Ellsworth Station

Ellsworth Scientific Station (Spanish: Estación Científica Ellsworth, or simply Estación Ellsworth or Base Ellsworth) was a permanent, all year-round originally American, then Argentine Antarctic scientific research station named after American polar explorer Lincoln Ellsworth. It was located on Gould Bay, on the Filchner Ice Shelf.

It was shut down in 1962 over safety concerns due to it being built on increasingly unstable ice, which produced fast deterioration of its superstructures and endangered both personnel and equipment.

History

Ellsworth Station was built by United States Navy personnel under the command of Captain Finn Ronne, with the support of the icebreakers USS Staten Island and USS Wyandot. The originally planned site for the station was Cape Adams, but when the terrain proved impractical due to huge ice cliffs, an alternate location on Gould Bay was selected, on the western coast of the Weddell Sea over the Filchner Ice Shelf, and close to the Argentine Belgrano I Base.