Antarctic Posts:Casey Station

Casey Station lies on the shores of Vincennes Bay, 3430 km south west of Hobart. A station using an innovative `tunnel' design linking living and working areas was opened in 1969, replacing the ageing US-built Wilkes station nearby. The tunnel itself was replaced by a new station on a better site in 1988. Casey is in an area of low rocky islands and peninsulas on the edge of the massive Antarctic ice cap. To the east rises Law Dome, an almost circular ice cap 200 kilometres in diameter and 1395 metres high. Until 1989 the station supported major inland traverses which mapped the thicknesses and movements of the Law Dome snowfall and the ice flow for thousands of kilometres along the Antarctic coast. It recently supported a deep drilling program at the summit of the Dome, which in 1993 reached bedrock through 1200 metres of ice, producing a core in which atmospheric gases have been analysed reliably from 15,000 years ago. Casey is also the site of large moss beds, recognised as among the most significant vegetated areas on the continent. An Antarctic Meteorological Centre, established at Casey in 1993 to provide high resolution satellite imagery to the World Meteorological Centre in Melbourne, is now becoming the focus for weather and climate research in this vital part of the global weather system. posted to . at Sun Jul 13 05:13:00 EDT 2003 by david.