predominant wind - on the (True) NW side of the obstacles
As an aside - you will notice in my photo, how clear the air is - and how that foreshortens distance. Those cliffs in the far background are 36kms away. Same distance as Yarra Glen to Melbourne CBD, or Hawksbury to Sydney CBD.
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