Plateau Station is an inactive American research and South Pole—Queen Maud Land Traverse support base on the central Antarctic Plateau. Construction on the site started on December 13, 1965, and the first traverse team (named SPQML II) arrived in early 1966. The base was in continuous use until January 29, 1969, when it was closed but mothballed for future use, and was the most remote and coldest of any United States stations on the continent. It was also the site for the world's coldest measured average temperature for a month at that time, recorded in July 1968, at −99.8 °F (−73.2 °C).

History

The buildings on the base were assembled from five pre-fabricated units flown in by Hercules C-130 aircraft with ski landing gear. Four units formed the main building, which is 8x25 meters; and a smaller Jamesway huts unit was constructed 300 meters away. Two 75 kW diesel generators provided the necessary energy for the main unit; and an additional generator was maintained at the standby unit. In addition, a 3,500 metres (11,483 ft) skiway was built for air transport. A 32 metres (105 ft) meteorological tower was erected with instruments at varying heights to monitor the persistent thermal air inversion layer above the Antarctic snow.

C-130 Hercules at Plateau Station

Location of Plateau Station Skiway in Antarctica

By Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0.

C-130 Hercules at Plateau airstrip

"Plateau Station International Airport" in 1968

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